New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-06-15

war, swell up to prodigious sum. About
$50, 900 year is the figure paid the City
Attorney and his several assistants, while
it now appears that he has retained spe-
cial counsel to fight Mrs. Gaines.
We see by the official proceedings that
Mr.. Flanders has asked permission to
order Mr.. Lacey to move for dissolution
of an injunction obtained against the city
relative to the printing. He does not ask
the City Attorney for his opinion as to the
merits of the case. He has an opinion of
his own upon that point, and thereby to
some extent constitutes himself City At
torney. But he will require Mr.. Lacey to
do the necessary clerical work.
Unfortunately for him, however, the
Council had more important matters to
consider, and refused to clothe him with
power to spend another thousand or two
in pursuit of his favorite hobby.
If Flanders could run the city by legal
machinery he might be a success as a
mayor. But failing in that, he fails in
everything. If he could have found a
tribunal with jurisdiction over the south
east wind he would no doubt have got out
an injunction and prevented the present
disastrous overflow. But as there was no
such court before which he could send
his $500 worth of legal talent, he did
nothing, and the people of the submerged
district are nearly ruined.
1t appears that he has called Mr..
Lacey's attention to ''section in the city
charter authorizing the city to select
printer" We hope the eloquent City At
torney will succeed in finding this section,
for we can not. There is no such section
in the charter, and Mayor Flanders knows
it as well as any one. Also, ''to a clause
in the printing law which authorizes the
City Council to advertise in ether journals
than the official journal. We have made
no complaints about the advertisements.
The City Council has legal right to pub
lish important matters in other journals,
but the disposition to do so to an extrava-
CANT and unnecessary extent is often very
What We object to is the prac-
tice of sending orders for book and lob
printing to little establishments all over
town, many of which either do the work |!
in an inferior manner, or send it to our
Office, pay our fair prices and then bill it !
to the city at an advance. The law gives
US all the job and book printing for which
the city of New Orleans may be charge
able, and we shall insist upon our rights,
even if We DO thereby give Mayor Elan
1ers an opportunity to indulge in his
favorite amusement at the expense of the
taxpayers of the city.
A public officer is in a position to act
fairly. He ought to have no pecuniary
interest one way or the other in claims
to the State or city for payment
If he resists a just claim he commits an
sct of injustice and an offense. And every
Judgment rendered against New Orleans
S, to certain extent, reproach to the
officer who refused to make a Just settle
nent. The people of this city do not
wish to defraud anybody, and when their
Mayor attempts to do so, and is only
by the courts of justice, he
grossly misrepresents them. When little
claims against the city of hundred or
wo dollars have to be collected on a judy
nent, with costs of court, it shows that
ither want of fairness or incompetency,
n both, exist at the City Hall