New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1871-07-13

/
| In dealing out the expenditures OF
| other people he should be as frugal as
| in his own. No man doubts his ca
| pacity, no man doubts his ability, no man
| has questioned his honesty; but that
| q man should come before this Council, with
the city on the very verge of bankruptcy,
with its paper flooding the streets, with
three months arrears of current expenses
| to meet and diminished resources to do 1T
| on--that when he says in his own ordinance
we are not bound by this law, should now
come before the Council and say that, in
opposing this scheme, we are going in the
face of legal enactment, is to me incom-
prehensible. Where is his consistency If
he believed when he wrote this ordinance
that the law was unconstitutional-and
can not suppose but what he was sincere
why does he not say SO now, when the city
is being overwhelmed by Noyes. ,Bussey g.
Coz Instead of driving the'city into bank
rupfcy why don't this company finish their
Mexican Gulf Canal, which they told us
year ago was going to double the commerce
of the city, and yet, after letting the State
in for four hundred and eighty thousand
dollars, it is not half done now! 1 pass
now to another point This levee, being
placed by Mr.. Bell out in the lake, renders
necessary reyetment to keep the mud up.
Who is to do that Not the Mexican Gulf
Canal Company. We are to do it. The plan
of the surveyor is to use iron. What will
that cost want to call the attention of the
Council to this fact that in the bids laid
before the Council this very day for shells
sixty-two cents and half, think. was the
lowest bid. Six months ago, when this
Council first came in, we got bids at forty
two and forty cents. Here we have
difference of fifty per cent, owing to the
discredit that is falling on the city. After
a year and half of office, with all the en-
enlargement We have received, we have
not only failed to restore the credit of the
city, but find ourselves in the ridiculous
position of being worse off than when we
started. If we have to get this iron, where
is itl Not in New Orleans. If you have to
go abroad for it and are asked: "Do you
pay cash 7" and answer, as you must, No,
We don't expect to pay for year" do not
hesitate to say you can not get bids from
responsible parties for less than fifty per
cent over what it ought to cost. have
spoken with great zeal because / consider
that to pursue this line of policy will drive
the city to ruin. There is no prudence, there
is no sense in it q! / thank the Administrator
of Accounts for this ordinance which says
we do not relinquish our rights to contest at
law or otherwise this bill. How is he
going to get over that ? Does he mean now
to say We are bound by this law when he
says in the ordinance we are not 7 If it is
not law, then cofes question, is it mat
ter of necessity / have already shown it
is the rankest folly to enter on such a work
at such time. Thirteen thousand dollars
have already been paid to this company.
Thirteen thousand dollars fioated on the
street like puff. Look at the condition of
your own ten per cent bonds. Only fifty
thousand dollars worth have yet been
issued, and there are a million nine
hundred and fifty thousand dollars
more to come. Yet they are quoted on the
streets at only 90. Was there ever such a
position of shameless discredit as that now
occupied by the city of New Orleans, sit
ting at the finest location for commerce on
the American continent, and its credit down
to such point that its ten per cent bonds
bring emily 81? When you have put the
other nineteen hundred and fifty thousand |
dollars on the market what will be the con-
dition of the city, I would like the gentle.
man to answer this.
Mr.. Shaw: did not intend to make any
al wer, but as the Mayor insists upon it,
will endeavor to give him such one as the
occasion calls for. / can not travel over all
the ground the Mayor has trayersed; some
OF his remarks, think do not need answer
ing. The Mayor has made some comments
upon my first impressions of this matter.
The Mayor: No. These are your second
impressions.
Mr.. Shaw: He blames me for changing
my Impressions and, at the same time
thanks me for the ordinance which he
vetoed. think this is proof that he him.
self has changed his impressions. He put
in a tremendous veto against the ordinance
We passed it by five to two, and now he
says, II thank you"
The Mayor: For that one thing.
Mr.. Shaw: When we came into office we
had no control over the drainage of the
city, although there was a sounding clause
in the charter that the Administrator of
Improvements should have general con-
troll over all drainage matters. The real
jurisdiction lay between the old drainage
commissioners and the Ship Island
Canal Company. We had nothing to
do with it for good or for ill.,
We could not affect the question
one way or the other-could not control
the drainage funds, and practically, had no
power at all. But the late Legislature
passed an act, No 80, of the session of 1871,
which gave us great deal TO do. One of
the first things was to construct protec-
ton levee round the rear of this city. This
thing came upon us as surprise. 1t came
to the Mayor with formal notice, and it
became my duty to read that notice and
this act together. This act imposed upon
us the duty of constructing some fourteen
or fifteen miles of levee Naturally
enough, felt cautious, and l moved
a resolution intimating that we reserved
our powers on this subject. That we
reserved the right of contracting with other
people, and, generally, of acting for our
own advantage. This was my first impulse
on this subject Something has happened
since then which tells us what is our duty