New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-09
The Picayune in Error.


The Picoyasne of yesterday, in pursuance
of It's assaults upon the administration OF
the State and city governments, gives pub
licity to some misstatement of facts re-
garding the expenditures of the Depart
partment of Improvements. 1t says:
The disbursements in this department
from April 4, 1870, to November 30 IS1l.
amounted to $3012. COL of which S9i7 ,63S
vas spent on streets. $7S7 .S25 on wharyes
and landings, and $270,79i on drainage.
Speaking OF the expenditures for streets
the committee says. against these large
figures there is nothing to show except
mud and shells" I'VE have grand total
of $l57 ,663 for shells and ballast
In estimating this expenditure as ex-
travagant, no heed is taken of the char
acter of the soil. and the incessant rains
which twice in a single year have inundated
the rear portion Of the city. These overtows
swept away in week the work of months.
and involved in a common ruin the material
and labor of the department. The injury
inflicted was particularly disastrous on the
unpaved streets and on the levees in the
rear of the city. The budget of course,
did not anticipate these calamitles, and, OF
course. no allowance was made for them.
But the evil had to be remedied, and it in
volved an additional expenditure Of over
100000. Notwithstanding this, the ex-
penses of the department were within the
estimate of the budget. The statement,
therefore, that the Administrator exceeded
the budget $600,0 is incorrect.
IL =
system of drainage has entailed heavy ex-
penses. 1t was adopted, however, by an
act of the Legislature, and had the decided
approval of the Mayor, whose views are
now held up as worthy of all imitation.
But the fact must also be stated that this
act was passed subsequent to, and was not
provided for in the budget of 1871, from the
limited estimates OF which the eXpeditures
had to be incurred.
The COMMITTEE of Fifty-one," from
whose report the data and hasty conclusions
of the Picayune are taken, have never made
a personal inspection of the work done by
the department, and are, therefore, as i'll
advised on the subject as our contemporary.
But the Pcayune proceeds:
The committee recommend a limitation
in the amount to be expended on salaries
and wages, stoppage of all issues of GER
tificates of indebtedness, and a refusal to
contract for work unless the funds are in
the treasury for payment. "Cnder the
present system the city is paying not less
than fifty per cent additional for every con-
tract they make" They indOrse the Mayor
statements as to the eXOrbitant prices paid
for Shells lumber, coal, etc, and cite an in
stance in which so, 900 barrels of shells cost
eighty-three and tive-eighths cents per bar
rel in bonds the cash price being thirty
cents per barrel.
Again our neighbor plunges into error.
The price of lake shells, delivered on the
banks of the canals, is thirty and a
half cents per barrel, and what is known
as good shells at from forty to torty-fve
cents per barrel. The shells can not be put
on the street for less than ten cents addi-
tional In proof of this, the Jockey Club
paid these prices for shells delivered on the
basin.
At the time the 1000 barrels were dSliv-
cred, improvement bonds had no marke.
value, but were shortly atterward put out
at sixty cents on the dollar, thus netting
the contractor about forty nine cents on the
levee, and leaving profit to him OF per
haps three cents per barrel.
Thus it is perceived that our contempt