The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-11-14
OUR DILElfA AND OUR HOPE.

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The appointment by the City Council o
another assistant attorney as temporary ex
pertinent to further the collection of bacl
taxes, the allowance to the gentleman SO Sc
lected, of p per cent for m aking collections
and the fact that the measure was adopted tol
the more ample guarantee Of the Fiscal Agen
in making advances to the city to enable it t
meet the payment Of interest, etc., have giver
rise to much adverse criticism.
The City Council in taking this step seen
to have forgotten that they had already City
Attorney who receives large salary, and that
they had besides two Assistant City Attorneys
any one Of whom or certainly all of whom to-
gether, could have attended to this matter fol
which third assistant attorney has been en-.
gagged.
It might, perhaps, have been necessary to
have employed little additional cleric al
force, but We fail to see any necessity for sad
ding the taxpayers with the expense of en-
ploying another attorney to attend to business
which could have been equally well per-
formed, and certainly less extensively, BY the
present well-paid officers Of the city.
So far as the Fiscal Agency is concerned,
We are of the opinion that having gone into
this matter as speculation, it should be
placed on the same footing as other creditors
Of the city, bx upon no better. If it has ad-
vanced funds injudiciously, it must take rank
with other creditors-it can not be placed
above them. The city has paid dearly enough
for every dollar it has obtained from any of
its Fiscal Agents. and it IS about time that she
had put sudden stop to any further borrow
ing upon extravagant terms to pay accruing
interest or outstanding obligations of any
kind
We might as well realize our position at
once, and act like sensible business men. in
stead Of endeavoring by every means to put of
the uay Of settlement. We do not avoid the
debt nor lessen it by merely borrowing from
Peter to pay Paul.
The ir-t step is to bring our expenses with
in our liabilities, and that must be accom- |
plished even if everything in the shape Of
work has to be suspended; every department
Of the city government must be administered |
upon the most economical basis and the cash |
system established as soon as possible.
We are aware that the reforms most needed |
will require legislative action, but there are
many things that can be done before the
Legislature meets. There are many expendi-
lures that can be stopped, and everything
prepared for general overhauling when the
needed reforms are contaminated In the
mean time let US show the poor and OPP
pressed people that We co not intend to perse-
ute them and to sell their homes over their
leads. Let all judgements against Them be
stayed, and let no poor man or woman be
urned out into the street to satisfy the de-
hands Of the city.
II we are to proceed ruthlessly in the col.
ection Of enormous tax bills, swollen as
hey are by the costs and penalties imposed
y the brigands Of the Kellogg Legislature; if
'oor and starving men and women are to wit
less their little homes sold to satisfy judgment
btalned by the city, then it will be difficult
indeed TOR them to see wherein they have been
eneited by the change (which has been ]
rought by the election. Let all such pro-
eedings be stopped, and let the sheriff with
old further action in these cases until the =
legislature meets and passes acts Relieving t
le suffering people from the outrageous taxes a
nposed for infamous purposes and from the !
unparalleled penalties imposed in the hope of ! !;
astening collections or Of making absolute Il
lin certainty to those who demurred. c
Such relief must come or thou sands upon
lousands Of cur people will lose everything s
ey possess in the world, and if people are "
be crushed it matters little to them as to
ho shall be responsible for their annihila-
IN. r
With the needed measures of reform passed
, the Legislature, and with the city under e.
9 control Of the honest and capable gentle :.
en- who have been chosen to administer its Il,
airs, there is no doubt whatever about there D
ing ample revenues derivable from perfectly IN
Ultimate sources to meet every legitimate -
and liability w