New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1874-03-18
PROFESSIONAL REFORMER.

| Senator Thomas was little slow in
finding out where he belonged, whether
in the General Assembly or IN the Odd
Fellows Hall crowd. But he found out
at last, though it was not until nearly a
year after the illegal assemblage for whose
society he grieved had been scattered and
dispersed beyond hope of ever being
again collected. The distinguished Sen
ator from Caddo is known in public as
reformer of the very straitest sect.
Hence his refusal to take his seat in the
Senate and attend to his representative
| duties lest some doubtful measure, such
as job or a steal outright, should pass in
spite of his persuasive eloquence to the
| contrary, and receive force and dignity in
consequence of his afiliation and mem
bership with the rascally authors and sup
porters. AS an evidence of his sincerity
he offered the following amendment to
the appropriation bill on the last day Of
the session, and it was adopted without
opposition, apparently. Senator Harris
had not yet brought into play his tactics
of Directing to the introduction of new
items, nor had the fit of economy, which
suddenly attacked Twitchell after he had
seen all his own interests attended to, yet
begun to affect that Senator. So there
was no objection from the one under the
rules, nor a motion from the other to table
on account Of the item providing for
perfectly useless expenditure. The sample
of reform referred to is as follows
Appropriation to pay the publisher, B.
Bloomfield, for the use of the State for $50
copies, each, of the Civil Code and the Code
OF Practice, with the statutory amendments
thereto of the General Assembly, including
those of the session of 1874 and with the
references OF the decisions of the Supreme
Court of the State of Louisiana: and for $50
copies of the Revised Statutes, with the
statutory amendments of the General As
sembly thereto, including those of tho ses-
sion Or 1874, to be paid upon the prod Dtion
of the receipt of the Secretary of State of
their delivery, $6S75.
All these books have been stereotyped
at the expense of the State, and the plates
are in the possession of the Secretary.
Since they were published few amend
ments have been made to all the volumes
The expense of inserting them, either in
their appropriate places, or at the end OF
the respective volumes, will be small.
The Revised Statutes make 900 pages, the
Civil Code SIS, and the Code of Practice
200, which is an aggregate of 1924 pages,
of which $50 copies are required. Thus
81 % per page are offered for work upon
which the State has already paid the COM
position-a work, too, that is in no so much
urgent demand as to require an additional
burden to be saddled upon the treasury to
have done
We overlook the fact that the State
Printer is legally entitled, under his con-
tract to all printing done for the State, and
that the reformer from Caddo probably
acted to oblige friend. Our objections to
this job are: l. The State does not need
the books 2. The price to be paid is excess
sive; and, 3. The outlay is authorized in
bill which in some other items sacrifices
good faith to the exigencies of pretended
economy.