New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-11-14
ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC
LOUISIANA LEvEE COMPANY,
OFFICE LOUISIANA LRvER COMPANY,
NJ. % Uar0ndelet street,
New Orleans November 10, 1875.

To the Public:
The undersigned, president of the Louis.
lana Lsgsea COMPANY, in behalf of the di-
rectors and stockholders of said company,
deems it his duty to the public and the
stockholders 10 publish the following state
ments in correction and refutation of the
persistent Mlisstatements and false aocusa-
tions made regarding us and our motives
and actions through the press of New Or
leans. cal - ..-t,
The parties, not ourselves, who. formed
the Leves Company, and originally con-
tracted with the State of Louisiana for the
building and maintenance of levees, in Feb
ruary, 1871, fbund themselves wholly un.
able to comply with their contract for want
OF capital. The State had previously is
sued more than $S,00o,0 600 of bonds for fetee
construction purposes, under boards of
commissioners, which bonds were much de-
preciated in value in the market, and the
State was pOwerless to raise further means
for continuing the work of levee mainten-
anee. She had no. money, and could no
longer get the work done on credit. The
levees were broken and gone in very many
places, and unless something were done,
the whole alluvial portion of the State was
certain to be Inundated during the next
floods of the river.
The State could not build the leyees. and
the new LeVee Company, as then consti-
was ctiudlly pOWtTitSb 10 pTOteeu
with the work it had undertaken. Such
was the situation in November, 1871.
AT this juncture few gentlemen, includ-
ing among their number several bank presi-
dents, large landed proprietors and capital
lists, all resident citizens of long standing,
who thought they would thereby render the
State good service, joined together in the
emergency, and concluded to invest por-
ton of their funds, and undertake to do
what neither the State, the new Levee
Company. nor the riparian proprietors
could do.
They acquired, as the only means of opera
ton and Of having the levees built (for the
only possible fundamentally then was the
newly formed Levee. Company, the fran
chises and contract of said company. They
then jointly contributed and paid in up
ward of 1900 900 in cash, for capital, in
December 1871, and commenced to rebuild
such levees az the State, through its COM
mission of engineers, designated as most
necessary, and ordered for construction.
They built every levee so ordered, and COM
piled with all the requirements of their con-
tract stipulations as designated to them by
the State as the proprietor Of the levees,
through her officials.
By the use of their whole capital, and
straining their credit. they succeeded in
building upward of 100 levees completely
with many others at the same time under
process Of construction, before receiving
one dollar OF compensation therefor from
the State
To October, 1872, they built levees amount.
ing in the aggregate to 2,557 ,76l cubic
yards, for which 81 ,53i 600 60 was DUE and
on account of which only $4,000 had been
paid to them by the State. The Levee
Company has paid to it's sub-contractors, on
an average, from first to last, nearly thirty
five cents per cubic yard on a cash basis,
besides detraying all of its incidental and
other necessary expenses. The cOmpany's
loss, in interest alone on the unpaid bal
ances past due by the State, for work &C.
tually performed, say on about 81 800, 0G0 at
ten per cent for three and a half years.
amounts to $525 900. The balance due the
Leyee Company on the first of November,
1873, after deducting all receipts from both
the construction and repair funds, was over
one and half millions of dollars.
We have built j,6l7 ,553 cubic yards of
levees in all, and the amount charged to
the State for construction and repairs is
$3,266,3F. 1t is said that the Levee Com
pany ID making large profits on its con-
tract. II so, how is it that stock, the face
value of which ls fifteen dollars per
share-(on which no cash dividends have
ever been paid lis now selling at prices
varying from only two dollars to three dol
lars per share'
The facts are that the entire amount re-
ceived from the State SO far, $l,75i 200, has
been expended in levee construction and
disbursements connected Herewith. In ad-
dition to the amounts received from the
State we have advanced and expended out
of our own means, obtained from other
sources, $3.50 900, or about one-third of the
cost OF the levees built up to this time, for
which we have received little else than
abuse, coming from anonymous writer's to
the public, and which abuse was dictated,
in some cases, by those whose venaiity had
been disappointed by our refusal to submit
to the exactione OF "black mail" and, in
other cases, emanating from the vindiotive
feelings of discharged employees.
How many business men in New Orleans
Sr anywhere else, would be willing to CON
tract to build levees for the State Of LOuisi.
ana at fifty cents per cubic yard, and wait
year or more to be reimbursed, without
interest, after paying an average of thirty
five cents per cubic yard in cash. or its
equivalent, to suboontractors, interest ON
all loans, anu other incidental expenses in
addition! They would lind the actual cost
per cubic yard for levees at beast forty
cents, all expenses included!
Our company has complied with and kept
its contract obligations faithfully from first
to last, but the State from the very first has
been and is still in default The absurd i'm
preston prevails, even with those who
should know better, that, for some unex-
planned reason, the Levee Company should
build all the ievees needed in Louisiana Of
its own vblitiOn without orders and without
compensation. For the amount of the bal
ance due us we have rendered full equiva.
lent in work done, and yet we are denounced
as seeking to rob the State for asking to be
paid in deprecated State bonds the amount
due us in cash as per contract
Large sums, in bonds and warrants is
oua fOp OIL aro hot 60
rs the public are informed, and even faint
ed with fraud from their first inception,
have been funded, but our inst claim is
sought to be repudiated, and we ourselves
held up for public execratiOn for presuming
to ask to be paid in bonds, instead of cash,
for what is due us. BY act No. of 1871 it
was provided that the '.Stste OF Louisiana
contracts and agrees with the Louisiana Lee
wee Company in terms as follows: That the
Auditor of Public Accounts shall be re-;
CURED to pay the Louisiana Levee Com
pany at the rate of. fifty cents per cubic
yard for all levees constructed by said COM
pany after the first day of October, 1873"
and for .all levees constructed by said COM
pany before the first day of October, 1873,
at the rate Of sixty cents per cubic
yard, az the existing contracts and laws
provide" We seek but to obtain from the
State the fullflment Of it's contract stipula.
tions.
1t is said that the Levee Company has not
the means to maintain the levee system,
and, therefore, that it's contract should be
broken. The truth is that If the State were
in condition TO pay cash for all work done,
our company could build any number OF
millions of yards annually for less than the
present contract price. It is the State and
not our company that is without the means
to maintain the levee system. Our cOmpa-
nv ia an xious that thu iJnt<ad Stataa sbo,,la