The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-11-13
ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC,
by THE
LOUISIANA LEYEE COMPANY.
OFFICE LOUISIANA LEvEE COMPANY, !
No. % Carondelet street,
New Orleans, Nov. Is, 1876. !

| No. % Carondeet street,
New Orleans, Nov. 13, 1875
To the Public:
The undersigned, President of the Louisi-
ana Levee Company, in behalf OF the directors
and stockholders of said company, deems it
his duty to the public and to the stockho dsrs
to publish the following statements in cor
rectlon and refutation Of the persistent mis-
statements and false accusations made regard
ing US and our motives and actions through
the press of New Orleans:
The parties not ourselves, who formed the
Levee Company, and originally contracted
with the State OF Louisiana for the building
and mainte nance of levees, in February, 1871,
found themselves wholly unable to comply
With their contract for want of capital. The
State had previously issued more than S.
600 900 of bonds for levee construction pur-
poses, under Boards of Commissioners; which
bonds were much deprecated in value in the
market and the State was powerless to raise
further means for continuing the work OF
levee maintenance. 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 aluvial portion of the State
was certain to be inundated during the next
foods of the river.
The State could not build the levees, and
the new Levee Company, as then constituted
was equally powerless to proceed with the
work il ha undertaken. Such was the situa
ton in November, 1871.
At this juncture few gentlemen, including
among their number several ban ak presidents,
large landed proprietors and capitalists, all
resident cisizens of long standing, who
thought they would thereby render the State
good service, joined together in tbs emer-
gency and concluded to invest portion OF
| ~ Jo nd kaE6 TO n hat no
the State, the new Levee Company nor the
riparian proprietors could do.
| They acquired, as the only means of oper-
ating and of having the levees built, (for the
only possible instrum entality then was the
WY formed Levee Company the fr-n-
chises and contract of said company. They
then Jointly contributed and paid in upwards
of $500 600 in cash, for a capital, in Decem-
Der, 1871, and commenced to rebuild such
levees as the State, through its Commission
of Engineers, designated as most necessary,
and ordered for construction. They built
every levee so ordered, and complied with ali
the requirements of their contract stipula-
tons 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 upwards of one hundred levees COM
pletely, with many others at the same ame
under process of construction, before recelv-
ing 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,
tor which 81, 534 656 60 WAS due. and on 40
count of which only 1922, 600 had been paid
to them by the State. The Levee Company
has paid to its sub-contractors, on an average,
from first to last, nearly thirty five cents per
cubic ward on a cash basis besides defraying
all of Its incidental and other necess ry e1-
penses. The company's loss, In interest alone
on the unpaid balances past due by the State,
for work actually performed, say on about
ST., 500 900, at ten per cent for three and half
years amounts to 1925, 000 The balance due
the Levee Company on the first of November,
1875, after deduc,ing all receipts from both
the construction and repair funds, was over
81, 800 O0O.
We have built SGT, 553 cubic yards of
levees in ALL and the amount charged to the
State for construction and repairs Is SO 1885,
347. II is said that the Levee Company is
making large profits on its contracts. Ii 30,
how is it that stock, the face value of which
is fifteen dollars (Sl5) per share-(on which
no cash dividends have ever been paid)-is
nov selling at prices varying from only two
dollars to three dollars per share?
The facts are that the entire amount re-
ceived from the Safe, SO tar, 81. 754. zoo, has
been expended in levee construction and dis
bursements connected Herewith. In addition
to the amounts received from the State, we
have advanced and expended out OF our own
means, obtained from other sources, $3.50, 600,
or about one third of the cost of the levees
built up to this time; for which we have re-
| ceived little else than abuse, coming from
anonymous writers to the public, aud which
Inv
whose venality had been disappointed by our
refusal to submit to the exactions of "black
mail, and in other cases, emanating from
the vindictive feelings OF discharged en-
ployees.
| How many business men in New Orleans or
| anywhere else would be willing to contract to
build levees for the State of louisiana at fifty
cents per cubic yard, and wait year or more
to be reimbursed, without interest, after pay
ing an average of thirty-fve cents per cubic
yard in cash, or its equivalent, to sub-con-
tractors, interest on all loans and other incl
dental expenses in addition? They would
find the actu Il cost per cubic yard for levees
at least forty cents-aii 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 impression
prevails, even with those who should know
better, that, for some unexplained reason, the
Levee Company should build all the levees
needed in Louisiana of its own volition with
out orders and without compensation. For
the amount of the balance due US We have
rendered full equivalent in work DONE and
vet 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, issued
for no consideration whatever as far as the
public are informed, and even tainted with
fraud from their first inception, have been
funded but our just claim is sought to be re-
pudiaed, 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 1t was provided that the
." State of Louisiana contracts and agrees
with the Louisiana Levee Company in terms
as follows" "That the Auditor OF Public Ac-
counts shall be required to pay the Louisiana
Levee Company at the rate OF fifty cents per
cubic yard tor all levees constructed by said
company after the 1st day of October, 1873. .
and tor all levees constructed by said COM