The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-11-14
ADDRESS TO THE PUBLIC.
LOUISIANA LEVEE COMPANY
OFFICE LOUISIANA LEvEE COMPANY !
No. % Carondelet street,
New Orleans. Nov 10 1o7s

his duty 10 the public and to the stockho,days
to publish the following statements in cor.
rection and refutatlon of the persistent mis-.
statements and false accusations made regard.
the press of New Orleans:
The parties, not ourselves. who formal IL q
Levee Company, and originally contracted
with the State OF Louisiana for the building
and malnte nance OF levees, in February. 1871
found themselves wholly unable to comnlv
with their contract for want of capital. The
State had previously issued more than So. :.
900, 600 OF bonds for levee construction mr..
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
evee maintenance. She had no money and
could no longer get the work done on credit.
The levees were broken and gone in yery
many places, and unless something were
done the whole alluvial 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 II bad undertaken. Such was the situa-
ton In November, 1871.
At this juncture few gentlemen, including
among their number several bank presidents
resident citizens of long standing, who
thought they would thereby render the State
good service, joined together in the emer-
gency and concluded to invest a portion of
their funds, and undertake to do whatneither
the State, the new Levee Company nor the
riparian proplietors could do
They acquired, as the only means Of oper-
ating and OF having the levees built, (for the
only possible instrumentality then was the
newly formed Levee Company the fr.n-
chises and contract of said company. They
then jointly contributed and paid in upwards
OF $4OO, 600 in cash, for 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 all
the requirements of their contract stipula-
lions 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 time
under process of construction before receiv- |
ing one dollar Of compensation therefor from
the State.
To October, 1872 they built levees amount |
ing in the aggregate to q 557, 76l cubic yards, |
Tor which ST., 534, 656 60 was due. and on &C
count of which only 1922, 900 had been paid |
to them by the State. The Lsvee Company |
has paid to its sub-contractors, on an average, |
from first to last, nearly thirty five cents per
cubic yard on cash basis, besides defraying |
all of its incidental and other necess ry ex-
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, $780, 600, at ten per cent for three and half
years, amounts to S525, 900. The balance due
the Levee Company on the first of November,
1875, after deducting all receipts from both
the construction and repair funds, was over
S1,5O0,000.
We have built 5,617,553 cubic yards of
levees in all, and the amount charged to the
State for construction and repairs is SO, 1885,,
BAT. II is said that the Levee Company is
making large profits on its contracts. 1t So
how is it that stock, the face value of which
is fifteen dollars (S15) per share-(on which
no cash dividends have ever been paid lis
now selling at prices varying from only two
dollars to three dollars per share?
The facts are that the entire amount re-
ceived from the State SO far, ST. 754, 200, 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, 900,
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
writer's to the public, and which
abuse was dictated, in some cases, by those
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 {
10 be reimbursed, without interest, after pay |
ing an average of thirty-five cents per cubic
Yard in cash, or its equivalent to sub-con-
tractors, interest on all loans ana otner Incl,
dental expenses in addition? They would {
find the actu Il cost per cubic yard for levees
1t least forty cents-all expenses included. !
Our company has complied with and Kept
ia contract obligations faithfully from first to
asst, but the State from the very first has been
md 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 volltlon with
,ut orders and without compensation. For
he amount of the balance due us we have
rendered q full equivalent in work done, and
ret 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
or no consideration whatever, as far as the :
public are informed, and even tainted with
raud from their first inception, have been q
unded, but our just claim is sought 10 Do To- y
and we ourselves held up for puDnc
xecration for presuming to ask to be paid IN
,onds, instead of cash. for what is due u.s.
~ Act No. 4 Of 1871 1t was provided that the
State of Louisiana contracts and agrees P
With the louisiana Levee Company IN terms
3 follows" "That the Auditor OF Public Ac- g
cunts shall be required to pay the LOUISIANA :,
.evee Company at the rate OF MY Genus h p;d
ubic ward tor all levees constructed oy sain =
o o after the LIST Gay of October, 1873 =
nd for all levees constructed BY said COM :
anv before the 1st day OF October, 1873,
the rate of sixty cents per cubic YARD, as ?