The New Orleans Democrat. (New Orleans, La.) 1875-1876, 1876-02-17
wEsT vELICMNA CORRESPONDENCE.

Dear Sir-As we have no journal tib-
lished In this parish devoted 70 inc III
forests OF the people, and Us our grey,
ances and wrongs have always touno
a response in the columns Of tho Demo
Graf, ! ask a small space IN your v"ioa-
During the month OF January two
publications made their appearance In
our parish which have attracted very
general attention. One enanating from
the Property Holders Protective Union
'of West Feliciana, and the other in
answer to II. published by Mr.. ID. A.
Weber. Tax Collector Of tho same
parish.
II these two publications do no other
good, they will serve. hope, TO call the
ATTENTION OF our citizens to the manage
mrrt of their parochial affairs, the want
Of which will account In no small degree
Tor whatever Of maladministrhtion u 70
b., found in the conduct OF our pubic
business. II IL with the litter OF these
pamphlets that the present writer has. to
do. Mr.. Weber has done great Injustice
to the members Of the Police Jury, to
which had tho honor to belong. and 1t
IL the object OF this communication 70
SGT forth the simple truth In reply 10 the
direct and indirect charges OF reckless.
ly sa,landering the peoples money, AMI
which Mr.. Weber has made, not only IN
his pamphlet, but in the Bayou Sara
Leti,tt7. and i'm his private conversation.
In order to s,lbstantiate these charges,
Mr.. Weber seems to have Thought "
only necessary to copy from the records
pf The police jury, or rather, from the
Auditors books. every instance in which
any parish officer or member OF the
police Jury received warrants issued by
the parish auditor, without troubling
himself to state in % single instance the
circumstances connected with their is
sue. IL certainly would be u grave
charge against the parish officers ana
members Of the police jury, that they
had drawn from the parish Treasury the
sums of money which no has mentioned
in connection with their names. But
he. and every one else will agree that 1t
is o very different thing to- get warrant
for certain amount OF money, and to
get that amount Of money from the irons
ury in payment Of the warrant Mr..
Weber is very sensitive on this very
question himself, when he says on page
of his pamphlet. "Nor did [ in reality
receive three hundred dollars for extend
ing the rolls. having been compelled to
dispose Of my warrants mt about sixty
five cents on the dollar"
t. Now. when assert that each andevery
one of the gentlemen who are charged
with drawing such large sums from the
I,,ffitOy's books not from the Treasury,
might reply II did not in reality re-
ceive this sum in cash, having been
compelled TO dispose Of my warrants at
from 25 to 80 cents on the dollar Mr..
Websr's charge falls to the ground on
this count.
Mr. Weber charges, by implication,
generally speaking u most nnjustifiable
mode Of attack, that certain members
of the Police Jury received large sums
of money for their services MS Jurors.
AS for. instance. when he tells us that
DIR. JOS. A. Smith. the President Of the
| Police Jury drew warrants to the amount
OF $17tO, he leaves us to infer that
DR.. Smith had drawn much larger
sum than he WIS entitled to. But when
| it is known that DR. Smith, acting MS
agent for a relative, received these war
rants in payment for the rent Of u room
| used as ~ court room. while tho court
house was considered unsafe, 1t can
very easily be seen that Mr.. Weber did
not wish to make u fair and candid
statement Of facts in his publication
| He charges another member OF the
police Jury, Mr.. John J. Lindcrs with
| having drawn 5000; and rs he could
| find no authority for drawing this
amount, he infers that 1t was another
instance Of ''recklessly squandering the
peoples money! or, in other words
stealing. If he had inquired he might
have learned that Mr.. Lnders was paid
that amount in warrants for building
one Of the longest and most important
bridges In the parish, and TINT he did
not receive in money $500 for his
work, just about half price. The total
amount paid to Benjamin IAvergne for
] maintaining prisoners in Jail for three
years Is put down at ~ ,181 80 But when
We know that for large part Of these
three years parish warrants were worth
not 66 cents, but rs cents on tho dollar,
this little circumstance alters the case
amazingly, and one can honestly believe
that Mr.. Weber would not have been
willing to exchange his fat office OF tax
collector and assessor for that Of iailor
money realized from the position Of
| Ailor than is now netted by tho tax col
iector and nssessorp' tits not necessary
90 go over the whole list Of figures
Nr. Weber has thought 1t necessary
to publish. Suffice 1t to say that
those VINO served the parish dur
! ing the years he refers to did 50
ut q sacritce which Mr.. Weber
seems incapable Of appreciating. One
more fact l must be allowed to state, rs
it Is perhaps the most Important fact Of
all, rs it explains the cause OK tho depre-
citation In parish variants from and
| liter the year 1868, which otherwise
could not be understood. 1t will be
recoilected that the year 1867 was q
disastrous one to our planting interests
in this State. The people thought they
were Lopelessly ruined, and forthwith
the Legislature was requested to su8-
pend u o collection OF the taxes for one
year, This the Legislature very UNI
wisely did, thus leaving the parishes
without resources to carry on the pa
rochial government. What vas the po-
lice jury to do under the circum-
stances? Shut up the Offices, turn the
prisoners out Of jail, and suspend the
whole parochial business till the taxes
could once more be collected? I hardly
think that Mr. Weber even would have
advised that course On the contrary,
the police jury insisted upon the parish
offices continuing tho discharge Of
their duties; instructed the jailor to
make the best arrangements he could to
| feed the prisoners, while they insisted
| upon as rigid economy as possible under
the circumstances; they, themselves,
as far as half Of them were concerned,
setting the example by receiving no
| compensation for their services. Even
those whose necessities compelled them