The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-03-03
THE BRAHMANs or LOUISIANA.

class who have rights superior TO men Oh
common mold, for whose especial benefit
the legislation Of the State must be shaped,
and in whose especial interests the laws must
be administered and the public revenues dis
burAed
| In the Times of Sunday morning we
find two remarkable articles, remarkable,
| not for wit. logic OF patriotism, but az
taken together, exposing the fact we have
above alluded to- One of these articles, headed
The Investigation Pretext," Is quite Zero
cious attack upon the DEMOCRAT for
questioning the sanctity OF the State
debt, and the other entitled "Guard-
ing the Peoples Money" is defense OF the
course of the city district judges In enioining
all the appropriations of the Legislature
40 that they may keep their fingers In the
treasury until they obtain the full amount,
dollar for dollar of their exorbitant salaries
II we had space we should like to publish,
IN our own columns, these two articles In
parallel columns. They are, as we have said,
remarkable productions, and should be read
together by every taxpayer In the State.
According to the Times theory, the only
sacred and inviolable thing In Louisiana Is the
State debt That the debt is largely com
posed of bonds for which the people received
| no benefit, indeed, that represent the money
which upheld the prolgatc administration Of
| Warmoth and the infamous usurpation of
Kellogg is of no consequences That the debt
has been increased from nine millions where
the property Of the people was worth
six hundred Millions to more than
twelve millions, when the peoples prop
erty has decreased IN value to one hun
dred and thirty millions. s not TO be
taken into account, That the tax levied 10
pay the interest on this enormous debt is
more than the whole rate of State taxation
ought to be, is not regarded as a hardship.
The bondhoIders are privileged class; they
are the Brahmans of Louisiana, while the tax
payers and the workingmen are n lower caste
whose mission Is to toll and sweat and pay.
| This is a fair analysis OF the two articles of
the Times This is what they mean, and they
| cannot be construed TO mean anything else.
| in one the DEMOCRAT is tiercely assailed for
holding that the taxpayers have some right
| to relief from the burthen of this fearful debt
and ruinous tax, and In the other the district
judges are applauied for tying up, by a
sweeping Injunction, every appropriation
| Legislsture except that for the consti-
| tutional officers of the State The
| lottery men, their organs and their sup
| porters In the Legislature, demanded that
| demoralizing and pernicious institution should
| be permitted to flourish In our midst because
| 1t paid forty Thousand dollars per annum TO
the Charity Hospital; but now the district
| judges are loudly applauded by the bond
holders paper for tying up the appropriation
made by the State for that noble institution
| The Insane Asylum In Jackson and the
| Blind Asylum In Baton Rouge, need the
money appropriated for their benefit to
clothe the nakedness and stay the hunger
Of the most unfortunate and miserable of
our fellow-beings; but the journalistic
representative of the bondholders as
sures our modest judges that they have
done wisely and well In shutting down on
those institutions until they have gobbed the
whole of their own pay. The clerks In the
departments. toiling In humble positions and
many of them to support families, have
claims against the State: but then these clerks
are not bondholders; they belong TO the mean
or caste OF the State. and no sacredness attach
es to their humble claims The State owes
money for work done In its behalf; 1t owes
money for many things. money honorably,
fairly and hardly earned by the creditors;
but these debtors are not bondholders: they
are Of the Sudrds, the lower caste, the people
and hence half dozen overpaid judges are
applauded by the representatives of the bond
holders for striking their claims with
nullity though their wives and children suffer
hnr nd bnir In, o.,
out Of their dues. In short, according TO
the bondholders and their organs. the bonded
debt is sacred and iuvolable; the property of
the State must be exhausted to pay IL dollar for
dollar. good and bad, with exorbitant interest
The people must toll through this and the next
generation so that Carondeot and Wall
streets have not their capital curtailed
property, commerce, industry, all must
be levied upon for the benefit OF
the non-taxpaying bondholders. But
moneys due for the sick and the
destitute, and those afflicted beings whom
God in His wisdom has thrown upon our
charity may be paid when the seven per cent
interest on the bonds is paid, or when our most
noble and learned judges are flush of cash,
Then also may those poor hirelings Of the
State, who do not belong to the aristocracy OF
bondholders and constitutional officers, pick
UP the eavings; and If there should be no
leavings- well, who tho devil cares They
have only given some honest toll to the State
and their miserable claims must be ignored
for the sacred claims Of the bondholders.
This is the morality which the bondholding
classes are seeking to buldoze into the poll
ties and Jurisprudence Of this State and the
same doctrines are preached relative to the
city debt Whose voice is lifted to denounce
the dishonor and indecency Of this city in
leaving its school teachers its police and
other working employees unpaid and In
absolute restitution Occasionally some
generous and humane man speaks out,
but his voice dies away unheard But for five
years the press and the streets have rung with
preaehments on the sacredness Of the premium
bonds and thelbeSt energies of orr eitv adj