The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1879-02-25
MIR. CLINTON's RECORD.
The Edttor ana Proprietor Of the New
orleans Times, and his Relations TO
the hospital Pund

the hospital Fund.
COMMITTEE ROOM OF PUBLIC AND CHARITABLEl
lnstitutions House Of Representatives.
To the Honorable Speaker and Members OF the
= House oil Representatives.
your Oonmittse on Public and Charitable In
NIT this. their report. upon the condition Of the
CHARITY. Hospital of the city e New Orleans;
The Charity Hospital board do not comnlain
OF the insuffciency OF the legislative appro-
priations. but only OF the manner In which
these appropriations hays been paid by the
state officials and realized by the Charity Hos
pital, The complaint is that the appropriation
having been for the much greater part paid in
ton. nor for Q long time afterwards Cat all
events to tho board), they were CONT peled TO
rrow money in open market upon those war
rants as collateral security or sell them out
right and suDmi 1t TO an excessive discount there
from. The board complain also OF the
delays which have occurred Ia the delivery
appropriations. They called the partlcu-
lar attention Of your committee to
the delay which occurred in the delivery to them
OF warrants for the appropriation made last
year. amounting to- $4,000. The matter was
first called TO the attention Of the House by Mr..
George w Dupre, Representative from Orieans
ruary. but the warrants were withheld by Audi
tor CliDton untll late In the month OF Decem-
bsr. delay OF about ten months upon what
your committee believe to be Il mere pretext.
viz: that there was no money In the treasury
thai the Auditor WAS Inv sted with power or q
discf elton to withhold their ISSUES until there
was money to meet tnem. and that there were
ftluDctions OF The Superior District Court,
parish OF Orleans. Ia existence. restraint him
from their issue. The belief OF your committee
that ttese were mere pretrxts, Is based upon
their general knowledge of the inner workings
Of the AUDITORS and Treasurer's offices, and
npon the Inspection Of the pretended in
junction order. and upon the fact.
proved to US by ineontrovertible testimony.
That Auditor Clinton's objections to delivering
these warrants immeifHrplv
aud Disappeared "a II by magic the moment
that certain arrangement or contract had
his brutner in law. Mr.. Isaac N. S.oufemyer.
one OF the ostenstble proprietOrs and the
editor Of the New Ore Times newspaper.
This arrangement or contract iucluded ions
oneTous condition. which should not have be- n
imposed upon the board. The facts touching
this contract your committee now proceed to
The board fearing that the appropriation of
$4,000 would be lost to them by the efflux of
Legislature Of 1876 assembled. and tbat their
creditors would have to be delayed still longer.
concluded to try an expedient much resorted TO
nowadays that is. to offer Mr.. 5toutemyer tas
one who was supposed to be able TO accom- plish
what no one else could ]. g., the removal of
Auditor clintcns objections) a fee or COM
leave his editorial chair for q brief
space. TO exercise his eminent legal abili-
a mind ind as e1 5 o, hs
course with regard to the appropriation tor the
hospital. 1t was supposed by the board that
Mr.. Stoutemyer would succeed Ia convincing
Auditor Clinton that there were no legal OBJ
8 acles In the way Of delivering these warrants,
and he result proved how correctly this was
tract into which the board entered with
Mr.. Stoutemyer tfor he undertook the job,
was their agreement to pay him for the service
10 per cent on $4,000. This Tee has been
paid 70 Mr; Stontemyer ia warrants OF the
AUDITOR. when ieayss s the ne hospital out OF that
Your committee think there can be but one
Although not entirely satisfied that the board
had power to Ransom the appropria ion
out OF Auditor Ciinton's hands at this
willing to censure them under the cir
cumstances. for 1t seems to be case of duress.
They mad either to agree to the terms Mr.. Stoute-
myer imposed upon them, or loss the ap-
propriation: But your committee cannot
suffer Auditor Clinton and Mr.. Stoutemyer
to ESCAPE from the pubic condemnation
when the FAC ara kown. Here Is an execu-
tive officer OF the State. with or without discre-
tionary power so to act. undertaking to frus-
arresting the flow OF 8 bounty toward the
poor sick and dying men and women VINO Ian
guish In the wards Of the Charity Hospit
And this, your comm ittee arp satisfied, was
done by Mr.. Clinton tor no good or honest pur-
pose. As for Mr.. Sou emyer. We cannot dis
cover what services he rend req to the hospital
or It's creditors. which justified him in
exacting from them fee or Compensation
of that magnitude. He conducted no
troublesome. difficult aud lengthy lili-
cation. According to his own testimony
given in our presence. there existed no legal
obstacle TO the delivery Of the WarTan's by the
Auditor. He drew no Dleadiugs. nor did he ap-
pear In court. His Iabors were confined to
private, personal solicitations OF the Auditor
of Judge Hawkins and Of the litigants partits
who. 1t was pretende by Auditor Clinton, con-
troiled an Injunction which it pleased HIM to
construe as prohibiting him from delivering
the warrants 10 The administrators Of the
hospital Your committee are unable to
make. distinction between Auditor Clinton
and Mr.. Stoutemyer as to this transaction. We
feel certain that any practitioner of standing at
the bar OF New Orleans would have considere
himself amply COMPENSATED for the amount of
work done By Mr.. Stoutemyer In this case by q
fee Of sl000 We think there are gentlemen II
the louisiana bar VINO would have felt them
selves dishonored by touching a eingle dollar
OF the Charity Hospital funds. but on the con-
trary W. uld have laken pleasure III serving.
without fee or reward. the hospital in a case
such as that we have commented upon.
N. sIBILSKI. chairman, DEM
J. A. BLAtFER, DEM
NJ. MCAi PINE, tDem.J
\. VlDRINE. DEM
CHARLES UMMEL. (Dem)
A. b. LkVISEE, tRep.l
GRANT IHap