The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-12-25
IT IS ROTTEN TO THE CORE.
xLhRMIgG STATE OF PERJURY Ef-
 IsTS IN NEW ORLEANS.

 The Grand Jury startled by. Evidence
 sworn to Before It-Thoussnds of Dollars
 Never Reached the Treasury That Were
 Paid for Franchisos.
 New Orleans, Dec. A.-The grand jury which has been in continuous session for two months made its final report to- day. The report mentions the alarming extent to which wilful perjury has in- creased, the large sums squandered on the new court house and jail through jobbery or divided as spells, and the utter want of decency and self-respect manifested by indicted councilmen' and strongly condemns the mayor for not suspending them pending their trials. It dwells on the evidence of official cor ruption and recommends the closest scrutiny in the future in granting con tracts and franchises. The action Of inc police in the recent levee troubles is strongly condemned. The grand jury recommends that prize fighting or so- called s>6ve contests ought to De sum marIly Suppressed. In reference to per jury. the jury says:
 "Wilfui perjury for the purpose or shielding criminals Is either becoming more frequent or presenting more alarming stage, and unless checked by stern measures will soon become an or dinary method of hiding crimes and de- feating the infiiction of its penalties. Your jury has been startled by some ev- idence sworn to before tt-evidence which went far enough to satisfy us that we were hot on the trial of bribers, but that was 50 guarded and witnesses coached so as to stop just short of re- yealing the criminal and fixing on him the responsibility"
 In reference to municipal jobbery the report says: 1.-The bold sale or ofnciai votes for privileges which belong to the future as well as the present, the sworn evidence of licenses that councilmen in championing their Just and proper ap- plication for ordinances warned them that their passage was impossible un- less paid for; the unblushing effrontery with which citizens were waylaid in the hotel corridor to have dishonest pro posals made to them; the mysterious payment for franchises of hundreds and thousands of dollars which never reach ed the public treasury; the official fa- voritism which secures contracts to one and excludes another; the charging of extra fees by clerks in the mortgage and conveyance offices, and at the city hall in that part of the comptrolleTs office known as the tax. mortgage of fee, require but recital to show the degree to which official debauchery has gone, and we recommend an unrelent- ing war upon all such methods and the infliction of the severest penalty upon each exposed offender"
 On the subject of public contracts and franchises the report says:
 "The evidence of official corruption and individual and corporate greed go- ing hand-in-hand the one used to f1lch from the people their public assets, the aggrandizement of the other and the sworn testimony of citizens that the public treasury is not the first consid- eration when contracts are to be let or when franchises are sought, call for the righteous indignation of all honest men, and the closest scrutiny of the or dinances granting contracts and fran chises is recommended"
 Under the caption of Sunday Law violations' the jury says:
 "Your jury charges that a fertile source of crime Is the unclosed saloon, openly and persistently violating the law every Sunday"
 Referring to gambling, the report states that the jury is of the opinion that the gambling is carried on in the city to an alarming extent, notwith- standing the stringent laws against it. The jury believes that these gambling rooms are not unknown to the police, and that for reasons best known to them they allow places to continue to operate in open defiance of the law.