The Opelousas courier. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1852-1910, 1899-01-07

tbs is a matter 'that addresses
itself to the Police jury Ie
appears to he a little shy anc
somewhat squeamish about
this outrageous raise, and though
he was swift enough CATER the
Jail became nearly empty) to come
to the rescue2of his friends, he
does not appear to have the heart
to defend or Justify this scan
dalous misappropriation.of pub
lie money. lie seems to be half
willing to condone it, however,
for he adds, in seeming cxplana-
tion of the motives of the Police
Jury, that ''it may be we'll to OBJ
serve that whether the sheriff re-
ceivcs 35 Or As cents from the
parish, he can not under any cir
cumstances receive more than
$500 per annum for each represent
tatiye in the House of Rcprescn-
tativcs, this to cover the Keeping
of prisoners, &c. SO that we
are to infer that in increasing
these fees, our parish Solons were
merely actuatcd by the laudable
and benevolent desire of trying to
keep the wolf from the Sheriff s
door by paying him every cent
that the Constitution and laws of
the country permitted them to
give him! And it does look that
way.
"Anti-Grumbler," whose nom
de pl,tute was doubtless adopted as
a reproach and a rebukc to me for
having put these questions to you,
after his unsatisfactory attempt at
answering them, breezily calls for
some harder ones. Here are q
few:
If this thing is permitted to
go Oh, how long will it be before
the fees are raised to several dol
lars per day, in order to reach
the maximum limit which our
Constitution, like the old ono,
fixes and allows-a limit beyond
which no parish, however small,
is allowed to go? And if it is not
checked, where is the relief to tho
tax payers which the new Con-
stitution was to- afford through
the prompt cmptying of the jails?
In other words, if the Police Jury
is to be cajoled Or dragooncd into
paying, by hook or crook, the full
$500 per representative which the
Constitution merely permits it to
pay,swhere, in the name of com
mon sense, will the relief afford
ed by prompt trials and empty
jalls come in?
Now, if the Sheriff Ga very
worthy man and capable officer,
be it said en- possanO, in spite of
a careful, prudent economical adj
ministration Of his, Office, was not
making Il decent living out of 1t,
there might be some slight ex-
cuse for thus straining a point to
favor him; but the fact is motor
ious that, while he was deeply in
debt when he was appointed, little
more than year ago, he is now
building himself Il new home
which it is said will cost $4,000 or
more. Now, | submit that Il sys-
TEN ora condition of things that
produces such results in these
days of general distress and de-
preston is radically wrong, and
should be instantly remedied in
stead of being aggravated. Put
on the brakes, | say!
In closing, ''Anti-Grumbler'
says that if the parish is allowing
the sheriff too much for feeding
prisoners & he seems to have some
misgivings about it, after ally, it
certainly is not the fault Of the
trainers of the Constitution.
Right you are, old man! The
Constitution is all right, and so
are the laws; it is the way they
are administered that makes
mischief. Won't you help to
have them properly administered
in the interest of the people
and not solely and altogether
in the interest of the office-hold-
ers?
In conclusion, / will ask a few
more questions. Why is it that,
with five mills more levied by the
parish for the last two years than
ever before on the property in
all the Incorporated towns, we
are still paying a large salary to a
fiscal agent? Do these heavy ad-
ditional taxes not yield a suffi-
cicnt revenue to place the parish
on cash basis? And if we can
not dispense with the fiscal agent,
why cannot we get along without
a parish treasurer? Why are
both needed? And if both are
needed, why pay the treasurer us
much as before we had fiscal
agent? Why is it that, with these
heavy additional taxes levied on
all the incorporated towns (Which
in Opelousas have run the rate Of
taxation up to the enormous sum
of 80 Z mills), the rate of parish
taxation has not been reduced 10
Z or 8 mills? Is it not because
the Police Jury is too liberal i'm