St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1909-02-06
THE DIVISION OF The
PARISH OF ST. LANDRY
Inequality 81 ihs Scheme As SCI Forth 70 The
legislature BY Dir. TAos. ]. Lewis.
EXPENSE and INJUSTICE
Parish Win Ravs 5i5 Niles Of Habltabls
aad CaEtiVabIs TeFFltog In Excess
Of Old Parish.

Now that the question of the
parish of st. Landry and the crea-
ton of the new parish of Evangeline
is but two months off, it is but fair
to the voters Of the entire parish as
now constituted that they should be
afforded all the light possible on the
subject, with a view that they will
be enabled to cast an intelligent
ballot.
The question would have been a
grave one even had two prominent
objections standing giant-like against
division been eliminated--the ques-
ton Of the inequality Of the territory
To Be embraced in the respective
parishes and the question Of the,
most probable, raising of taxation in
order to meet the consequent ex-
penses TO the two sections to be dis
membered which will be entaiIed BY.
first, the old parish, which, it is said,
will have to give the new parish a
consideration of half the public i'm
p~royenents at the county seat; and,
second, BY the new parish, which will
have to tax itself for the building OF
it's courthouse and Jail las the money
to be paid it by the old parish, il
such is law, will be in sufficient to start
the young parish to housekeeping for
itself.) This leaves out the additional
money that will be required the new
parish for salaries of officers, etc.
The first reason, however, seems to
be most startlingly against the pro-
posed division. The Remembering Of
ain old parish like SC. Landry, the
banner parish Of the State, is bad
enough under any circumstances, but
to leave it with only All square
miles Of cultivable and inhabitable
territory, which is to be necessarily
heavily taxed for the maintenance Of
the other non-producing territory,
seems to be beyond reason.
Mr.. Thos. Fl. Lewis, upon his re-
turn from Baton Rouge after the
last session of che Legislature, where
be had been sent to endeayor to pre-
sent to the members of the Legis-
lature the Objectionable features of
the proposed division move, partieu-
larly the matter of the lines, made d
report to a meeting held at the court
house in 0pelousas. This report
covers the matter SO thoroughly that
we reproduce it in order to throw
light on the subject.
The report in full is as follows:
TO the Members of the 0pelousas
Protective Association.
This meeting has been called in
order to receive a report as to the
steps taken to forward the purposes
Of this organization, and as TO che
present situation of the question of
the division of the parish. The OBJ
ject Of this organization was stated
at the outset TO Be TO protect and
safeguard the interests and welfare
Of the inhabitants who will remain in
the old parish in case of division, in
the matter of locating the proposed
line of division in any enabling act
which the friends and promoters Of
The proposed new parish may intro
duce in the Legislature have
kept that purpose strictly in view
and have departed from it in no in
stance. | have made several visits to
She capita, have had frequent in
teryiews with members Of the House
and of the Senate, have given out a
number of interviews to the press
and published communications over
my signature, and have confined all
Of my efforts strictly to the point Of
e%ndeayoring to get the Legislature to
adopt in the enabling act a line of
division that, while giving to the new
parish ample territory and popula-
tion, would work the least possible
harm to the old parish.
Our just complaint was that the
liae adopted in the enabling act IN
PRODUCED il the House b. Represent
tative ?. + Fontenot, was unjust and
negotiable, and unnecessarily SO, III
that II took from the old parish much
more than the required population,
and eighty square miles of territory
ia excess of the territorial area re-
BY the Constitution FOR the
creation Ut q new parish. We fur