of the Hibernia, Interstate and
Whitney-Central banks of New Orleans, the William R. Compton Investment
Company of St. Louis, and the Halsey, Stuart Company of Chicago, agreed
to take the entire issue. The bonds were to run 40 years and begin to
mature serially after 10 years. They were to bear 5 per cent interest,
and to be sold at 95. They would be secured by a mortgage on the real
estate of the canal site, and by the taxing powers of the state, for
they were a recognized state obligation, as Arthur McGuirk, special
counsel of the Dock Board, pointed out in his opinion of July 10, 1918.

He added: "I am likewise of opinion that said bonds are unaffected by
any limitations upon the state debt, or upon the rate of taxation for
public purposes; that the said bonds are entitled to be paid out of the
general funds, or by the exercise of the power of taxation insofar as
the revenues, funds or property preferentially pledged or mortgaged to
secure said issue may fail, or be insufficient, to pay the same."

The following sat with the Dock Board and its attorneys at the meeting
of February 22: Mayor Behrman, J. D. Hill of the Public Belt Railroad,
R. S. Hecht, president of the Hibernia Bank, J. D. O'Keefe,
vice-president of the Whitney-Central Bank, C. G. Reeves,
vice-president of the Interstate Bank, W. R. Compton of the Compton
Investment Company, H. L. Stuart of Halsey, Stuart and Company, W. J.
Hardee, city engineer, and Hampton Reynolds, contractor.

The selection of the site was left, by the state law, to the commission
council. There were a number of possible routes, and the selection was
made with the utmost secrecy to prevent real estate profiteering. At
first the area bounded by France and Reynes streets was chosen. This
was on February 28. On May 9, however, the site was changed to the area
bounded by France and Lizardi streets, north from the Mississippi River
to Florida Walk, thence to Lake Pontchartrain. This is a virtually
uninhabited region in the Third District, through the old Ursulines
tract. The site chosen for expropriation is five and a third miles long
by 2,200 feet wide, 897 acres.

For this land the Dock Board paid $1,493,532.24, which is at the rate
of $1,665 an acre. The valuation was reached by expropriation
proceedings.

In the meantime, Commodore Ernest Lee Jahncke had asked to be allotted
the first site on the Industrial Canal, and Doullut & Williams for the
second. Both were for shipyards.