The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-06-01
DOUBTFUL IMPROVEMENTS.

0OOASA ~ ~ A1nL ~ v H02hN - .
TIE liability to freShets ON the Schuylkill has
Of late years been an ever increasing anxiety to
property -hslders and dwelisrs on that river.
This year any serious disaster was fortunately
escaped, bus such immunity cannot BE- calcu-
lated upon, and every recurring spring must
be expected to bring its season of insecurity
and peril This is partly the price We pay fer
position, and, with all the risks, Philadelphia
could lily afford to lose the incompatible ad-
vantages which the confluence of the Dela-
ware and the Schuyndll affords her over every
other American city. Philadelphia loves the
Schuylkill and values it, but she is also
little bit afraid of it. The placid sweep
of the river in August is a very different thing
from the angry boil and rush of March. Ex-
perieRce Of its power We have already had to
our cost, and it is very possible We may have
yet sterner evidences of it if the present
policy of waterside improvements is not in
some way modified. Public attention has not
until now been called to the serious enoroach-
ments being made upon the Schuylkill chan
mel at different points from the Wire Bridge
to below Gray's Ferry. These consist in the
building of wharves and embankments far
into the stream. At some points these works
appear to stretch halfway across the former
water surface. The Pennsylvania Company
seems to have set this perilous example. The
land the company has reclaimed and banked
in from the river makes an awkward bend in
the stream, and appears, to the eye at least, 10
constitute serious obstruction. With so
powerful q precedent set them, other COM
panies, as well as manufacturers and private
parties, have not scrupled to increase their
areas at the expense of the river, and trip
along the bank would individually surprise the
citizen who had aot visited the locality within
the last two years. To do every one justice,
it nust be stated that the parties to
these improvements claim to have built
only to the Port Wardens' line. How
the Port Wardens could have made
suoh an eccentric line as that which bounds
the Pennsylvania Company's wharf is not
clear, but we will suppose that they did COM
init that vagary, and that all these wharf
builders are within the letter of the law. The
questions will still arise:-Are they right in
such extreme action? and are they not
seriously imperilling life and property
on the river banks' There is grave
concern felt by people doing bust
ness and living on the river from Chestnut
street southwark, and dismal predictions are
made concerning the results of the next
freshet. The question is not easily decided,
but one thing 10 tolerably certain-either these
levees should not be raised at all, or they
should be made uniform throughout the city
limits. When water is hemmed in, after the
obstruction is passed the reaction carries it
as far beyond the natural limits as it had
previously been contracted. This is natural
law, and in times of exceptional commotion.
it is easy to imagine-or rather it is not easy
to imagine-the consequences. At pre- ssnt,.
parties who do not care to construct these
wharves, or who have no occasion for them,
are taken at great disadvantage. 4 chooses
to build wharf $50 feet long. Very we'll for
him if he can afford it, or has use
for it. But as neighbor, Mr.. B, does
not desire such an addition to his propsrty.
Straightway his land is deluged by the stream
sweeping around Mr.. AS breakwater. This
is, in a measure, the case even when the
water is the lowest. The element of fairness
seems somehow lacking in this matter. Pro-
perty of all kinds has its rights. The men
who improve the city, who attract commerce,
and tend to develop our interior resources,
are TO have their hands strengthened, of
course, but not surely at the expense of other
citizsns whose usefulness to the community
may be quite as considerable ir
other ways. The most equitable
manner of adjusting the trouble would be TO
have the city construct a uniform series of
wharves or levees from below the dam to the
Delaware. The distance is not great, and
the expense would certainly be made up in
the improvement of real estate and the con-
sequent tax returns. Until something of this
kind is done, we may expect individual enter
prise to strive and push ct the expense of its
neighbor.