Los Angeles daily herald., 1876-02-01
For the Common Council.

EDITOR HERALD :-Whatever opin-
ions a thinking mind may arrive at
they become the personal property Of
the individual who has thought for
them, and he has equally the same
right to defend them US he would any
other property he may possess, even if
the corporation of a city should at
tempt to steal them from him. Now,
Sir, have my opinion of the act au-
thorizing the corporation of the City
of Los Angeles to issue bonds for build
ing main public sewer, and also of
the ability of the existing Common
Council and their satellites to build
the sewer and spend the peoples mon
ey i'm a judicious manner.
WISH TO UNDERSTAND
that several of the present Council are
no novices, but rather tried old vete-
rams who have been off and on run
ming one municipal machinery for
years past, hence with your permis-
mission | will endeavor to prove their
future proceedings by what they have
already done, which every candid
mind will admit to he IL fair test.
Without noticing overilowing ses-
pools which, after filling the district
of their location with offensive and
obnoxious stencil and then abandoned
with many thousand feet of lumber
buried in them, l will begin with
what is called "the Los Angeles
Main Sewer. Now
THIS MASTERPIECE
of Los Angeles municipal engineering
was commenced upon as recently as
four years ago last Summer on Los
Angeles street. The exact size Of it
do not remember, hut L know that ii
is remarkably small and built with
lumber, but if you should happen to
60 from Main street down First and
turn to your right at the first corner
you can see the top boards of ituncov-
cred for considerable distance. If
curiosity should lead you to follow its
course a little further you will find
that they have changed their plan of
operation and built it with brick two
feet wide by fifteen inches high, with
fiat bottom and wooden cover to
cap the whole. Now
THIS SEWER
has been carried forward from time to
time in consequence of its insalubrious
effect upon the sanitary condition of
the unfortunate ones who lived within
the boundary of its mouth, and time
can only prove where it will stop. But
this We know we have it now under
water with upwards of five feet of
earth in front of it, dancing to the
tune Of sixty dollars q month with
the taxpayers left to pay the water.
Now word or two on the Main
street sewer, which discharges Itself
into the above one. If / am allowed
an opinion, l must say that even this,
after the expense of many thousands
of dollars to the property owners, will
ultimately prove another failure. Did
it never strike the Common Council
and the advisers, that a sewer of such
small dimensions as three feet by two
feet will soon be choked up by the
amount of filth it is expected to carry
away? But they have
A MANHoLE.
Every fourteen hundred feet apart.
Yes, and / should like to know what
they are for? Do they imagine that
they will find some one foolish enough
to descend them and go through the
sewer to clean it? Surely the attempt
would be suicide. If they had a man
hole on the corner OF each block with
a stencil trap at the bottom, about six
feet below the sewer to catch the sedi-
ment, they would have better chance
of keeping it open by occasionally
emptying these as they filled, which
they could easily do with windlass.
L once commenced to suggest the
above plan to one of our city function
aries, but / did not get many words in
before | was stopped with the asser-
ton that they had arrived at better
system of sewerage than what they
had in any of the old countries. Sure
ly If the Los Angeles plan is a sample
of it, pity the old countries. Now,
that we want a better system of sew
erage is lamentable fact, but at the
same time we want far more compe-
tent and practical men to carry it out
than we so far have had. The first
section of the above act goes to say
that the main public sewer is to he
constructed of such dimensions and
materials and in such manner as
THE COMMON COUNCIL
Shall determine to be best. But the
Common Council have determined
all their failures in cesspooIs sewerage
and street grading to be best, yet their
work nrOvas the fact that all thax,
have done is simply recklessly squan-
dering money which was not their
own. In conclusion / beg to inform
the Taxpayers that the above act is
not yet law, as the Legislative Assem-
bly, are waiting. to hear the voice of
the people before they will pass it. I
am informed that petit OF is going
around, and all have to say ABOUT iJ
is, let US think before we act. The
sum of $3.50, 900 is great amount to
spend without judgment. ~.
Yours truly, r. HUGHES.
Los Angeles. Ja.. 31. 1876