The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1881-08-07
THE WATER SUPPLY QUESTION.

|
The subject of water, that essential mate
rial of which nearly eighty per cent. of
mans body is made up and which cons'i-
tutes over ninety per cent of the blood that
flows through his veins, and near eighty. FIVE
per cent of the food that sustsins him, is
certainly ore that, in sanitary point of
view Alone. ught to enlist his attention and
his earliest and closest care Wherefore it
is that we find the Romans with their mag
nihcent aqueducts and reservoirs furnishing
as much as three hundred gallons per day
each to the citizens, healthy old Constsntin.
ople acting with an equally lavish liberality,
while the leading town, of tho middle ages
gloried in their stupendOus water structures,
the wonderful triumphs Of the engineering
ability which thus kept them clean and
healthy. And hence 1T is that to-day ii is
with every city in the realm of civilization an
object of the chiefest, promptest concern.
With population, come thickening
buildings, polluted soils, and at
mospheres loaded with the gases
that erude from masses of filthy and decay
ing matter, epidemics, that hang upon the
skirts of death and beckon to the undertaken
and grave digger. Beyond this view, the
faucet and the pipe are leading induces of the
progress of city. When in plentiful sup
ply we rate its enlightenment in correspond
ing height, for there we may feel assured shat
the baby in the nursery, the lady in her
boudoir, the domestic in the kitchen, the man
in his bsth, the servant in the lsundrymsy be
enabled to do ample justice to that admitted
precept that cleanliness is next to ..godli.
ness." There, too, we may conclude it is or
may become the lively home Of manufacture
ing prosperity, the resultant product of the
work of steam in all its infnity of uses.
There TOO is the place where tho lurid flames
OF the hungry fre fend can make but small
Roadway against the efforts of its liquid
master. For these reasons and
many others, this entire city
has felt deep interest in the depriva-
ton of water to which they have recent.
" been subjected, and in the progress that
has been made toward a settlement of q
cOn,cstation between the Water Works
Company Of this city and some of the coun.
Gil. We took occasion in yesterday mornings
issue TO publish the report of Mayor
Crowdus TO the council in tho matter of the
question he had been sent west to uve,ti, |
gate. The mayor seems 10 have made the |
most of the time be consumed, and has re,
turned with mass of information at once
creditsble to his diligence, his zssl and his
Judgment. The result of his visit has con-
drmed the view the HERALD took at the
outset, viz: That whenever at all possible,
city should own the water works. He also
reports that in the thirteen cities he visited,
pesco, harmony and good will pro,
sailed between the private water corporations
and their city and private consumers, but
two, which we're discussing tho question Of
rates and supply, otherwise all was work,
ING worry Satisfactorily Blu. the mayor also
holds to the opinion tina! If a private corpor-
alton would furnish an abundant supply at
reasonable rates, Dallas In her present condi-
ton, had best rent. This almost goes with.
outsaying, and is.a commonplace generality
advancing the solution of pend.
ing questions about as much az ifone were 10
pry the world moyes because II doesn't stand
ELL The question at Issue is this, will the
water works company changing
br city reasonable rates and Furnishing sui.
1ciCn, supply In this the mayor ealight>
els us no, one whit aud this Is wha, was
chiefly to have been expected Of him. We
wish light BY comparison and We get only a
proposition universally conceded before DO
svsr ,coka atop beyond the limits Of this oily