Morning journal and courier., 1881-08-08
Monday Morning, August 8. 1881.
SHALL THE CITY BUY THE WATER
 WORKSF


 we'll qualified by training and experience to give an opinion concerning the advisability of the purchase of the waterworks by the city, sends us the following. It contains facts and differences which deserve the care full consideration of everybody who expects to vote upon the matter: There are in this country some five or six hundred cities and towns with general water supplies. The cost of supply varies consid- erably. In places where both water and power are obtainable in ample supply from a single source, water should be cheap. In proximity to large river, from which an ample supply may be pumped, the condi- ti0ns are also favorable. But if the supply has to be pumped and drawn from 8 source more remote, or elzed out from number of sources, the cost of mains, squeducts and reservoirs is considerably increased. With sufficient supply and sufficiently large mains, water should also be cheapened by the greatness of the demand.
 It may be of interest to New Haven peo- pie to know what is being paid by dwellers in other cities for their water, and some fair average examples are herewith cited, includ- ing the lowest rates with which the writer is familiar. In Springfield, Mass, one family in dwelling pays $S per year, in tene- ment, $6. In Providence, R. l., one family, using one faucet, pays $6, and for every extra faucet, g. In Burlington, Iowa, 8 is charged for tenement of three rooms In Lowell, Mass, 8 family of six persons pays $6, and above that 50 cents per person. In Concord, family of two pays $4, and each wash bowl is charged 50 cents extra. In Norwich, Ct., a family of five pays $5, and above that $1 per person. In Bangor, Me-, family of five persons pays $5, and above that $1 per person, and there is also @ charge of 50 cents for each wash bowl. In Portland, Me, family of four Is charged $10. In New London, Ct., family of five persons pays $5. In Salem, Mass, where the water system is very old, having been founded in 1797, family of four persons pays $3, and each extra person 50 cents. In St. Louis, Mo, house of fifteen rooms pays $11. Hotels are commonly charged per bed. Thus Lowell hotels pay $3.50 and Salem hotels $3 per bed and Providence hotels pay family and faucet rates, and an extra charge for beds. For private bath tubs, Springfield, Mass, pays $4; Providence, $3 Burlington, Ia., $1.50 to $2.5O; Troy, N. Y., $3 Concord, $3. In Troy, brewers pay cent to l cent per barrel brewed. In Springfield factories pay 50 to 75 cents per operative, and in Bur lington shop of ten hands pays $2.5O. For street sprinkling, Providence carts pay $6 to $12 per week. Concord pays $3 to $6 per hose, and $100 per year for stand-pipe for watering carts. Norwich pays .6 cents per lineal front foot, Troy $5 year for 5O-feet front; Portland, Me, $5 per hose, and in New London 2O-feet front pays $5 for sprinkling half way across the street. Man chester, N. H., pays $5 per thousand square feet, and St. Louis $1o per square watered by the carts.
 These examples might be multiplied indefi- nitely, but it will be seen what 6 variety pre- vails in the methods as well as in the amounts of rating Many of the places cited are much more favorably situated than New Haven for procuring cheap water supply, being located upon large rivers, and often upon power water-courses. The figures also do not al- ways tell the entire story. There is, in some cases, an additional tax, which makes it doubly interesting to the holders of small property and mortgaged estates, but which does not appear in the rates, although in Troy, N Y., where the rate per house is charged at $5.5O to the owner, $6.50 addi- tional is charged back against the city for each house, and collected in a general tax, a method of keeping accounts with ones self which may be unusual, but which is at least explicit. In Portland, Me, in addition to the charge of $10 for four persons, there is also water tax of $2 per $1, ,OoO assessment.
 Meter rates per 100 gallons range as fol- lows Springfield, Mass, to cents; St. Louis, II to 2 cents Providence,3 cents Concord, 1.35 cents to 21 cents; Norwich, Ct., cents Bangor, to cents Port land, Me-, 3 to 5 cents Salem, Mass, 1f to cents New London, II to 24 cents. The cost of water meters is so great relative to the water supplied small users that meter supply is usual only for large quantities.
 The writer has had more or less knowledge of public engineering works, and knows, even when accounts are most piously audited, how easily large sums can be allowed to flow away like water that runneth apace, leGUing Gttle more Man c bonded debt 6e1taad them. Works conducted on basis of ''politicaI' economy cost heavily, and before the people are aware of it the work which upon it's face ought, in the judgment of shrewd contractor or finan- cier, to yield fair income, involves so much needless expense that the income becomes insufficient, and debt is saddled upon the rate payers. To expect dozen city fathers, as some rather gratuitously advocate, to make themselves vicarious sacrifice by man. aging waterworks without profit or glory is chinerical and smacks strongly of Walpole's phrase relative to the gratitude of place ex- pectants being lively sense of future fa- vors
 The investigator will find many rich incl dents in the history of city water supply from the present back to 1855, when Hugh Myddleton built his famous board river to London town, and Lady Swinnerton was complained of for wasting gallons an hour. In Washington, D. O., the national Congress dabbles in water supply. Washington wastes more water than any other city in the coun- try, consuming about three times as much per capito as any other, so that with a great supply from the water courses that environ the city, water often fails to flow in the sec- ond story. A bill was proposed to give the common police ample powers to inspect and search for water waste on the part of prop. erty holders. and the writer was present at the discussion in the Senate. 'sFine them, D said Senator Edmunds, fine them I'd bring them before the police court and fine them heavily" The Senator, (who bears small favor from the citizens of the disfranchised district) had the floor at length to show how, under the bill, man could waste water 23 hours after being notified to stop the waste, and could then comply with the law by stop ping for an hour, after which he could go on wasting at his own sweet will. Senator Ingalls, took the floor for the purpose of say ing that. the bill appeared to contain "lapsats penstentie of twenty three hours' The rights of the householders were ehampioned by Senator Voorhees,, who wanted water as