San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-01-23
ghe 1ai1y Eight.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY. 20. 1889.
AN ADVANCE MOVEMENT.

the present incumberance in the
mayors chair went into Office four
years ago, very important changes
have been made in this city, but the
the city itself has had no part nor lot
therein. The San Antonio and
Arkansas Pass railway company has
pushed out from its center
in this city, and covered five
hundred miles of territory, but in
no movem ent made to aid that enter
prise has the city council shown
any sympathy with the improve
ment.
Train load after train load of
excursionists have come to this city
and been received; Denver has sent
her representatives; state and Ia
tional press associations have assem-
bled in this city; but upon what oc-
casion has the city been officially
represented by its head? If such oc-
casion there has been, it has escaped
the notice of the LIGHT. The city
council seem to take no more notice of
public matters, of public measures,
that is of private or corporate en-
terprises comprising the growth of
this city and vitality concerning
the public interests than if there was
no corporation called the city. Pri-
vate enterprise not only has no word
of encouragement, no recognition, no
endorsement at the hands of the mu-
nicipal body, but it has the dead
weight of that indifference to cary
and the utter incompetence of the city
council to take up and carry forward
such a system of municipal improve
ments as would at least place the city
on line with those public enterprises
by private capital which have mark
ed the beginning of a new era in the
history of this city so long dead in
inactiOn and senselesSness. In her
private enterprises San Antonio is a
quarter of century ahead of her mu-
nicipal progress, yet her private en-
terprises are in their infancy. An i'm
perative necessity exists for a change,
not alone in the personnel of the coun-
Gil and in the headship of the muni-
cipality, but in the very spirit and
design of the whole municipal bust
ness. The dead past is dead enough
and should be buried. A new order
of municipal work must be under
taken; new idea of municipal re-
sponsibility. The city must take its
true place or lose what place it has.
improvements must be projected on
plane commensurate with the
expectations of the city i'll the
future. Its growth and develop
ment must be intelligently forecast.
Give us another year.of prosperity, Sc
cure the legitimate results of our
northwest railway connections, our
international fair organization, our
university establishment, our deep
water improvements, our manufacture
ing industries so soon to open, and
what can we do with the increased
stream of business that will tide
through these streets. 1t is patent to
the most ordinary observation that
our present thOrOughfares cannot sup
ply an exit for this trade between the
plazas. The property Oh South Alamo
street opposite Market street must be
condemned, a bridge built over the
San Antonio river and Market street
connected with South Alamo. ST.
Mary's street needs to be widened and
a wagon bridge built over the river
there that communication can be more
directly had between Houston and
Commerce. Rapid transit by electric
motor all over the city is becoming a
necessity, and the cry for street and
,N1n in i'm tn nf
discomfort at the veXatiOus delay. A
true economy would refuse a single
square yard of paving until a system
of sewerage was established, for every
square yard of paving now laid will
have to be torn up to lay sewer pipes
within the next five years. 1t is idle
to speculate on sewer questions. This
city must have sewers and will have
them within five years, or it
will no longer. be the metropolis OF
southwest Texas. Why shut our
eyes to these plain facts. The inevi-
table is that which must surely come
and this is the inevitable. On the
eve of the municipal election it is wise
| and we'll to consider these things and
Intelligent thy provide for them by SO.
lecting as members of the city coun.
Gil men who by virtue of their own
interests and possessions in the city
are committed to an economical adj
ministration of its affairs. while al
the same time by their intelligence
and public spirit and insight int
municipal needs they are fitted t.
undertake and carry out such neces
sary measures of municipal improve
ment as the experience of all modern
as we'll as ancient city life has demon
strated to be indispensable. Common
sense in municipal affairs is all tina
| ia ueeded hut Unfortunately if has