Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-06-10
WATER METERS IN HOTELS.
The Commissioners Suspend the Orders
Requiring Their Use After July 1.

acquiring Ineir l sc After July L.
WHAT COMMISSIONER DOUGLASS SAYS OF THE Ac-
TON OF THE BoARD-EE REVIEWS THE LEG
1sIArIoN IN REFERENCE TO WATER RENTS
HIS CONCLUSIONS.
The Commissioners this afternoon again
took up the subject of water meters, and after
some discussion issued the following order;
"All orders notifying residents of the Dis
trict to set water meters within their estab-
lishments before the LIST of July, 1889, are
hereby suspended"
VIEWS OF COMMISSIONER DOUGLASS
In conversation with STAR reporter upon
the subject to-day Commissioner Douglas said:
''TheCommissioners, in suspending the order TO
attach meters before July lst lSS9. have felt con-
strained to take action for several reasons As
you know the act of July II, 1870. provided that
the supply Of water to all manufacturing es-
adjustments, hotels, livery stables and other
places requiring a large quantity shall be de-
termined by meters erected and maintained at
the expense OF the consumer; and the proper
authorities shall charge and collect for the
quantity so determined a price not exceeding
cents per hundred gallons.
This act, said Mr.. Douglass, for some rea-
son has been allowed to remain dead letter for
nearly twenty years. Now. while the past fail
ure to enforce law is never of itself full
justification for present neglect, it ALWAYS is a
reason for the close examination of proposi-
ton to resurrect.
THE LAW OF 1879.
"The law stood as above under the act of
1870 until June 10, 1879, when the following
section became law:
BE it enacted, &C., That the Commissioners of
the District of Columbia shall have all the
powers and be subject to all the duties and linz
nations provided in chapter eight of
the Revised Statutes of the United
States relating to the District of Column
bia, excepting such powers and duties as belong
10 the chief OF engineers; provided that water
main taxes and water rents shall be uniform in
SAID District; and provided further, that the
rate OF interest specified in section 2O2 of said
Revised Statutes shall be increased to ten Der
centum per annum from and after the passage
OF this act.
UNIFORM RATES PROVIDED FOR.
'It will be noticed that the act provided that
water rents shall be uniform in the District
In pursuance of this act the Commissioners
ADOPTED, to take effect January 1. 1881. a
schedule OF water rates, in which some
places were taxed by specific sums for
car; Others so much per tub; others according
to stories and feet front; locomotives certain
sums Tor once or twice per day: hotels by the
PED or furnished ruoms; market-houses bv
Ssi0s pOAiSis per uOTst power: bIreet-WaSlerS
according to nozzle or tap and minutes before
shutdown; swimming baths &c, a meter nj Ten
cents per thousand gallons, &c.
1T Is a serious legal question" continued
MI: douglass. whether this multiform schedule
Is In accord with the proylso that ALI water
rents shall be uniform and the board have
feared, in an attempt to enforce this regula-
ton, deluge of litigation in the shape of in
functions, with consequent cost and vexation
to all concerned, instead of fuller supply of
water.
THE ACT OF 1882.
'Then came the act of July, 1882, as follows.
That hereafter the operations of the water de-
partment of the District of Columbia shall he
under the direction of the engineers Office Of
the District subject to the control of the Conn
mlssioners." This act simply in effect desig-
mated which Commissioner should primarily
have the water question in his department the
board controlling the whole question when
final action is to be had.
REPRESENTATIVE HEMPHILL's REPORT.
At the first session of the Fiftieth Congress
Cthe late one a bill was introduced in the House
to repeal so much of section 2lS as 'reouires
hotels to maintain meters" &c. The bill was
referred to the committee aud MIR. Hemphill
reported as follows:
The object of this bill is to repeal SO much
of section PIG of the Revised Statutes relating TO
the District of Columbia as requires hotels 10
erect and maintain meters to determine the
quantity OF water used. This section was
passed IN 1871, but has never been enforced
III the District. The Commissioners under an
thority given them by Congress- adopted a
schedule of annual water rates which virtually
abrogated the former law, and which have been
found satisfactory. As this law has never been
enforced, and as there has been no demand for
Its enforcement, your committee think il should
be repealed The Commissioners of the Dis
trlct see no objection 10 the passage OF this
bill. The committee therefore report the bill
back to the House and recommend that IL 40
pass
THE report" commented Mr.. Douglass
'shows that the committee were unanimously
OF the opinion that the act of June 10. 1879
under which the above schedule of rents was
made, virtually abrogated the former law.
The former law was the act of July IA, 1870
under which the order now suspended was is
sued. The House of Representatives unani-
mously passed the bill on this report and the
present board are seriously impressed with the
force Of the opinion TINS Endorsed by a branch
OF the law-making power.
CONCLUSIONS.
SIT will be observed that among the sched-
uled items above cited hotels are specially
rated at so much per bed, &C., this, under the
well-known rule Of Interpretation that a
special enumeration of q subject matter always
takes that subject out of a general one, of It.
self relieves the hotels from the meter
provision in the last paragraph of
te scneouie. 1hese embarrassments
about the meter question have convinced
the board that the better treatment of the
whole subject is to suspend proceedings and
refer the matter to Congress for solution,
The very able report of the Engineer Com
missioner heretofore published in The SrAR,"
SAID Mr.. Douglass, ''conclusively shows the
necessity for an early and authoritative soIu-
ton OF the matter in the interest of the indi-
vidual taxpayers and of the municipality"
At Charleston, W. Va, Saturday was cele-
brated as memorial day by ex-confederates who
decorated alike graves Of the blue and the gray.
Several Grand Army men joined them in the
exercises
Wichita, Kan, and vicinity were visited Fri
day by severe cyclone. A farmer named
Rogers and his family were killed, and many
others are hoyneless