The record-union., 1891-03-13
THE PUBLIC WELFARE.
What a Grand Levee Would Do for
CO. onto

What Grand Levee Would Do for
sacramento.
EDS. RECoRD-UNIoN: was asked to-
day what measure would be the most i'm
portant for the present and future well
fare of this city, and l replied without
hesitation, good levee system, so firm
and secure that it would last for all time
to come. This question is the most i'm
portant that ever has, or ever will come
before this people; all others sink into in
significance compared to it. The rivers
have been the great bugbears from the
city's birth, and ever will be while the
half measures of the past are continued.
What we want is a perfect, safe and Sc
cure levee-one that will withstand the
elements for centuries to come. This can
be done by commencing, say at the City
Cemetery, on the cross levee. Let it be
raised four feet; let the base be two
hundred feet wide, and the top, say
eighty feet wide, from the cemetery to
Front and Y street; from there to
Front street raise the levee six feet,
and the top ninety feet wide; from
there to the bridge raise the levee four
feet--it is wide enough now; from the
bridge to the Tivoli raise The leyee four
feet, with base two hundred feet,
and eighty to one hundred feet on top;
make the base two hundred feet and top
eighty feet-it is high enough. Now, If
needs be, and 1 should do it, rip-rap the
whole distance with Folsom granite
You then have a perfect levee system
for the next century. Letlt rain and pour,
you go to your homes with perfect securi-
ty. Property values viii increase three
fold Every paper in the State will make
note that Sacramento has made herself
absolutely free from this danger. Strang-
ers will then pour in upon us as never
before. Why should they not? Haven't
we climate that will compare with the
best in the world? Are we not the rail-
road center ofthis great State with fifty-six
trains arriving and leaving daily from all
points of the compass? Are we not sur
rounded for hundreds of miles with the
most fertile lands that the sun ever shown
upon? Have we not orchards and vine-
yards enough within fifty miles about us
to supply with the most luscious fruit
every State in this Union? Doesn't the
records of the State Medical Society show
sacramento city to be the healthiest ON
the Pacific slope?
This IS not all we can offer to the new
conner. Look at the immense water pow
er system that is about completed at Fol-
som. There is nothing like it in America,
and when completed it will make this
city the shipping point for the hundreds
of manufactures which will be in opera
ton there.
But the first question will be asked
what it will it cost to build such a leyee
as above described, and how will the
money be raised TO the first question
l will say that it matters not how much
it will cost; the money will all be spent
here. and the merchants who pay the
most taxes will get the most of it back
again. To the second question, it should
be raised by bonds, i'm the same way money
was raised during the past year for street
purposes. These bonds should run for
twenty years, say at 4 per cent, and my
word for it every dollar OF these bonds
could be disposed of in the East in less
than o month. What have we then? An