San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-06-16
ghe Daily Eight.
FRIDAY, JUNE 16, 1898.
SHORT STOPS.
What the People are Saying.


ing a general topic of discussion.
Few of the people care to burden
their brains with the technical
points connected with this ques-
ton, all they want to know is,
can we safely begin this import
ant and necessary work; have
we the means at hand to do it; is
there any law in heaven or on
earth against the people owning
and operating system of sewers
and water works.
That the proposition will meet
with strong opposition from the
present Waterworks company is to
be expected,-it is to their interest
to discourage the people by all
sorts of arguments, so that their
franchise may go on undisturbed.
The taxpayer will be made to
believe that the cost is beyond his
reach, although he is today taxed
to pay private water rates the most
OnerOus and extravaganza. BY the
city owning its own water supply
the taxpayer would save in cheap
er rates his tax and be indepen-
dent of private monopoly.
y
The people understand that their
city charter gives them undisput-
ed control over this question, and
every business man knows that
the moment the city undertakes
this work on it's own behalf the
Water Works company will be
glad to sue for terms; such has
been the history of cities under
like circumstances.
Eminent engineers have pro-
nounced our city most fortunately
situated for the building of sewers;
nature has provided a perfect
drainage = a swift, never failing
streams drains the valley and falls
seven hundred feet in a hundred
miles, affording perfect and safe
duct for the disposal of the sewer
age of as many cities as may
stand on its banks.
x
At present our city feeds the
river with sewela re in it's most
noXiOus condition and from the
most pOpulOus center. All the
valley drains its filth into the
river. A system of modern
sewerage would largely relieve our
river from it's present filthy condi-
ton.
No doubt the owners and parties
interested in the water works COM
pany will raise the objection that
the people living below the city
will object to sewers being emptied
into the river. The truth is, the
river is not used by the people for
domestic purposes.
If the river was the source of
supply for domestic purposes, the
only persons who could control the
use of the river are corporate COM
munities within their corporate
limits. Thousands of cattle drink
in the river and befoul it's waters
daily; the carcasses of dead ami
mails, and all the filth of the valley
is swept by the rainfall into the
channel, but swift running
stream, tumbling over falls, and
rushing with the speed of a racer
to the sea, purifies itself at every
dash of its waters over rocks and
into the air and sunlight.
There are but two ways of dis
posing of sewerage,-into natural
ducts, or water basins, or by sewer
farming or furnace. The sewer
farm would meet a more strenuous
opposition than any method that
could be suggested; it would be a
menace to the health of all the
country about, and to the city. 1t
would entail a great expense upon
the city, and require constant
expense and attention; be-;
sides, it is only admissible
in densely populated countries
where fertalizing material is at a
premium or where the dead level
of the land without streams, lakes
or sea afford no water escape.
What should be done is never
proposed, that is the people pro-
vide the city with the means to
ascertain just how this great pro-
ject shall be carried out before it is
begun.