The record-union., 1894-05-17
EVERY MAN TO HIS PROFESSION.
Engineer Newbery Takes the Physi-
clans to Task.
He Has Something to Say on the Ques-
tion of Sewerage, as Applied
TO This City.

EDS. RECoRD-UNIoN: The files o.
Sacramento papers which have recently
come to hand have proved to me tha
public interest is still alive on the sewer
age question. Every good man who i:
true to the best interests of the city O
Sacramento will surely hope that the
feeling will spread until something shal
be done to improve the sanitary status o
the city. To accomplish this end one
thing is certain, tina. money will have tC
be spent, and in all probability good
deal of it. This is no new obligation or
the part of the city; it is a debt which has
been owing for more than twenty years
and i'll default of meeting it has no doub
been the cause of very many deaths anC
very much sickness.
The negligence of the past on the pari
of the officials charged with looking after
the sewerage and also the Board of Health
has been criminal. Money has been spent
recklessly by local charlatans on the
patchwork system OF sewers, and the
citizens have been cheated into the belief
that something was being done to relieve
their unsanitary condition. No howl
was ever raised by any of the men who
thing is evidently now going on out Of
the common order of procedure. The
augean stable is now going to be locked
up they say, so that the horse cannot he
stolen.
The remedy is as bad as the disease. as
the poor horse and his attendants are
likely 10 die i'll their unsanitary quarters
Hail the happy day when the whole Of
the citizens OF Sacramento will resolve
han lxTal M n Loo fNf' nrln RI
see that no contractor gets a dollar for
fifty cents worth of work, and that nc
engineer sets the contractor to do useless
work.
''In the multitude of councillors there
is WISDOM" we are told, but no mention
is made of the important fact that the
councillors aforesaid should understand
the things they talk about! If they dc
not, there would be no wisdom in mill
ion OF them. The lawyers are fond oi
quoting the truism that 1.-THE man who is
his own lawyer has a fool for client"
I ou will find it amounts to the same
thing when persons following the pro-
teSsion of the healing art, the practice
surgery, etc., undertake to instruct en-
gineers in the practice OF engineering.
Why should a jury of these persons sit
as commission 10 determine the merits
OF schemes and plans OF which they
Of persons drawn from any other pro-
fession or business pursuit? Does a
doctor, by reason of his supposed ac-
quirementS in the liberal sciences, know
more about sewerage than an engineer,
architect, builder, lawyer, contractor,
machinist, merchant or private gentle
man of liberal education? Can it be
proven that Board of Health composed
of doctors is likely to render better serv-
up from the ranks OF other professions oil
even gentlemen without any profession !
But supposng jury of doctors should
disagree regarding the choice OF plans
the allopath, the homeopath, the eclectic
the curer by prayer and the laying on o1
hands, etc. tthe one knows as much about
sewerage as the other), then the multi
tude of engineers plans submitted &c
them on behalf OF the citizens Of Sacra-
mento would surely come to grief.
The Trustees of the city of Sacramento
know better than to part with their dele
gated trust in any such manner. TC
SANDER them and talk of a job in connec-
ton with the sewerage scheme will
promptly meet with the condemnation il
deserves.
You have plan now on file which has
cost the city about 500, approved by the
highest engineering authority in America
on this particular subject; further sup
ported by other valuable testimony from
engineers competent to discuss these
matters.
Ii the taxpayers are now willing tc
offer a premium for the best system O.
sewerage for the city of Sacramento,
shall be pleased to resubmit these, my
plans, in competition with any which
may be offered.
FRED. I. NEwBERY, Civil Engineer.
San Francisco, May 10Th.