Birmingham age-herald., 1895-06-01
THE WATER QUESTION
Thoroughly Reviewed by Prominent Citizens. The Water Companys Proposition
 Strenuously Opposed.

and representative meeting of some of the best business and real estate men in the city.
 The meeting was one which showed that the men were in earnest and in tended to accomplish that which they had come there to do.
 Mr T. F. Johnston was named as chairman and the reporters of the Age Herald and State were designated as secretaries.
 MT. Dunlap stated the purpose of the meeting which was to take steps for preventing the "diabolical plot which was being formulated by the water com pany from being carried out by the mayor and aldermen,a and that some steps should be taken to arouse the sentiment of the public and open their eyes to the attempted Legislation, which was ostensi- by for the benefit of the city, but which a very little investigation showed to be clever plot of the water company. He wanted the sentiment of the public so emphatically demonstrated to the mayor and aldermen that they did not wish to apparently be benefited five years and suffer eighteen years that the alder men would not dare pass such an ob- noxious law. He called upon MT. Motion to read an extract from the Age-Herald. which was published in that paper in December 1893, in which this same fight the minimum rate-was taken up by Dr. Smith and which was decided in the supreme court against the water com pany, and having lost their case there they are in very shrewd way trying to make a new contract, in which an entering wedge is inserted that will act as oppression to consumers for years to come.
 MT. Motion said that the main point of the water company is to defeat the decision of the supreme court in favor Of Dr. Smith, where he claims they went outside of their contract to sell water to store houses other than domestic prop erty while the ostensible object is to stop waste by putting in a meter. The supreme court has decided they could not charge according to this regulation, but according to the contract in the char ter with the city, which was at the max imum rate of 30 cents per 1000 gallons. When the maximum quantity exceeds the quantity they would charge more; when the quantity was less than allowed the company made no reduction. This is unfair and this is the contention of Dr. Smith, which the supreme court has decided in his favor. It was not pr. Smiths fight but the peoples fight, and the people should help him.
 MT. Motion contended that MT. Lon don and the water company had stated some things that were not true, one of them being the statement that the people wasted all the water. The Waer com pany wasted more than any one else. Their mains are leaking everywhere. They were put in twenty years ago to stand a pressure of forty-fve pounds, and now they are carrying ninety pounds. It is easy to see what the re- suit is
 Mir Lane was called upon, and said that in his opinion 1t is a strange thing for citizens to be called upon to protest xxhfo oh tC Gn ly false as this one; that he could not see how the board of aldermen could even for a moment entertain such a proposi- ton. MT. Lane opposed metres entirely in residences saying that cleanliness was next to godliness, and one could not have cleanliness without water. He was proud of the fact that the people of Birmingham liked water. and did not think they wasted more than other cities of like size. AS mayor of the city he. had many opportunities to witness the out 1ageous charges made by the water com pany and when thein attention was called to the matter they would invaria- bly, reply that some of the fixtures were leaking, and, regardless of the fact that the fixtures were in perfect order, they would pile on their enormous bills. Mir. Lane said that our present contract with the water company was all right and, if allowed to put metres in all the houses every man there would live to regret it. They made their contract with the city with a full knowledge of the obligations entered into and now they wanted to blind the people by throwing five years free water to the city and getting an everlasting hold of the people by the act
 MT. Bailey said if the city will be bene- f1ted for the first five years, what will become of the city for the next eighteen years? Who will be benefited then? At present they have inspectors on bicy- cle, and if there is leak of only the slightest drip the water is cut off of the entire premises, but if there is metre the pipes may burst wide open, and no attention is paid to it. They claim that they are furnishing water at cents per 1000 gallons. If it costs them cents they ought to make money selling it at 30 cents.
 MT. Webb was called upon and made < most concise statement of the water works proposition. He scored 1t right and left and showed that in it's watered stock, of which they made statement under oath three years ago. when they wanted to issue bonds, they were earn ing per cent on the sum of $1, 309, 500. .63 as follows: Total cost, $1, 3O9, 600. .63; in- terest at 6 per cent, $7S,57O gross total income from April 1, 1891, to March 31, 1892, $11S.32S (of this $100, 0,574.84 came from private conSumers); cost of operating s42. .504.20. Net income, $76,32S or about per cent on total cost
 MT. w. B. Leedy stated that the strongest argument against the propo- sition was the fact that the water com pany favored 1t, and moved that an or ganizatfon be formed and that the chairman appoint a committee of three. who shall in turn appoint three mem bers from each ward to present peti- tions to the members of their wards asking the council not to sign the agree ment with the company the work to be- gin at once, as the council meets next "Wednesday night The chairman ap- pointed the following: Messrs. Lane Graves and Motion, who will proceed to draw up resolutions and petitions against the measure
 The press Of the city was requested