The morning times., 1895-09-29
PAYING THE WATER BILL
Some Citizens Shirk Their Duty
If Not Prevented.
PRACTICE PETTY DECEPTION
incidents, Amusing and Otherwise,
That Show the Difficulty the Water
Department Has in Collecting the
Observation-Disclosures Collectors.
Tenants Are Responsible

washington's water supply and its proper
regulation is one of the many perplexing
things with which the District Engineer
Department has to contend, and contact
with the whims and pccularities OF the
thousands of consumers forms an enter
tanning incidental to the condition with
which the executive officer of the law is
confr onted.
The water system of the District has
grown into vast machine from com
paratively modest beginning. As origi-
nally devised, 1t was wholly under the
controlof the United States government, and
designed for its exclusive use, but several
decades ago, first by concession and then
by transfer, the municipal authorities OBJ
tained an interest in it, and Potomac
fluid became a merchantable commodity.
Ii also lapsed into an exceedingly dufi-
cult system to administer, requiring the
constant supervision of the District rep
rcsentatives.
The washington citizen is in the main
an ordinary human, under more or less
restraint, with intellectual endowment and
moral scruples fully up to the general requl-
sites. He averages well with bis neighbors
of other municipalities, and orders his life
by a code as strict in its provisions and
discipline as can be found elsewhere. Yet
there is in bis animal makeup Il fair pro-
portion of theuri.inal biped, yclept the "old
Adam"
Not a few possess the inclination and
manifest the, desire to keep eyen' with
"the government" if not little ahead,
and the smallest injustice is accepted as
the basis of the up-to-date Interpretation
and applica ton of the SCriptural admoni-
ton: with what measure ye metc," so
shall to you be tie measurement several
times multiplied.
NO HARM TO DEFRAUD.
Nowhere else is this disposition more
manifest than in the public conception OF
the modern "Mr. Lnlyvick," who sue
1eeds to the office of collector of the
Eater rates. Air is free, and that the
rains which descend from heaven should
be is a deep seated conviction in the
minds OF many, who likewise harbor the
thought that it is no harm at all to beat
the government.
The walls of the water office, had they
one tongue, or a dozen, could make many
q startling revelation. Their contribution
to current sensation might treat alone OF
the many schemes, some preconceived and
others adopted upon "the spur of the
moment" whereby the objects of the law
are temporarily If not permanently de-
feated. 1t is in many, If not alarge majority
of the cases, through no intention to de-
fraud; but in the end the department is
the loser.
A few instances, obtained by inquiry
and observation, VIII serve to Illustrate
the point.
In the very busiest hour of the day, and
in the midst of the busiest season Of the
year a citizen calls to pay his water rent.
He or she has not brought the bill along,
but 1.-The clerk will know" The number
of the house, the street and location are
given, and the bill is hastily made out.
Clerks in the water office are not infal-
ubIe, and the amount of the bill is erro-
neously stated.
Should it be in favor of the taxpayer
as, for example, No. 500, on a street in the
northwest is mistaken for the same num-
Der and streetin the southeast, and the latter
place is liable to a heavier rate than the
other; the money is paid without comment,
and the northwest patron hurries away
without giving ulsTeCelpG 50 inuCli as d ulo-
ment's inspection.
1t calls for several dollars less than he has
been accustomed to pay, and he inwardly ex-
presses qualification and shakes hands with
himself over bis good fortune without really
knowing He doesn't feel very comfortable,
but he has paid less water tax than he did
last year, and the year before and the year
before that. He doesn't care to know why.
The mistake is discovered after while
1t nearly always is-and the patron then
expresses the wonder he felt when the bill
was paid and forks over the difference not
unwillingly, but half regretfully; yet he
meant to be strictly honest about it.
1t is not possible nor is il ever expected
that the tax of every householder, owner,
or tenant, as the case may be, will be paid
ever to Collector Davis on the day all bills
are due. They are payable on the first
day of July in each year, and many that
were payable last July are still delin-
iuent.
Here is a source of no small loss to the
District. Under Justice Bradley's de-
cision in the Goddard case the municipality
must look to the tenant or the consumer for
its compensation for water supplied, and
should the government fail 10 collect the
tax when due, it does so at its own risk.
A tenant does not pay promptly, and in