The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-05-28

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that I don't count In these. This COM
pany got a permanent right to the use
of the water power of the Passa.c along
in the early part of the century. ! don't
know what it mounts to, and it don't
make any difference. anyway. There's no
use going into these details. The result
Of 1t was that when the water companies
started with their patent options and
wind the cfty's troubles began. The next
time the citizens agitated for a water
supply, a lot Of water companies offered
to supply it. Then the cranlSs who
didn't trust the city officials yelled "Brib-
cry! bribery! That killed It. The x
the citizens agitated for a supply
on their own hook, and one Of the water
companies and the cranks yelled JOB!
jobr killed it. IA newspaper agi-
tated the next time, and sad that it had
investigated the claims of one company.
and apparently that ompan could sup
ply the city with water. Then all the
other companies and ranks yelled,
They've bought the newspaper So the
newspaper quit %agitatin'.
We'll, to make a long story short, this
thing has been ON on for twenty years,
and getting worse every year, Water
companies a got to be thicker than
mosquitoes. They nearly all have the
same sort of options IN the same land.
They have people hired to listen and to
agitate. When anybody says water like
you did and any of these people hear IT
they find out whether the man who says
1T favors the city's getting a supply of its
own. If he does they hound him. They
all yell sJobr They say he's been hired
by the d~isreputable politicians. or he's got
a swamp he wants to sell. They black
guard him. call him a thief, and every
thing"
Wei, why don't he get the law on
hemp" demanded the New Yorker with
indignation.
"Why?" repeated the Jerseyman. why?
Why, just because there's been so much
of this damn talk that more than two
thirds of the people believe that anybody
who say water is a thief
What do the water companies do when
anybody ak about getting water from
a ~company?'
"Well, they wait until the city officials
pick out the company. Then all the
Others pitch in and yell Bribery. Brib-
eryi, They swear that the Commmis
s.oners got $780, 900 each or $500, 900 each, or
something like that. And the cranks
always help them out"
Don't the officials sue'em?" asked the
New Yorker.
"Sue?" said the Jerseyman, stwho are
they going to sue? These people dom
come right out and say it. They rumor
it and you never can trace the rumor.
It's the same way with the newspaper.
When a newspaper ventures an opinion
about the water, somebody must have
been around that morning and bought
the editor. I tell you it's simply sheol!
Everybody looks at every body else with
suspicion. Neighbor against %neighbor.
father against son-every body wants
water, but everybody believes that if
anybody else says SO he's corrupt. He's
worse than a thief. He's a social out
cast. I'm telling you the truth. I've
lived here and I know. / wouldn't any
more think of telling my neighbor what
I've told you. though, than I would of
flying. though he knows it true, and
would probably tell you the same if he
had you alone as I have. Why, if l
talked to him like that it would mean
social ostracism. My family would be
insulted. My children would be pointed
at in the street"
How about the water? Has it i'm
proved any?' asked the New Yorker.
'tBetter!' shouted the J~erseyman, for
getting himself a moment, "betterg'
and tested the waste pipe plugs again.
Then he grew eloquent as he proceeded
in whispers;
Jersey City's water is polluted witt
the sewage of one city as large and
a dozen smaller than herself, polluted
by poisonous refuse from a hundred
factories, polluted with oil, polluted
with the filth and refuse from slaughter
houses, polluted with the poison dye
stuffs, with the filth of a collection OF
hog pens, with the drainage from three
cemeteries. Drawn from the natural
sewer of a district with a population
bordering on 100000 people, this water
is polluted by all manner of things, both
living and dead. The amount of
excreta, solid and fluid, of 100000 persons
is not over estimated at 100000 pounds
every twenty-four hours; 1850, 900 pounds
| of excreta goes daily into the supply of
! Passaic water, nearly 200 1000 tons a year.
| Add to this all decayable and fermented
| matter. all laundry and utensil wash,
all pollution Of water as used, all the
| refuse of slaughter houses, of factories.
1 of offensive trades, of all those compli-
| cations made by disease and by the stor-
| age of foulness and consequent multi
| plications of risk, and the aggregate.
| befoulment is what is give to Jersey
City to drink. Fish can't live in it;
some cattle won't drink it,"
The Jerseyman paused for breath
Then he went on:
I'm twenty years there has been a
| steady increase In the source OF pollution.
| Patterson from a CITY OF 4J,UUU- mas grown
to a city of nearly so, 900 people. and has
forty miles of sewerage. Passaic, from
a city of 5000, has grown to a city of
nearly 10000 and has a great system of
| sewerage. Newark, from a city of $780,
600, has grown to nearly 100000. Twenty
| years ago the Third River was a peace
full and pure tributary to the Passaic.
to-day it bears to the river the refuse OF
factory after factory, as well as all the
age of the villages along is banks.
| Twenty years ago the Second River. also
was a pure trealn; to-day it brings down
the sewage of Orange. Bloomfield and
| other towns and the refuse of numbers
of factories and en1pties it about a quar-
ter of a mile below the Jersey City in
take. 1t is a demonstrable fact that to-
In the Jersey City drinking water is sew
| age. There is more than a teaspoonfu1
| to every portion that flows. into the re
| ~servoir; % ,000,0 900 ~teaspoonfuls of filth is
consumed every day by this city, with a
population of less than 200, 900 people
He stopped again, evidently overcome
| with emotion.
Pardon me-, he said, when he re-
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