The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1896-03-28
AtLeast So a Handful of
the Board of Trade
Says.
Mr.. GRAHAM'S SUGGESTION
He Thinks. a "Present" to the
City Authorities Would
Stir Them up.

tration scheme. Although everyone came
prepared to approve the scheme, as a
subsequent vote on the subject showed,
over two hours were consumed In the
usual Board Of Trade talk. The MEM
bers We're tardy in gathering. At eight
O'clock, the hour fixed for the meet
ing, onlys Mr.. Dear, Mr.. Alien Hazen.
the chief engineer of the scheme, and
William TAFT, the secretary of the Board,
We're all that were present. President
corcoran arrived next, and while wait
ing for a quorum, arranged the chairs
for the crowd that neverscame.
At half past eight there were in the
room Dr.. /. N, Quimby. Gustav Blair.
". J. Montgomery. E. A. Pyle, o. H.
Lcshen, Myron ]. Furst. o. f. Mount,
Henry v. Condict, Reuben simpson and
Financial Commissioner Detwiller,
Jacob Ringle. ex-AssemblymanDrak and
a few others came in at intervals dur
ing the discussion.
When President Corcoran called the
Saeeting to order and stated its object,
Mr.. Dear started the bali rolling by.
saying that he had received a letter
from the Street and Water Commits
sloners regretting that longer notice
was not given them, as they would like
to have put aside previous engagements
and be present. He also said that he
had a letter from Mayor Wanser, in
which he regretted his inability to be
present Mr.. Dear then briefly stated
the position as it occurred to him. He
isnew that the. great majority of the
people were. in favor of obtaining a
new water supply. But Jersey City had
a debt which was not growing smaller.
They had been playing many triekes with
the debt but it did not lessen. The city
had sinking fund commissioners which
everyone was convinced really tried to
do its duty. and had purchased bonds
to .spay of the debt, still the debt re-
maine at about SO, 900, 600. While the
tax rate had decreased from 291 to275.
everyone knewfsthe valuations had con-
stantly Increased. The city, was suf-
ferlng for the want of pure water, and
something would have to be done. The
city could not get along without puri-
fy:ng the present supply or procuring
a new supply.
Mr.. Dear then dwell at length upon
the various Pans for supplying the city
with pure water and finally arrived at
the conclusion that the city must put,
Up with filtration or secure q new supply
and increase the debt to a ruinous ex-
tent.
At the conclusion of Mr.. Bears re-
marks, Mr.. Myron Furst said that he
was glad to see members of the city
government, and he would like to hear
from Mr. Dstwiller and Simpson upon
the subject Of filtration. The silence
xrhInh ora ht-
ting exceedingly painful when Mr.. Dear.
came to the rescue and said that the.
meeting would like to hear from Mr..
Hazen. Mr.. Hazen replied that be did
not know. that he had anything toi4say
further than his report. He did mean
to say that the plan suggested In his
report was the best one that could be
suggested but that it was one which he
thought would do the. work. IF the
project recommended itself to the Board
Of Trade and the city authorities. and
it should be decided to go further he
would determine what would be best to
do. Mr.. Dear then invited Nj. Hazen.
to stand over by the secretary,s desk
and transform himself into a target for.
theS1nemberss to fire questions at. Mr..
Hazen obligingly complied with the re-
quest, and the questions came at him
thick and fast. ome OF the questions
were pertinent and to the point, while
others were as relevant to the question
in point as Was the old Morris county.
s~torekeeper. who, when asked If he had
any banjo strings, replied: mo; but
I've got some good ten-penny nails"
One thing was made as plain as day be.
fore Mr.. Hazen had proceeded very far
with his nswers and that was that
he was a very shrewd young man and
perfectly able to jump over any little
pItfall the members dug for him to
Mr. Condiet wanted to know if Mr..
Hazenss firm would take a contract to
pa9td the filters on his plan il adopted.
Mr.. Hazen promptly replied that his
firm would make no contracts.
You say in your report" continued
Mr.. Condict, fstiat you could filter the
Passaic wafer and make it good and pure uie
experimsnted with water polluted with
Mr.. Hazen replied that at Lawrence.
Massachusetts State Board Of Healt, in
experimenting with filtration. a small
sever ever oolineeflng with the main sewer
vas run INTO the experimental station.
From this unwnolesome sewage they OBJ
ant tasting water which Mr.. Hazenp said
he had frequently drank himself. What
had been done at Lawrence had been
Europe. ~
Mr.. Detwiller then took a. shot at the
target with this shaft. He said that sum-
Tner before last when the Paesaic was so
low and the water so bad he found little
growths In the water, could Mr.. Hazen's
se1eme destroy them:
Those srowths Mr.. Hazen replied, were
organ1sms which his filters destroyed.
as1ts as 9Tga1lsms s. ] hEoweyer he said were
siye to taste and smell.
Mr.; .Furst wanted to know If Mr.. Hazen
on the statement that the Passaic could
be purified and made sweet and whole
Yes replied Mr.. Hazen. III construct
ed upon the right plan I think it could
be made entirely satisfactory Mr..