St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-02
THE OUNCE OF PREVENTION.

The people of Duluth are rightly ex-
erclsed over the impurities which they
| have discovered In their water supply,
and the consequent danger and dam
age to human health. The feeling
| against the water company runs so
high that an effort is being made to
| declare it's franchise forfeited, and to
have the city take possession of the
property. What is then contemplated
is to extend the intake pipe to a great
er distance, cleanse all the MAINS and
so remove the most serious Of the
present objections. This is praise
worthy enough as far as it goes; but.
costly pound of cure which it is our
short-sighted habit to purchase, in
stead of the unfailing ounce of preven-
ton. Modern science has solved the
problem Of a pure water supply. That
solution does not lie in any attempt,
however painstaking and elaborate it
may be, to resort to source where
water can be found from which all i'm
purity is absent 1t is seldom or never
that this can be done. When it is ac-
complished, new cause of pollution
may arise at any time in the future
attended by all the old evils and re-
quiring an equally expensive remedy
to be applied again and again. Chi
cago, for example, has built its great
tunnel out into the lake, pushed 1t fur
thPr and fnrthor ifry,e
ton increased, under the waves Of
Lake Michigan, and still the impurity
of its water supply has been a stand
ing menace to comfort and health.
On the other hand, it is now a dem
onstrated scientific fact that water for
household purposes may be taken from
contaminated sources and made per-
fectly tnnocuous to health by being
passed through simple filter of gravel
and sand. This is no longer an expert
ment. The cholera-ridden cities of
Germany take the germ-laden water
of the Elbe and find it, after filtration,
perfectly harmless to the people to
whom 1T once conveyed a horrible
death. In France, in some of the
smaller cities of Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania, in Grand Forks, and in
various other places, the filtration sys-
tenn has been adopted, always with the
most satisfactory results. From 95
per cent upwards of the germs which
water contains are absolutely removed
by reservoir and filter, and those
which ra111aira q found n ha not in,
furious to human health. In the light
of scientific facts, a city can no more
afford to be without system of filtra-
ton for it's water than it can afford to
cut out the traps from it's sewer sys-
tenn, or to abolish that system itself
1t was found, on scientific analysis,
that diluted sewerage, passed through
one of these filters in France, gave a
liquid product that was actually purer
than the water supply Of the town.
The recommendation which we have
to make in view of this is not personal
to Duluth or to any other city, but is
universal. To guard absolutely the
purity Of a city's water supply against
the overcoming danger Of contain
ination, arising from unforeseen and
unpreventable circumstances, calls for
the publication Of all city water before
it is consumed. While Duluth Is fac
ing her problem she should make clean
work Of it by adopting the filtration
method. So should every other city in
the United States which has due re-
gard for the health Of it's people, and
recognizes the superiority of the ounce
Of prevention to the pound of cure.