The record-union., 1896-02-14
THE NEWSPAPERS AND THE
WATER.

At the membership meeting of the
Chamber of Commerce of this city on
Wednesday night Mr.. C. E. Adams in
the course of a speech declared that
Sacramento is being ruined by its news
papers, because they publish the fact
that the drinking water of this city is
bad, offensive to sight and repugnant
to all who have not been bred and in
grained with the idea that it is delight
full, sparkling and altogether desirable.
We are very glad that Mr.. Adams had
the courage to say as much. We respect
the courage that expresses honest con-
viction, and doubtless Mr.. Adams firmly
believes what he says. We are glad
that he voiced his opinion also, because
it affords opportunity to disabuse the
minds of others who think as he does,
and who keep themselves busy in chat
tering about it. The simple fact is that
Sacramento owes its newspapers far
more than the newspapers owe it. The
energy, money, care, painstaking and
hard work expended by the newspapers
in aid of home interests immeasurably
outweigh anything Sacramento has or
can do for the papers.
But passing that, Mr.. Adams should
know that the way to right ends, the
swift, sure and only correct path runs
through the speaking of the truth. In
that the newspapers are blameworthy
that they have not spoken the whole
truth, namely that to such men as Mr..
Adams entertaining the views he does,
the city is indebted for most Of the i'll
it has to endure in this matter of a
who hold with him need not read the
Sacramento papers to ascertain where
and how Sacramento gets the "black
eye" If ne and men of his opinion
would spend some days outside their
town they would learn just what people
of the United States think about the
water we use. people who probably do
not read a Sacramento paper once a
year, as well as those who do read the
local papers frequently.
Mr.. Adams and men of his order, If
they visit Chicago, Des Moines, Tc-
ronto, London, Paris, New York, San
Francisco, any part of Southern Cali
fornia, Honolulu, Savannah, Philadel-
phia, Berlin, Constantinople. the great
Northwest, the South, the East, the dis
tant and the near by lands of earth,
Will learn to their surprise, perhaps,
On mentioning Sacramento, that if those
they speak to about the city know of it
at all. they know more about its discol-
ored and gritty water than about its
commerce, its society, it's architecture,
it's history, its newspapers, or it's citi-
gems who hold with Mr. Adams.
He can learn if he has the desire for
knowledge that some ten thousand
strangers visit Sacramento monthly,
who are introduced first dash to its
drinking water. He can ascertain from
the Custodian of the Art Gallery what
the five or six thousand strangers who
annually register at that institution say
about Sacramento drinking water. He
might ascertain that of the thousand
and over of commercial travellers who
PASS some hours in this city yearly, OF
the many hundred actors, the not small
number Of excursionists. the large num-
her Of visiting delegations Of confrater-
mites. the tens of thousands of Califor-
mans and others who come here during
fair weeks and legislative sessions, on
festival occasions, TO conventions, cell
ebrations, etc.-that all of these be-
come active, energetic, missionaries to
advertise far and wide that Sacramento
offers to visitors water neither fit to
drink nor to battle in.
Mr. Adams will discover that in no
one of these cases is judgment formed
upon newspaper say So but upon oc-
ular experience and tangible testimony.
The truth is that the newspapers of the
State, some five hundred in number, are
constant in and out of season in abusing
Sacramento weekly and daily because
of its water supply. He could much in
form his mind by passing a day or so
in the Office of a Sacramento newspaper
and overhauling the hundreds of ex-
changes the news editors search
through. He would discover that what
the Sacramento papers say about Sacra-
meRto water Is as a mole bill TO noun