The Saint Paul globe., 1897-12-05
RIGHT IN PRINCIPLE.

| While the decision in a recent case
awarding damages against water
company .ito a;Eypersqn claiming
reparation by reason of sickness
incurred through impure water
supply will lead3 to some nice
legal questions and some 2compli-
cations in the matter of evidence, the
justice of the principle which underlies
it is hardly open to question. 1t is,
| moreover, apparently a necessary prin-
ciple, in order to stimulate both public
and private corporations engaged in the
business of furnishing water to the in
habitants of cities to their plain and
obvious duty. The G o b e has said in
the past that there is nothing more
anomalous in our. modern civilization
than that, while preening ourselves on
the advancement of knowledge of the
latest improvement in sanitary science
and the departure of our world from
the filthy habits of barbarism, we still
remain only a little distance removed
from the savage in the two great de-
partments of water supply and the
disposal of sewage.
According to the best teaching of
medical science, a large part of the
most dreadful diseases that scvurge
mankind are introduced into the human
system through the alimentary canal,
and can be conveyed from person to
person in drinking water alone. This
is true of such terrible Affections as
typhoid fever and cholera, and, in a
lesser degree, of, many others. In cpl
denies of these diseases they have been
traced so often with unerring certainty
to infected water, and they have been
so entirely eradicated by purifying the
water supply that the relation of cause
and effect is established. All that COM
munities have to do. then, in order to
menaces to public health, is to secure
drinking water chemically free from
impurities, or at least from the germs
of specific diseases.
In the next place, this is a problem
which science has solved also. 1t has
been equally well demonstrated, by the
work of filtration plants scientifically
constructed, that not only ordinary
drinking water can be made wholly in
nocuous, but even liquid filth can be
strained of it's impurities and made
harmless to the human system. If,
now we know, as we seem to know,
that certain of the most baleful dis
eases known to humanity must disap-
! pear if their germs do not find medi-
um of communication from person to
person through drinking water, and if
we know how those germs can be en-
| tirely removed from the water supply,
the obligationrto take measures to that
| end would seem to be more imperative
even than the obligation to maintain
a police force or a fire department or
support any other of those activities
| that are deemed essential to the exist
ence Of the most primitive community.
If this is not t9done,,dif a city is supplied
with water in, which the germs Of dis
ease exist and which there is reason
able ground to suppose may be in
fected, then the first remedy lies in
holding the parties responsible for it
to a strict financial accountability.
| 1t is their business to provide pure
| water, Just as much as it Is that Of a
mflkman to furnish unadulterated milk,
or of the fire department to throw a
| stream of water instead Of stream OF
oil on a burning building. They are
paid for certain service necessary to
comfort, decency and health. If they
perform that service in such a way as