The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-16

Iry1n& TO IlOuu the
With the evident object in view of dis
tracing public attention from the Issue
before the people Of Savannah. a defend
| or Of the very peculiar policy of the county
commissioners is trying 70 show how lit
tie previous boards Of commissioners
have done. What has that to do with
| the urgent question Of present drainage?
Would a comparison unfavorable TO form
er boards cry out the lowlands
on the outskirts OF the
city and prevent sickness?
Lawyer-lke. the apologist for the board
presents ex Barte evidence. In order that
the jury Of pubic opinion may have some
facts from the other side. the Morning
News presents a partial list of the work
done ana improvements made by the
board which held Office previous to the
accession of the Buckhalter board; and
these are facts which seem to have been
undiscovered by the searcher Of the min
ute books for evidence against the COM
missioners who held office up to 1898.
With the small appropriations which
they had, the old board built a new Jail.
built a new court house, purchased the
Ashton and Queensbury plantations, now
known as the county or poor farm, so as
to stop the backing out of swamp water
used in the irrigation of rice fields; built
two miles Of roadway, the best in the
county, through the plantations; procured
rights Of way and built the Waters road,
the Intermediate road, the Bay street
road and Estill avenue and several other
highways; constructed the Casey canal
and outlet, the Dundee canal to the Au-
gusta road, the Hampstead, Harmon, PA
centia. Minis. Vale Royal and De Renne
canals, and other drainage ways, and pur-
chased a steam dredge At the time
these improvements were made the APP
propriations were less than they are now,
and the number of convicts seldom ex>
ceeded 100 men; now the chain-gang rare
ly numbers less than 200
With liberal appropriations and an am
pie force of hands. what has been done
since 1893? In four years. with funds and
convict forces properly managed, and a
well considered and well advanced drain
age system to work upon, all of the drain
age around and about the city should have
condition that there would be absolutely
no room for adverse criticism. With a
persistency worthy of a better purpose.
however, 1t seems to have been the inten-
ton of the county commissioners to ignore
or neglect the Improvements made by
their predecessors in office. probably for
the purpose of making it appear that all
Of the work of the former comm ssfOners
was either wrong or unnecessary. In fol-
lowing out this intent, engineering work,
experience and advice, by competent en-
gineers, have been set aside. The negative
result Is that we have a carefully plan
ned system CT drainage near the city ne
elected; the positive result is that we have
a number of poor good" roads built at a
heavy cost to the taxpayers.
Every citizen is interested in the health
of the city. In order to have good health
in the city it Is necessary that the lands
in the suburbs should be made dry. 1t is
true that many of the residents of the SUI
burbs are negroes, but their lives are just
as sweet TO them as life is to any other.
White people cannot ignore the health OF
those who are mostly their servants and
employees. Sickness will spread from the
blacks as well as from the whites, and
death Genes to both alike. 1t is a serious
matter this one under consideration and
it is receiving from the people the atten-
ton it so much merits. The question is
not what the old commissioners failed to
do but what those now in office should do