The record-union., 1897-06-01
GIVE US CLEAR WATER.

Tt is intimated-and the intimation
smacks of authority, for the rumor is
of semi-official character-that a cam
paign of supposedly cunning education
is to be entered upon to lead the peo-
Pile into a quiescent state under the
good many thousands of dollars for
more muddy water pumps, and for a
senseless attempt to filter the river
water supply.
These things should be nipped in the
bud. 1t was never intended that the
Trustees should have power to expend
large sums of money for public works
without submitting the propositions to
the people. By buying machinery in
sections and keeping each purchase be-
low the limit allowed without submits
sion of the plan to the people, the plain
letter and intent of the law standing
between the taxpayers and official mis-
government is defeated.
We submit that this sort of thing
should not be repeated. We have had
enough of it in Sacramento in the
last fifteen or twenty years to last
the city forever If the expression Of
the people of this community was asked
for tomorrow it would be over
whelmingly in favor of making the
next expenditure in the direction of a
clear water supply and a completed
sewer system. OF that there is no
manner of doubt. The fact that the
people once voted for the clear water
supply, and that, too, recently; that a
corporate company finds it profitable to
bring water by carload lots from the
mountains and peddle it out from house
to house; that owners of clear water
supplies on the east of the city also
peddle water into the city, whereby the
people are putting an extra tax upon
themselves to get what they ought to
have from the city, are sufficient evil
dences of popular demand, to say moth
ing of the lively business driven by two
filter companies by renting out stone
cone filters for dollar a month.
In short, no one better than the City
Trustees know that the people of Sac
ramento want clear, pure water; that
they are weary of this eternal COM
plant of strangers, and constant re-
proach of the muddy supply of the
present; that they are themselves de-
sirous of good, wholesome, clear water
as a matter of cleanliness and health,
and do not believe that a supply that
receives the bodily elections of 1,100
eonvicts daily is fit for use, even
after it has rolled twenty miles. and
more in a stream no larger than the
American River.
The people have a right to have the
subterranean clear water supply on
the east of the city tested thoroughly
before another dollar is expended upon
pumps, or cent for filters for river
water The whole pipe line system OF
the city is wrong end to-" as the
water is now driven into it. That is
TO say, the pipes diminish as they ex-
tend from the Water Works. and the
result is enormous loss by packing
and friction, until when the east end
is reached the water force and volume
is wholly inadequate, as every east
ender will bear witness. But if an
adequate supply is found on the east
of the city it win relate to the present
pipe lines properly for economic deliv-
cry.
The old argument that served to give
certain Trustees excuse for defeating
the viii of the people relative TO a
clear water supply no longer avails.
That cry was that the scheme gave
over the city Water Works into the
hands of a corporation for twenty years
or more. There can be no such hedging
now. If more pumps are needed to
deliver to the people of this growing
city sufficient water for fire and do
nestle purposes, well and good, but let
the proposition to buy them be SUBJ
mitted TO the people whenever the law
so directs, and when purchased let
them be placed where they can deliver