Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1897-07-24
PUBLIC OWNERSHIP.

A fight is being waged in the cities of
Montgomery and MobilA over the public
and private Ownership, of the water works
and sewerage system. The Mobile Regis
ter. OF recsnt date contained the following
able .dJcoria1 On the advantages of cities
owning their waier works:
Public ownership of water works ard
sewers means thai the conwenienceS of
water and of sewage disposal will be
placid at, the comma nd of every citizen,
no msiJter how humble and TO matter
where his home is, provided ha lives in the
city.
With privslae ownership rJllis general
extsTsfen of such facilities cannot be ex-
With private ownership the water pipes
and the sewers are placed where they
are profitable, and it is extremely diff
cult il not impos sible to induca priv
ale corpol ation to put a pipe where 1t
will not pay directly an interest upon
it's cost.
For example, the private company that
OWLS our largest water works system
does NIT supply all of the city with water
Il lacks some. five mikes of pipe of doing
so. Many localities are not reached by
i IS wateripipes. The result is that II cit
liens living i'm the outside localities wish
the waterhhey must pay for the extension
of this main pipe, some of them having
TO pay FOX as much as 1000 feet of pipe
yet these who pay Mis- extra cost for
WAFER are dwellers within the city linn
it's pay theirstaxes and ought to have a
chance of obtaining wGEer-just the same
charCe enjoyed by citizens more centrally
located.
Yea further, 1T must be considered that
these fsolatedspares of the city have very
little if any protection from fire. The cit
liens living in. those parts pay their tax s,
the city maintains a fire department., yet
when the fire breaks out upon their prem
fses, there is no water supply-the prem
ises are too far away from the mains,
and the locality is too thinly se,tled to
pay the private corporation for placing is
mains in such locality.
When the city owns its water works
such discrimination can be no longer
practiced. The most distant dweller in
the city, and the smallest taxpayer is
fully entitled to all the service a the
command of the city, and he will get it
ii the proposition for city ownership pre-
walls.
The same argument holds good as to
sewers. We have sewers now-all pri-
waite sewers, We observe how very
carefully they are laid SO as to take in
the best paying portions Of the town.
So 1t will always be with system oper-
ated by private capital.
When the public owns the system,
however, this must and will be changed.
The sewers, to be of practical benefit,
must extend to every quarter of the city,
and it is the purpose and fixed intent
of the mayor and general council to see
that fun service be given, the sewers to
be laid all at one time and the system
quickly provided in complete shape.
They aim at the rebuilding Of the city by
the Introduction of modern improve
ments. They want to lower the death
rate, and they know that one of the best
ways of doing this is to supply cheap
water and sewers. Their object would
be defeated If they should fail to make
the system ample enough to cover the
whole city, and they. have made up their
minds that the whole city shall be COW
cred. .-f.
The expense is something every pru-
dent man ought TO consider. What will
it cost? He must make up his mind
that If it is good thing it will cost
something, but he should at the same
time take account of the fact that doing
without ownership will not keep him
from expense. The supply of water for
fire extinguishing (and it is Insufficient
has to be paid for under the private sys-
tenl, and il we are to meet the public de-
mend we shah have to put in other fire
hydrants, and these will cost money, to
be paid out of the. city treasury. We
are paying $4,000 now, and, presently,
if we put in the plugs that are abso-
lutely nseded. we will be paying $4,000
for fire hydrant water alone; and. as
the city needs increase, this expense ac-
count will increase. So we will rot get
out of paying money for public uses even
IF we refuse TO sanction public owner
snip. s-rf
As to the sewers the case is the same.
We have, to pay now for vault clea ming
more than we would have to pay for the
uss of savers. and we have in addition
20 pay doctorseand druggists bills. many
of which bills would never be presented
to us were we living in good sanitary
surroundings. a.
The ia cts to bear In mind are:
This is water and. s wers g for the
whole city, and that thu whole work will
be done at cs,ie time and made corp etc.
This is plsn to give the people plsnty
of pura water at 4 Rrics. much lower than
tEsy c,ai, now Obtain It.
1st city is to be made clean ana at a