The San Francisco call., 1897-05-19
CITY OWNERSHIP
OF WATER WORKS
Debate in B'nai Birth Hall
Won by the Affrma-
tive.
Comparison of the System With
That of Glasgow and
Other Cities,
Literary and Musical F asst by the
Committee on Intellectual I'm.
provement.

Last night in B'nai Birth Hall took
place the first of this years series OF lit
erary and musical entertainments given
by the committee on intellectual i'm
provement and the Past Presidents Asso.
citation of District No. H. /. o. B. B.
Edward Tauszky, chairman of the COM
mittee on intellectual improvement,
opened the entertainment with brief ad-
dress, calling attention to the excellent
and varied programme and welcoming
the large audience.
Lucius l.. Solomons, grand orator. Dis
trict No. 4, l. o. B. B., followed. He said
that whatever might be said or thought oi
its organization-good,b bad or Indifferent
audience gathered together on Jewish
occasion and under the auspices of Jew
ish order. They were bound together by
the tieE of creed and blood, which obli-
cation was manifold.
The literary feature of the evening was
de bate on the question:
Resolred, That the City should own and con-
rol its water supply
The speakers for the affirmative were II
Gutstadt and Hugo K. Asher. For the
negative wore l. /. Brown and Edgar D.
Peixotto.
Mr.. Asher began the debate for the
affirmative. He said in substance:
Supplying water TO q large municipality is
more than any other business, likely to result
in a monopoly, which is chiefly due to the
fact that very large expenditure OF money Is
requisite for the purpose of carrying on that
business, and but very few people have the
means to engage in 1t, and the few who have
the capital 10 not care to run the risk of loss
by reason of competition. The Spring Valley
Company has, in addition to its business ol
supplying water, taken care SO to conduct its
operations as to keep out any competition
hac hrh CT 4 n q lo
supply OF water which might be easily brought
into the peninsula
Ii the City desired to own its water works
1t would be able to borrow the money for 3
per cent per annum with which to purchase
the works, and it would be enabled to cut
down the cost OF water to about half OF what
1t is now. In 1886 the City paid for water for
municipal purposes, such as sprinkllng streets
and parks. extinguishing fires and flushing
sewers, $7O072 73. II 1896 this sum had
swollen to $500, ,712 70. That makes about
so cents for ever2 man, woman and child OF
the population. The City expends for ny dram IS
$166 900 per year.
Glasgow, Manchester, Berlin, Paris, New
York. Phllade! phia, Brooklyn, Buffalo and
other cities own and control their own water
supply.
Mr.. Brown. for the negative, called al
ten,ion to the fact that San francisco s
| supply lay within forty or fifty miles,
whereas the proposed supply from Lake
Tahoe or the Blue Lakes is from 300 to $50
miles. He said:
1t will cost the City not less than $25, ,OOO,-
600 or $50 ,OO0, 900 to bring water from there
The plant of the Spring Valley Water Works
could not be condemned by the City under the
exercise OF the law of eminent domain, be.
cause there was no law to permit the robbery
of the properly of the company. Money
could not be had for less than AZ per cent and
that rate on $25, 100000 ould be 81 ,125, 600
per annum plus sinking fund Oh $625, 200
per annum. Add to this the operating ex-
penses of the works 1876 900 per annum) and
it ha fNr1yr fhn ifvvn ,nf of
ford to take water from the Blue Lakes or
Lake Tahoe
Mr.. Gutstadt followed for the affirma-
tive. With reference to the contention
of Mr.. Brown that it would not be
feasible for the City to put in its own
water-works because of the great expense
it would involve, he said that engineers
had estimated that for SIS, 900, 900 the City
could get TN ample supply and could
place her bonds for that amount at 3 per
cent. He cited the water rates in Glas-
cow, where the water was taken from q
source thirty-four miles distant IS being
only 40 cents per month for house rem T.
ing at $25 per month.
Mr.. Peixotto closed for the negative in q
humorous vein.
The Judges, M. P. Stein, Jacob Greene.
baum, William Saalberg, Frank Sperling
and Henry Schwartz decided that the
affirmative argument was the better one.
The concert was of a high class and
very enjoy able. The Hungarian orches-
ira played selections from "Orpheus,'
Carmen" ''El Captain" and the inter
mezzo from "Cavalleria Rusticana."
Signor Abramoff sang selection from
''Nebuchadnezzar." and Miss Mary Glib
bons sang Centemerfs Deep in my
cored. A mandolin orchestra completed
the musical treat