The San Francisco call., 1898-01-25
Desires to Have the People Forget the Expose Made
 in The Call.
GRIDER IS WIREAWAKE.
The Councilman Back of Movement for the Construction of a New
 Water System.
Special Dispatch to The Call.

the nine members of the Common Council of the city of Los Angeles will have another opportunity to go on rec ord in the battle which is on between the 10000 inhabitants of the munich pality on one side and the fifty-two stockholders of the water company and their three newspaper tools-the Times, Herald and Express-on the other. When the Council meets in the morning Councilman L. M. Grider will offer the following resolutions:
 Resolved, That the water supply com mittee, with the Mayor and City Engin- ger, are hereby instructed to investigate and report to the Council whether or not 1t Is feasible and practicable to construct a water system which will bring water Into the city from a mountain source and with sufficient pressure for fire purposes, ana they are instructed to report upon the matter as soon as practicable and not later than three weeks from this date.
 Now the members of the Council who are not tied to the city water com pany will vote for this resolution. It will result in an investigation which will cost the city nothing, and, if the facts are given, a report will be made showing that 1t is both feasible and practicable to bring mountain water into this city for domestic purposes and with sufficient pressure for fire purposes.
 The water company forces will be masSed. and a determined, and, pos sibly, a successful effort will be made to kill the resolution. if not by direct action. in an indirect way. Of all things the city water company does not de- sire fair and honest report as to how easy it is to bring water into this city from a mountain source and independ- ent of its system. Upon this point it does not want the public informed, and, more particularly 1t does not want it through an official Council report. So with the aid of it's tools in the Council, it will endeavor to defeat the resolution, and then, on the day fol- lowing, through its newspaper organs it will endeavor to discredit and ridi- cule an honest effort of Councilman Grider to carry out the pledge con- tained in the platform upon which he was elected.
 The daily papers have hedged nota- bly on the water question since The Call took up the fight of the people of this city. All three of them now an- nounce editorially that the plan of the Mayor to take possession of the city's plant. now in the possession of the wa ter company, upon the expiration of the company'S lease is all right. Prior to January +, upon which date The Call took up the water fight, these same three papers had condemned the proposition in unmeasured terms as fanatical and recommendation for mob rule.
 The Herald. since it was denounced by the Democratic City Committed
 has been very mild. It has eaten it's own words, and its editorial columns | have reversed themselves But the water company still controls the allied dailies and the directors of the corpo- ration still dictate the editorial policy Of all three sheets as to municipal own ership. The great desire of the com pany now is to still the agitation that has been started. If this is continued and the public Is kept posted as to the moves of the monopoly and its tools, the combined dailies, the scheme to obtain flfty-year extension of the lease is irretrievably lost. To accom- plish its purpose a fund, so it is said on good authority, of $25O,000 has been set aside.
 But if the people are kept informed. there is no amount of money that will carry it, even if the company were to control seven members of the Council The people would not tamely submit to the outrage There would be such an uprising as has never before been seen in any city in this country. As long as the water company controlled all ave nues of reaching and informing the people through its syndicated press, it's schemes were not understood. But The | Call has destroyed the utility of the | newspaper combine and completely 1 overwhelmed not only the three news papers but their masters as well. AS a result, the people of this city are joy- 1 full, and they have not been slow about | expressing their gratitude to The Call for the great service it has rendered Nearly one hundred ministers gath 1 cred at the First M. F. Church to-day fO Hcfn fn 1
 by Rev. w. D. P. Bliss, the eminent divine. Dr. Bliss remarks were straight and to the point. He was endeavoring to point out to the ministers how they could get the workingmen into the church. Among other things the lec- turer had this to say:
 ''The poor man is having too great a struggle for bread to care much about your better city government theories. If you tell him that you mean to tear down the slums and give him good i houses and give him pure water to drink, he is more interested"
 pr. Bliss evidently was aware of the fact that the league for better city gov ernment has not assisted in any way whatsoever in making the fight for the people against the water company If has stood supinely by and has not made one effort, while job was in a l fair way to be put through which con
 templated either robbing the people at once out of about two million dollars. or the extension of franchise which i in fifty years would mulct them into the sum of twenty millions. pr. Bliss lecture will not be referred to by the water company press. but if the minis
 ters of the gospel who were present and heard him will spread his doctrine
 among their fiocks, there will have
 been some material assistance given
 the cause, and Dr. Bliss will not have
 spoken in vain.