The San Francisco call., 1898-01-26
WHAT 1T WOULD COST
 LOS ANGELES TO ACQUIRE
 4 KEW WATER SYSTEM.
Carefully Prepared Estimates on the Ex- PenSe Of UtLzIng Mountain
 Streams

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 25.-As indica- tive of the fact that the people of Los Angeles are thoroughly aroused on the water question and that they have been studying the question in all of its bear ings and cetails, the subjoined valuable report as to the water supplies of Los Angeles is given. It is a thorough re- view of the situation and the facts. and was prepared by Milton Carlson, a teacher in the Los Angeles High School In opening the report MT. Carlson states that he has looked into the sources of mountain water supply that might be at the command of this city for use as domestic water supply. and as far as possible determined the prac- ucability, feasibility and cost of each. The report says:
 It should have been the duty of the City Council to perform those labors but since that body has not seen fit up to the present time to do so, we have attempted to do the best we could. Being without the assistance of an engineer and with out the means al our hand to secure re- ports from scientific sources, we have been compelled to resort to such pub- DShed literature as we could find to the maps of Los Angeles and adjoining coun- ties, to our personal knowledge of the country and to such information as we could collect from informal talks with engineers, water company owners and persons familiar with the mountains and streams.
 The data which we furnish in this re- port concerning other cities are taken principally from the Manual of American Water Works for 1897. This work is pub- lished by the Engineering News. and is strictly scientific and reliable It is not the province of this committee to discuss the general matter of municipal owner ship or water works; but we trust if will be matter of interest to submit a few hgures and remarks at the outset.
 The Peoples party is ordinarily accused or advocating theories and experiments Even if this accusation is correct in some respects, IL Is entirely wrong so far as the concerned.
 In England. as well as Continental Europe, all the cities and towns are sup piled by municipal works while in Can ada, out of total of 145 cities and towns now possessing complete water works I09 are owned by the municipalities, while only 36 are controlled by private corpora tlons And even in the United States it. sell, where corporations and trusts are securely enthroned, out of 3196 cities and towns that nave full supply of water 1890 are supplied by the municipalities while only 14S9 are controlled by private corporations.
 It is also interesting to note that since the birth or the Peoples party the muni- cipal ownership idea has made wonderful progress.
 When the pioneers of this party met S, convention in Omaha in 1890 and adopted the first national platform and gave birth to this party, the municipalities of this country owned only 43 per cent of their water works, while at present the nun cipalitieS of this country control 54 per cent. We believe that this rapid growth is largely due to our advocacy of these principles. The good that a party does is not always gauged by the number of votes it casts. party may wield a tsse mendous influence in molding public sen timent and yet be a minorical organiza- tion. If the present rate of construction and purchase of private plants by muni- cipalities goes on, it will not be long be- fore private monopolies will cease so far as water systems are concerned.
 It is also interesting to note the progress made in the large cities To-day of all the cities in the United States hay ing a population of over 100000. only six : have water works in the control of pri-