Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1899-02-18
ReDeaI the Law.

galaxy of legal stars. Indeed it had
not even one to enlighten it with knowl
edge of the Act of 1885, under which
it turns out the pulp mill company is
partly indicted
1t is, therefore, compelled to rely
upon secondhand legal advice, as re-
Elected by the independent, to the effect
that the Act of 1856 is more sweeping
than that of 1874, although the latter
applies to the Potomac particularly,
the former to "nowhere in general"
The line being so drawn, it is in
cumbent upon the impartial reader to
remember that it is not the laws so
much that we are dealing with, but
rather the INDEPENDENTS reflection of
them.
To make the case plain we are com
PEELED to yield space for the hdepend
ent's synopsis of the Act of 1856:
This statute makes it misdemeanor for any
person to put or cause to be placed any
dead animal, or any deCayed or filthy vege-
table matter into any stream or tributary Of
any stream, well, spring, reservoir, or other
source from which water or ice is drawn,
taken or used for drinking or domestic pur-
poses''-ol for any one knowingly to suffer
any sewerage washings, or other offensive
matter from any prvy, cesspool, factory,
trades establishment slaughter house, tam
merry, or other place over which he shall
have control, to flow therein, or into any
drain, or pipe communicating Herewith,
whereby the water supply of any city, town,
village, community or household, is fouled
or rendered unfit for drinking or domestic
purposes.
To this the independent incautiously
adds:
The above is the statute the JOURNAL wants
repealed for the benefit of the soulless, selfish
combinations, and to the everlasting detri-
ment Of the public health, for It's the one tie
pup mill is indjcted nnder.
Why tie pulp-mW and not every min
ing company, butcher and householder
on the banks Of Georges Creek?
This is the question which tests
If not the propriety of the law, the
justice of its application in this case.
The evidence of pollution Of Georges
Creek by corporations, tradesmen, and
people living on its banks, are almost
countless.
But all these, in spite of law, specific
and general, go scot free, and the H.
DEPENDENTS clientele have the pulp mill
indicted for Just one sort of pollution
Is that justice
Not is crime'
Now, then, when the independent and
its coterie, legal and religious, make
this discrimination, they acknowledge
that law cannot be administered i'm
partially. They know they cannot
stop the mines-their own dollars
and cents" will supersede the law to
prevent that. Why is it, then, they
cannot also learn that a law which en-
ables one community to destroy
another for one offence and exempts yet
another, guilty of a hundred, from
the sweep of statutory desolation-
why is it they cannot learn that such
a Jaw ought to be repealed?
Speaking for the courts, however,
the independent concludes that when
the pull p-mill wins
The water supply of Frostburg or Lonacon-
ing can then be polluted with impunity, for
we take it, the courts will not make fish of
one and fowl ofthe other.
That bridge will be crossed when
"the courts see the difference between
towns that have but one source of supply
that so small it is unavailable for
factory purposes one that has
two or more.
They will also see, in the Frostburg
case at least, that when anyone comes
to pollute "the water supply" he has
got to come on FrOst6ury dnd to do 1t.
Not only so, the courts will see that
the water itself is absolutely the prop
erty of the town of Frostburg.
Moreover, the courts will also see
that, notwithstanding the two Acts to
which the independent so bumptiously
refers, the town will not, as Cumber-
land has to do, seek the protection of
its 0eon property under them. The town
will not have to go on somebody else's
land and claim protection from the
pollution which inevitably proceeds in
more or less degree from the use of
that land.
In short, Frostburg can, fguratively,
take the trespasser by the nape of his
neck and seat of his pants and throw
him off the premises.
But Cumberland essays to go on the
alleged traverser's ground and destroy
him right there
The JOURNAL is now ready to state
that whenever law permits county
seat that is able to get good water to
destroy a neighOring county commun-
ity in order that it may stick to a supply
hopelessly bad-that law, statute or
common, 0ught to 60,
In conclusion, the JOURNAL is will
ing to pass by the rather ungentle-
manly use and application of the word.
masters" for insinuations of that