Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-03-22
A FAMOUS DITCH
BROUGHT TO MIND
BY Some Anticipations as to
Future Municipal Manage
ment.
TALKING ABOUT FORMER MAYORS
The One Who Left the Twenty
Fourth Street Drain as a
Monument.

In its strangely aroused anger over
the suggestion by THE ARGUS that a
searching investigation should be
made of the entire water system of
Rock Island, involving the manage
ment of both the pumping and filter
ing plants, the Union has gone out of
its way to attack the immediate pre-
decessor of the present mayor. anent
the construction of the reservoir, and
following this it INDUCES in fulsome
praise of how the soon to retire ex-
ecutfve has discharged his public
obligations. The Unions attitude is
as unwarranted in either of these re-
spects as it is in the other. The
morning paper is good enough
to say, however, that the in
creased capacity recommended by
the latest expert was contemplated in
the original plans, and of which it re-
marks: IF the plans are carried for
ward unchanged by the incoming adj
ministration we shall see the enlarge
ments recommended fully carried out
and enclosed, so that the filters may
be in working order all the time in
stead of being hampered part of the
time by ice. "
II is to be conceded, of course, that
a paper that would feel that any cir
cumstance could Justify the reflection
it seeks to make upon the preceding
administration in connection with a
work of so great public Importance
and necessity, would not have in mind
in it's reference to what is expected of
the incoming administration, a like
wise former mayor, the chief ac-
complishment of whose administra-
ton was the storm drain scandal.
AS to Former Mayors.
While the Unions effort to belittle
the mayor who held office Immediate
~ preceding the mayor whose term
is about to expire must be uuavaiIing,
the mismanagement of public affairs
at the time the storm drain construc-
ton was going on has been so clearly
impressed upon the public mind that
there is absolutely no defense to be
made of it.
Nothing has grown out of the reser-
voir case to involve incompetency on
the part of the city, which was merely
deceived in its designing engineer, as
any private corporation or individual
might be. 1t was simply case of
misplaced confidence in supposed
expert whose judgment was reasona
bly, regarded as beyond question I'M
til the hour came for the testing of his
work. And even at that the mis-
fortune that attended conscientious
painstaking effort has been greatly
exaggerated.
The Storm Drain.
1t is in this respect that the contrast
with the storm drain case developed.
The latter was an instance of system
attic robbery of the taxpayers carried
on day in and day out during the en-
tire progress of the construction, ru-
mors of the nature of which were con-
stantly afloat. The entire job, in fact,
became entangled in such series of
complications that they remain to
this day, as the administration then
left them, source of constantly re-
curing anxiety to the city.
So that the Union in its very laud-
able hopes as to the completion of the
water system of Rock Island by the
incoming administration must. to it's
own satisfaction at least, have con-
coded that the people are to prove |
wiser in their selection of a mayor than |
the morning paper has admitted since |
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