Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1901-08-24

The frightful smells which abound
on the North side nowadays and which
are spreading sickness on every hand
come directly from the sewers.
The stupid engineering In connection
with the drainage canal has imperilled
the lives of 100000 of the people or
Chicago.
These stupid engineers have arranged
n drainage channel which produces
n current in the main river and the
South Branch. but which causes the
North Branch to remain stagnant and
a menace to the public health.
The fact is that the current in the
main river and South Branch acts as
n dam to the sluggish waters of the
North Branch. which all of the force
of the pumps at the Fullerton avenue
conduit Is powerless to break.
The result Is condition of affairs
that no other city has ever known since
the world began.
That thickly populated portion of the
West Side lying north of Kinzic street
and the whole of the North Side and
Lake View. are In the same predica-
ment.
Over 100000 people living in those
sections of the city are exposed. In con-
sequence. to the most serious calami-
ties.
The stagnant waters of the North
Branch no longer receive the contents
Of the sewers and the latter are full to
overiowing.
The last big rain that they had on the
North and Northwest Sides caused the
sewers to back mp and many base
ments were flooded In consequence.
But the most serious result of this
awful effect of bad engineering are
the smells which nightly torment the
people and which emanatc from unemp.
tied sewers packed to the top with over
flowing nastiness.
Is there no relief?
Must the people stand this great out
rage In silence?
This l. but one of the many calami-
ties showered upon our people by this
robbing Drainage Canal"
No wonder that the eminent civil en-
gineer, Gordon II. Mott, In n letter to
the Inter Ocean the other day said:
"The interceptlng sewer is so called
because work upon tits intercepted
every time the Drainage gang needs
the money appropriated to pay for it,
SO saith the Inter Ocean edltorally.
Would IL not be proper to carry the
simile still further and say the drain
age channel Is so called because Of SIM
liar conditions, as, owing to its imprac.
ticability for sewage disposal, at least
up to the present time, there has been
no great benefit, and 1t is doubtful IL
II ever does amount to n success. There
Is nothing like an appropriate name
Ito drain" means ito empty" ito en-
haust," and with the present ideas and
nOn-practicable plans of the Drainage
Trustees, how long will 1t take to emp
ty and exhaust the replenished Golfers
Of the money paid thereinto?
II Is proposed by the Trustees to
widen the river, do away with the
swing bridges, and make a deeper
channel. the last necesstating the low
ering of the tunnels. All this, no doubt
would add TO the harbor and dockage
facilities, but what benefit are these
proposed changes TO the solution of the
problem Of dIsposing Of the sewage: II
Is the successful disposition Of the sew
age that is wanted, and not the com
m.rcial importance Of Chicago, which
IL the only thing that now makes thu
drainage channel Of intrinsic value
What useful result will be derived, II
the way OF sewage disposal, by {
twenty-slX-foot depth Of river, will
only q fourteen-foot (at present. earth
cut Joining IL south, and what objec
can there be in widening the river Il
300 feet, when a width Of double tina
would no more than supply the amour
of cubic feet Of water required per min
ute for sewage dilution Ia delusiOn an,
"A heathcnish method, and have nav
igable stream as to current:
Yes, certainly keep the name
drainage Channel" not as properl
designating a means for disposing o
the sewage, for that it never will an,
never can be made TO do successfully
but as name 10 90 with "interceptin
sewer" They both belong to the sam
category, and serve the same END
with bur little, If any, possibility o
benehting the public health.
The most prominent engineers in tn
country are denounclng the Drainag
Canal as fraud Of the first water
and 20 II Is.
To the Editor: \ morning paper n
Gently said: They have no case"-ed
t0rially speaking in reference to crit
cisms Of the so-called drainage channe
There Is nothing that comes from II
hands OF man that Is above criticism