Barre evening telegram. (Barre, Vt.) 1898-19??, 1901-11-20

VOlVcU III U0c OlbCubSlOu VI OuC Ic1n-
tive rights Of the city and the mill
owners, are much more important
and far reaching than any question OF
revenue to the city.
The city receives Ii cents per day
for the supply Of water to a polishing
machine, and could dispense with It's
revenue Of about $500 or 5000 a year
without any embarrassment, but l do
not consider this item the most i'm
portant one connected with the ques.
tion of use OF water for polishing ma
chimes and like purposes. Any per-
son who is acquainted with piping
and faucets at the polishing mills
will recognize the fact that they form
the most convenient sources OF supply
for water for drinking and washing
purposes for the employees at the
shop. l should consider the city gov.
eminent entirely negligent of its duty
to the tax payers, II it countenanced
any agreement or yielded any ground,
that caused the use Of water pumped
from the river or swampy ground, to
become general in the shops, in such a
way that the workmen used the water
from the supply faucets either for
drinking or washing. The danger Of
an epidemic arising from that source
is serious enough to justify the city in
very radical action as a sanitary ::mea-
sure.
The number Of men employed In
stone working in the city OF Barre is
SO large, that every safeguard should
be thrown around their health, and
one Of the most important safeguards
is pure water.
1t is absolutely impossible to handle
the water at the polishing shops so as
to prevent it's use by the workmen for
drinking and washing. The city
should act as the custodian of their
health, by resisting any claim that
this use Of water is not justified by
public necessity and convenience.
The rights OF the individual mill
owner, to enjoy the use of a fraction
OF a horsepower at his mill, should
have no weight with the City Council,
or with any board Of commissioners,
or with any court to which the mat
ter might be referred, as compared
with the duty OF the city to protect
the health Of it's citizens. The only
remedy open to the mill owners should
be the generous payment to them for
the actual damage to their property.
l consider that the city is using the
water for public convenience and ne.
| cesSity when it sells it for shed use
and for polishing machines, and that
the mill owners are being offered full
compensation for the damages to
them.
The city should endeavor to make
such settlement Of this question as
| will be consistent with good faith to
the parties who have built stone sheds
and located their business within the
limits Of the city, on the assumption
that the city would protect them in
their rights to a water supply, abso-
lutely necessary for their business. 1t
would be grossly unfair to them for
the city to submit to the procuring of
any injunction, that would compel the
mill owners to change their location or
to dive expensive wells, or to barter
with their neighborS for a water sup
ply taken from the river and liable to
be cut off later at the option of any
mill owner further down the stream
who might think he had ground for
action.
The amount involved is extremely
small, and the damage to the mill
owners at the water powers below the
point of taking is SO minute, that l
think justice and equity would require
a decision from the courts that the
mill owners on a stream were not such
absolute owners of every drop of water
approaching their dam that they could
not be required to'part with a small
fraction of it, in order to avoid serious
injury to the property of other par
ties equally entitled to the enjoyment
of their property.
Continued on Page 5)