Waterbury Democrat., 1902-07-15
ATTORNEY W. E. THoMs HOME
He Discusses Municipal Ways in tho
 Western Cities.

| who has Just returnedN from few
 weeks vacation, and learned much
 rom him regarding municipal affairs
 in other cities. We quote few of Mr
 Thoms' remarks as follows l:
 T had very pleasant trip, and fIe journey did not prove at all tedious, as
 I anticipated, for the weather was very
 cool west of Chicago and we stopped
 over at so many different points that I we never became tired of travelling. 1 made number of calls at municipal
 offices in the cities and found the otli- l cials most courteous. In San Franc scO l had the pleasure of meeting Mayor Schmitz, who, you remember, was elected as a representative of the labor element of the city at the close of the
 great strike there last year From
 what little gathered in San Francisco
 ne seems to he man of good executive
 ahllty and is giving the city first l class administration. It was especial 1 " interesting to notice how much more
 progress the idea of municipa! owner
 ship has made in the west than in the
 east. The state legislatures do not
 make presents of valuable franchises With so lavish q hand as ours does. In
 many cities the trolley companies are
 tied to 3-cent rate for workingmea
 and school children, and often they are oblged to pay certain percentage of
 thelf receipts to the city. Their fran-
 chlses are taxed, too, in the city where
 they make their money, and in many cases they run for certain number of I years only
 An especially interesting subject is the way in which the cities aid the in- diFidual in fighting the disadvantages or the dry climate. It never rains 1t all III the summer in most of the cities I west or the Rocky mountains, and if it were not for irrigation all vegetation l would die Many of the cities, Salt
 Lake for example, furnish water for | use in reasonable quantities for irrlga- ton without any special assessment, paying for it out of the general tax. I The gutters there are running with clear cold mountain water in every street. and when one wishes to turn the stream on his lawn or his cabbage 1 and potatoes as the case may lie, he
 opens little head gate which lets the water flow under his sidewalk and onto his land
 I Another enemy the California cities I have to fight is the plague of dust in | the ralnless summer months. which
 makes constant street sprnkling neces- l sary. They are now trying some inter-
 esting experiments in sprinSling with
 crude petroleum, and it seems to be en- tirelY successful Tn the cities they plough up the street, sprinkle it with l the oil from sprinkler very like our
 street sprinklers, work it in with
 disc harrow and then roll 1t down with
 roller. This, of course, is very ex- pensive, but it makes a thorough job
 and there is no dust from that street | for years. In Pasadena. a city mean
 Los Angeles. they told me that 1t mad been done about four years before and the road was in first-class condition
 when 1 saw it. It makes rather I heavy street, but one perfectly free l from dust. On the country roads, where this would be too expensiye, they simply sprinkle with the oil as we
 would do with water, and very light l sprinkling every two or three months will keep the roads in perfect c9ndi- l tion. The difference in comfort this oil treatment makes is very great as the dust on an unsprinkied road is stihing. No one can have any idea of what a really dusty road is from any- thing of the kind we have in Connects { cut.
 "I was much interested, too, to know that in q number of places that I gis- 1 ited the city maintained the sidewalks as part of the highway. I told the offs l cial in Santa Barbara with whom I 1 talked that we made the adjoring property owners build and maintain the
 sidewalks but he couldn't see why a | land owner should have to maintain l highway for foot passengers past his house, any more than for horses and l wagons, and there is undoubtedly some l logic in what he said. With us the 1 sidewala.is as much part Of the hgll- | fbo e,4r ntf ics I equally liable for damage in case any
 accident occurs, whether it be on side walk or ill the road, if the travelled path l is allowed to get out of repair. Then, 1 too, as he &aid. the city can keep its walks in repair at a much less expense l than individuals can. on the same prin- 1 ciple, of course, that a carload of hay
 can be bought for less than a bale. Furthermore, a city which is directly | liable in case of accident is much more
 vigilant in Keeping walks in repair than
 an individual, who is only liable indi-
 rectly, if at all.
 Tt was also interesting to notice the different methods of forcing the pay- ment of taxes As rule they sell out delinquent, tax liens at auction when q I few months overdue. This is good for the city, but rough on the individual taxpayer, and on the whole our system yields about as good results in actual cash On the whole I had very en- 1 ioyable time and came back well satis- l fled with California as a place to vist
 and New England as a place to live in. The climate there is delightful, espe- cially in winter. but after all there isn't in all California a collection of
 shade trees as beautiful as those on our
 green.'
 It will be noticed that the sidewalk 1 question which is causing so much
 trouble in Waterbury is taken care of
 by the public in other places. There
 is no reason why we should not have a
 similar law in Waterbury. The side-
 walks are the property of the city and
 it is manifestly unfair to compel pri- l vate individuals to build and maintain 1 them. As has been stated herein be- fore. the public owns the sidewalks and the public uses them. consequent ! ly the public should pay for them. The l only difference it would make in the l matter of expense is that under muni- l cipal control all the rate payers would l contribute something towards the cost | of thn walks while under the system