The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-11
REFERRING

To the Water Committee of the Honor. | able Court of Common Council of the City of New Haven, Conn: Gentlemen:
 The New Haven Water company has 1 for years failed to filter and purify the water supply of the city of New Haven although the company's attention has been repeatedly called to the lmpor- tance of doing so in the printed annual reports of the board of health, which are referred to and quoted by me in a former communication to the court of common council under date of January 20, of this year, and which is now be- fore your committee, printed in the city record on pages 3S3290 inclusive, with a copy of q resolution of the board or health under date of September Il, 1901, wherein the board of health says: It is the opinion of this board that con- tamination by disease germs, of the wa ter supply of the city, was the sole fac- tor in the production of the late epidem- ic" And also wherein | have called at tention to a report of the committee on
  ican Health association, wherein said committee stated: That the vital sta tistics of any city are on infallible in- dex to the purity of the water supply, and that the efficacy of Alteration IS no longer experimental, and that the only objection was the question of cost. (See page 6 of annual report of the board of health for the year 1900.
 The fact that the neglect of the com- pany to filter it's water caused nearly seven hundred cases of typhoid and one hundred and four deaths in the year 1901 alone, shows the great importance of your committee recommending no contract that does not contain clause specifically requiring the company to purify and filter it's water supply with the latest and best appliances as ap- proved by authorities on sanitary sci ence.
 The proposed contract No. 3, referring to this subject in clause eighth, printed on page 361, city record, leaves it op- tional with the company to supply and quality of water it pleases, and if "by judicial proceeding, establishes the fact, probably after another epidemic, that the water is not of proper quality then, after such Judicial proceeding, the only alternative the city has is to buy out 'the property assets and fran chise of the company al just and fair compensation" which. lawyers tell us, would mean the price of the stock in the market In other words six million dollars or so for about a two million dollar plant reclloned at first cost when it was new. This gives the company the privilege to force impure water if it seems best in order to compel us to buy out it's property and franchise at any price that it can rig the stock mar ket to sustain.
 I therefore submit to the committee that this clause should be redrawn to compel the company to filter it's water, as many other cities are successfully doing. The testimony of your board of health and high sanitary authorities, as well as the experience of other cities conclusively prove that typhoid can be avoided by Alteration of the city water. The question of the price of water is an insignificant one compared with it's pur ity and freedom from disease germs.
 In the June Century 1893, in an arti- cle on the Secret of Prolonged Life Dr. T Mitchell Pruden, bacteriologist of Columbia college, New York, attributed typhoid exclusively to impure water, and says: Typhoid fever need no longer work such havoc among us if only once and forever men would insist that sewage, though diluted, is not fit to hat no official carelessness, by no false mu- nicipal economy should drinking water be polluted or if polluted, used without | proper cleansing.
 I have also taken pains to commun- | cate with some of the cities that have filtration plants but have not had time l as yet to receive many replies, but l | submit a few extracts from those re- reived for your committees considera- | ton as follows:
 "Bordentown, N J., Feb. 3, 1902 Charles Gay, Sso.:
 Dear Sir: In reference to our filtra- ton plant in removing typhoid germe, would say that before it was put in we had epidemics at the same time as our surrounding towns, but | since the introduction of the filters have lad no epidemic here, but there has been in our adjoining towns, Trenton md Burlington. where no filters are lsed. We are fully satisfied with it.
 Yours truly,
 "U. H. I4ONGSTREElT,
 President Water Works"
 Water Works Department,
 Office City Hall,
 Kingston, N. T., Feb. 3, 1902. MT Charles Gay:
 nDaor Sir-Refore the inst ala tinn of l