Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-11-10
THE DISTRICT NEEDS

Continued from Seventeenth Page)
priaton for a fire boat for the protection of
the wharves and property along the river.
All these recommendations 1 commend to
your considera tion
Committee on Sewers.
1.-THE plan presented for sewage disposal
by the special commission of sanitary en-
gineers Of 1890 is being worked out thor
oughly. The appropriation for this purpose
for the present year amounts to 1887 600
Work is progressing on the great Boundary
street sewer. and will be completed next
year. The sewage disposal system at the
pumping station is progressing and 1t Will
not be long before the building itself Will be
In the course of construction. and by the
end of the present fiscal year will be near
ly completed.
1.-The sewer which will give the greatest
| relief to Washington. known as section b
and c Is in the course Of construction and
will be completed at about the time, 19oo
when the outflow sewer and siphon Is fin
ished. When this grand system is put in
sewer system of any city in the world.
heartily recommend to you the detailed re-
port of the committee on sewers.
The Water Supply.
lone of the items in the improvement of
Washington of which you can feel proud is
described in the report of the committee on
water supply by Mr.. Archibald Greenlees.
who has given largely of his time and tai
ents in studying the water supply question
One of the principal points he calls your
attention to is the necessity of your press
ing upon Congress the item recommended
by the Board of Trade last year of an appro-
priatlon Of $1,000 which passed the Senate
in the last session of Congress. This $500
| is to be used in the survey and location of
a conduit connecting the distributing reser-
voir of the city with the Great Falls.
I'VE are rapidly approaching the time
when the water supply through the present
conduit will be insufficient, and were this
appropriation made at the next session of
Congress, the survey accomplished, the
plans completed and contract entered into
the work of building the new conduit would
be scarcely completed before there would
be cry for more water. The immense
amount of water used by the government
in the departments here and the immense
| waste caused by the manipulation Of the
water supply in these departments causes
the citizens Of Washington to be charged
with the use of an immense amount Of
water per capita, which is unfair to them.
and until some measure is taken whereby
the governments waste Of water is pre-
vented the large per apita amount will still
continue to face
"One Of the items pressed by the Board
of Trade for years has been the filthy con-
dition of the Potomac water 1t is unnec-
eSSary IOr ME TO relate all that mas Deen
done by it in the furtherance Of the project
of filtration plant. Suffice it to say that the
work has been well done, and the filtration
project has been approved and the work
it's utmost. 1 would recommend to each
member Of the board an excursion to LIST
and Albany streets northeast to see the
work that Is being done there. large
gines. cars. etc, and it is gratifying to
know from Colonel Miller that, with the
cooperation Of this board and the citizens
generally of Washington. he will complete
it in the time named in his report to Con-
gress, and that before another eighteen
months passes you will be receiving water
as clear as crystal and as pure as water
can be made.
Taxation and Assessment.
Your committee on taxation recommends
that in the matters of real estate assess
ment in all cases it should be absolutely
fair and equal, and that all property should
bear its just share Of taxation; it says the
personal tax law is obnoxious and difficult
of equable enforcement, regrets it's enact
ment and hopes that certain inequitable
and Objectionable features will be eliminat-
ed.
THE burden all owners of property, be
it real or tangible have to carry is now
more than reasonable. Real estate does not
give a return of more than per cent, and
If wear and tear and decay is deducted /
say that income from rents covering years
would show much less income than 4 per
cent; hence it is self-evident that the tax
burden should not be greater. The as
SesSed value of real and personal estate is
fixed for three years. therefore great care
and wisdom should be exercised by our
governors in keeping our expenditures
within our receipts, and to do this the
heads of departments should be cautioned
in advance to call for appropriation in no
event when the work to be done is not i'm
perative; that no increase in clerical force
should be made, nor any other increased
expenditure be allowed until after the next
assessment period.
Mercantile interests have been the theme
of this committee, including fnStallment
sales, insurance rates, street, candy and
fruit venders the smoke nuisance. parcel
fee at railroad depots, new manufactures,
District code, freight rates. The parcel fee
has been eliminated at one depot and
duced from 10 cents to cents at another.
This committee believes that fire insurance
rates charged in this District are excessive
and recommends that our merchants en-
courage the organization of mutual fire in
suranre companies in the District, for the
several classes of rSkS. 1t proposes to agf-
ate the question of excessive freight rates
on steam railways until the business COM
munity gets fair share of the wholesale
out-of-town business.
You are requested by this committee to
urge upon Congress the Introduction of the
high pressure water service for the protec-
ton of the business section of the city.
w
1t Will be equal to the service of thirty-four
fire engines.
The Streets and Avenues
TT viii be remembered that it was
through your influence that the bill for the
extension of streets and avenues, costing
from ST., 600 to s20O0O,O00, was killed.
Your committee on this subject reports
that there has been no legislation provid-
ing for opening or extending these streets
Believing that it would be unwise at this
time to pass any street opening street
extension bills, the committee recommends
that where a street in a rough or impassa-
BILE condition connects two suburbs or i'm
proved subdivisions the obstruction should
be removed by legislation, so that both
ends of improved portions would be joined
and the two or more subdivisions made
easy of access 1t is also of the opinion
that wherever a street Is improved by
building on both sides thereof, preference
should be given, as a general rule, to the
paving of such streets
ut lays particular stress upon the fact
that a new street be provided on the west
side of the proposed new union station, ex-