Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1903-12-11
WATER WORKS MEETING
The Advocates Of City Water Works at
the Doris Last Night.

night at the Doris theater. Or rather,
II was mass meeting called by those
who are in favor of voting bonds for
a public water works system. The
night was rather chilly to encourage
a large attendance and it was also
rather too chilly for the generation of
q great deal of enthusiasm.
The meeting was called to order by
Chairman O'Neill of the Citizens Com
mittee who proceeded to address the
assemblage at considerable length. He
presented q document containing what
he said was the original estimate OF
the cost. maintenance and operation OF
a system of water works of the kind
that Phoenix will need. Mr.. O'Neill
did not present the figures of the es-
innate except in the aggregate, as
Stunning that the audience of last night
was the same audience that attended
the mass meeting of last May and had
not forgotten what it had been told
then. He said. though. that the figures
of construction footed up to $292,OO0.
The cost of maintenance and opera
ton. he said were about the same as
those which he had been informed the
present company had to pay.
Chairman O'Neill introduced Hon. II.
II ONGtSs WIZ Il NllN SlNii
on account of the greater protection
which he believed it would give the
city. There was always danger of a
fire and in the event of a fire it was
the opinion of the speaker that the
presence of water would minimize its
destructive energy if it did not entire
ly destroy it.
In the course of his address Mr..
Powers pointed out the enormous ex-
pense that would be entailed upon
the city when the addition should be
supplied by fire hydrants. For the
present ones he said that the city was
paying $40 a year Three times as
many are now NEEDED and the audience
was left to infer that for them the
same rate would have to be paid. Mr..
Powers unintentionally overlooked the
circumstance that Manager Heap of
the company had submitted to the
Citizens Committee proposition By
which he would furnish the city forty
three additional hydrants for 81, and
pledged the company to submit this
proposition TO the council at its next
meeting The price of all future
hydrants was to be $39, the average
to which they had been reduced by
the forepart of his proposition. Mr..
Powers spoke of civic purity though
the subject was not intimately con-
nected with the matter which the au-
dience had been called to consider. NJ.
Powers believed that the improve
ments the Phoenix Water company
was making in the present system
were not well advised. The pipe, he
believed was defective. a collection
of scraps of the new pipe had been
made and placed upon the stage to
which he called the attention of the
audience Pieces of the pipes We're
put into the hands of ushers who
passed them through IN eaudience for
inspection. 1t was the first water
pipe that many persons present had
ever viewed at close range and conse-
Quently no expert <opinion was ven
tured by any members of the audience.
The next speaker was Paul Il. In
giles. Mr. Ingles is an attorney. lie had
represented in an unsuccessful suit for
damages a property owner of the city
whose house had been destroyed by
fire. Whatever affection Mr.. Ingles
might have ever felt for the Phoenix
Water company had been scared by
that fire or by the order of the court
dismissing his suit He believed, there
lore, lHdl SiICc suns NdilAiON NC NFO-i
in such cases. it would be advisable to
have houses burned down under sys-
tenn of municipal ownership and thus
deprive private corporations of any en-
joyment they might derive from the
destruction of property.
Mr. Ingles expressed a distrust of
Mr.. NJ H. Sherman, which he illus
trated by a certain horse trade on the
shores Of Ilium, wherein the title to
. certain wooden steed. famed in song,
had passed, the consideration being a
city.
Mayer Bennett addressed the au-
dience on the legal phases of the sit
uatioR and reaffirmed an opinion that
he had given last spring that the city
could erect It's own water works or
grant a franchise to a rival corpora
ton. He also described the municipal
system of Tucson which he had lately
visited
Mr. J. c. Adams, who some years ago
gave the municipal ownership idea it's
first impetus, and who until recently
was chairman of the Citizens COM
mittee, was the next speaker. Regard
ing the water works question, the re-
marks of Mr.. Adams were largely re-
miniscent, the greater part of the adj
dress being devoted to the work of the
committee In general-and the posi-
bilitles of good that lay in it's contin-
uance.
Mr. Adams was followed by Judge
Mccormick. Last May Judge Moor
mick was on the other side of the wa
ter works question. At that time he
declared himself to be in favor of mu-
nicipal ownership as an idea, but he
did not believe that the time had come
for it's application to Phoenix. The
judge did not explain what conditions
had since been changed to make it ap-
plicable, unless it was the fact that the
Phoenix Water company was now en-
gagged in the carrying out of it's pro