Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-02-10

that charter and it was allowed to ex-
pire and Is now void. The refusal Of
the Maine company to furnish water to
Topsham leaves that community with
out public water system nuless it can
nave help from the legislature.
While these petitioners are under no
legal or reasonable obligation to exhibit
grievances against the Maine company,
they do exhibit them. The table of
rates now delivered by us to the Com
mittee shows charges for water by
eleven New England water systems in
places similar in size to Brunswick,
which is one of them. Some of these
lare gravity systems and some use
pumps. Some are cases Of municipal
ownership and some are not. We also
present a larger and more comprehen-
sive table. Both tables indicate ex-
orbitant charges at Brunswick as COM
pared with rates elsewhere in places
that afford a fair comparison, We
have with us and will deliver if neces-
sary, the reports and data from which
these tables were made. 1t is objected
that we are making comparisons with
PAoSCS OdlSluC liitS Sldlc. WHAT Has lnS
state line to do with this? Water is
water and dollars are dollars and dirt
is dirt outside of Maine.
1t is common argument for munich
pal ownership that the takers of wa
ter do not have to pay dividends to
stockholders determined by the stock
holders themselves in addition to the
cost of procurement of the water. A
member of the House from Auburn
where municipal system exists, has
told you that in his city. the rates have
more than once been reduced while no
resort to taxation to make up a deficit
has been necessary. AS population
increases and water comes more and
more into use, the revenue increases
and the rates to the consumer ,dimin-
ish. We have shown you that in
Brunswick the increase in revenue has
been accompanied by increase of rates.
We also offer large number of wit
nesses who say the water delivered by
the Maine Company at Brunswick is
foul and bad. To this testimony the
water company opposes it's own SER
wants and officials who say they did
not know it was bad. No witness from
Brunswick denies that it is bad but one
from Bath says he does not know that
the water delivered in Bath has been
complained of. We do not know or
care what kind of water satisfies the
people of Bath or what kind they re-
ceive. Our water is none the better
because the officers and servants of
the company are not aware that it is
foul. 1t is enough for us to show that
Ut is foul. We are not obliged to show
and have not made much effort to show
how it became so.
Counsel for the Maine company
thinks our witnesses who are not
chemists may have been deceived in
this matter. He thinks they have not
the scientific knowledge to distinguish
between dirty and clean water. This
will not answer as to Prof. Robinson
who is probably the most eminent
chemist in Maine. Mr.. Robinson is an
intelligent, educated man, professor of
chemistry at Bowdoin college, State
assayer and member of the State
board of health. The Maine company
says it laid out two hundred thousand
dollars on faith of his analysis of wa
ter. He testifies that the water de-
livered to Brunswick contains organic
and floating matter which it should not
contain; that it has been for some time
deteriorating and is now nearly down
to the danger limit and would not in
it's present condition satisfy the board
of health of some of the states.
The Maine Water Company, against
this, exhibits a table showing that the
death rate from typhoid fever is low
in Brunswick as compared with other
places and that it fell somewhat
abruptly some years ago. We do not
think it can be claimed that the mud
which that company delivers in Bruns-
wick is either a cure or a preventive
of typhoid fever. The petitioners have
not claimed and no witness of theirs
has testified that the Nequasset wa
ter ever contained typhoid germs.
Prof. Robinson testifies the other way.
The water company brings the typhoid
into this hearing to kick it out again.
Water may be unwholesome and filthy
without containing disease germs. 1t
may be that we have escaped some dis
ease by purchasing and using spring
water. Water delivered by the Maine
Company is not at all injurious to those
who do not use it. 1t appears howev-
er, that the drop in the fever rate at
Brunswick was contemporaneous with
the Introduction of sewers into the viii
lage and that the few subsequent cases
have been mostly in the little village"
a suburb not provided with sewers.
The Maine Water Company protests
against what 1t calls the ''Dismember-
ment" of it's system. We do not pro-
pose to take Section out of the middle
of its property. 1t needs a source of
supply, pumping station, standpipe
and consumers. We do not propose to
come between any two of these. We
propose to leave to it all the sources of
supply and pumping stations which it
now has and uses or desires to use and
not to sever it's pipe connections with
its remaining consumers who include