The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-03-09
A pEPLoRABLE CONDITION.

Line COnQlllOn Oh the water supply Ol
Minneapolis. as stated by it's own pub
lie officials and it's own newspapers,
is at once deplorable and disgraceful.
The city could rot be in its present
unhappy plight, a prey to typhoid and
other malignant diseases, if it had not
been for many years utterly regardless
of the rlainest requirements of the
public need.
We hardly know how or understand
the course of a community that does
not spend forethought and all its re-
sources, if necessary, upon the pro-
vision snf an adequate supply of pure
water, upon a complete sewer system
and upon all those other regulations
and accessories that are necessary to
the protection Of the public health. If
it does not do that it is no better than
an aggregation of huts of Australian
bushmen or an African kraal.
Now, Minneapolis has. been for many
years face to face with a problem
which, though stupendous, is not at all
perplexing. 1t is unfortunate in hav-
ing elected originally to draw its water
supply frem the Mississippi river. and
in having constructed its system Of
pumping stations and mains accord
ingly. The river was certain to be-
come polluted. After a time the in
take for the water system was moved
up stream so that the citizens might
not at least be compelled to drink their
own sewage. But the extension of the
city limits and the growth of other
cities and towns along the stream above
Minneapolis have so affected the purity
of the water that it is unfit in any cir
cumstances for household consumption.
One would have supposed that any
wide-awake city would have dropped
everything else, If SO situated, to plan
and construct new water system.
Minneapolis knew ten years ago or
Obliged 10 do one of two things; either
to create a new water system, going
to whatever distance might be neces-
sary to tap suitable lakes. or to con-
struct great filtration plants through
which every drop of water taken from
the river must be passed until 1t was
declared pure by chemical analysis be-
fore bairg~offered for public consump-
ton. Instead of that she has halted
and faltered before her problem, until
the choice of her people was reduced
to river water or nothing. Recently.
at time when the pumping stations in
the northern part of the city were I'M
equal to their task. the authorities Or
ollet island to be set to work and a
liquid solution of filth, and disease
germs, Of which the river consists at
that point, was sent into the mains
and delivered to households every
where.
This is little short of municipal MUIR
der. The laws of cleanliness alone
should forbid forcing such decoction
through the city water pipes, while the
laws OF health show that it is equiva-
lent to a free distribution Of death GER
tificates. Public opinion has stopped
| this performance, but the results Of it
live in epidemics that have carried
| death and endless sorrow to scores of
households. Even with the shutdown
of the OIL pumping station the evil is
mitigated, rather than removed. The
ordinary water supply Is simply less
infected, and human lives must week
ly pay the penalty of municipal inca
pacity until supply Of pure water
is provided by one method or another.
Minneapolis is so widely and so just.
ly known for her intelligence, pluck
and pukiic spirit that it will be diff
cult to understand the plight to which
she has reduced herself by this par
ticular Instance of Indifference, and