Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-05-02

ulNlueHuS Woulu ever come, IL being a
matter of future belief and trust alone,
now from the very instant they take
possession, nay. back from the first day
of March 1904, before they received
possession
| Now, may 1t please the commission.
what is the nature of the system We
find here? Exposed to the fiery ordeal Of
all the available criticism of the Dis
| tricts staff of engineers we find that it
remains as a system unchallenged in de-
sign. adaptability and fitness to do it's
| service with satisfactoriness to the peo-
pie in respect to a fire supply. 1t will
| seldom If at all be found in any other
water system in this territory that the
same high pressure, the same capacity
! for unchallenged water service exists as
does here. The system is admirably con-
ceived and admirably executed. Adequate
| at each portion, pipe system well de-
signed and laid, a large amount OF heavy
and large sized pipe. all the hydrant
pipes except 4 little trife of few hun
dred feet being six inch or upward. we
have today a physical system beyond
cavil and that is something that l have
| not known in any other case. we nave
a water supply which exists in profusion.
| It's quantity is unquestloned and mex
haustible 1t is a water of agreea BILE soft
ness, a water as their own experts say OF
entirely unobjectionable color of less
! color than many other waters in this
State. 1t is perfectly serviceable for
every other purpose than drink. The net
result of all the minute and microscopic
as well as bacteriologic examinations. OF
all the search and research. has been to
prove for us that after years time. af-
ter six. seven, eight, nine hundred eX
| amnations, under the severest tests
known to science. not one solitary disease
| germ has been found in the water supply
So that you have Il physical system
adapted to every possible use OF water
save the propriety. which is conceded of
| filtration. That property is claimed by
/ the gentlemen experts Oh the other side
to exist even in any surface water
wherever taken.
| Such, then, is the system after all
the fires of criticism that have swept
around it. Has it any value? On&
! would be led to think not from the ar
/ Sument of counsel. But the counsel
has brOOded over much. The atmOS-
| here about his personality has become
clouded by Il vapor of notions. fancies
and theories dwelt on, slept with as he
says, pondered. brooded over, until
they seemed no longer the shadows
and mists that they were but real
/ things that We're actually walI<in =
about him. He thinks he sees these
values vanishing. he thinks he reads
the future by which what little part of
physical value he finally had left was
to dWindle and disappear in Il few short
years, almost as you look at it. Necro-
manCer as he is he holds in his hand
the ball of value and he closes the
hand gradually uron it when, presto.
the ball is gone, and even solid value
has vanished; and counsel thinks il is
real! He does not know that he is a
| necromanccr. 1t is sad to see a NEGRO
nancer who is not even aware that he
is a necromancer. He ought at least
to be a sufficient judge Of his own art
to know that he is an artist.
i Now, may it please the court in APP
| preaching the intrinsic values of this
property-the solid value that will not
vanish at the dictates of art--we are
met here with no new consideration.
The counsel seems to think that all
suggestions of lack of value here are
novel. Not ut all. All the funda-
mental questions raised here have been
urged and urged again elsewhere. The
question of water existed in Waterville,
the question of i"aSonablencsS of rate
in Gardiner. All these considerations
have been discussed. They have been
rejected. TIL only novel proposition l
have heard here invoked was that the
decision. of this court in the 91th Maine,
"a the famous Watcrville case, was in
some mysterious WAY 4 decision wholly
favora BILE to the water district. While
the court in that case has guarded
with strict and proper fidelity all the
rights of the public, it has given the
public no right to appropriate without
the fullest compensation which the
constitution requires. 1t has given
them no right ~ seize some
thing for nothing. 1t has given
them no right to reach out an arbi-
trary hand and appropriate anothers
property without Going justice. 1t is
the finest and most complete bulwarj;
Of the rights of water companies, and
necessarily applying to all public SEQ
vice corporations. that can be found
today in all the books, l respectfully
submit.
Counsel says the company asks for
the law: Give them the law as Ii
that conjured word was sufficient OF
: itself to beat out the brains of solid
values. The counsel forgets that we
ask for nothing. They ask to seize
our property-to take from us at a blow
that which We have built up by labor
} 10y services given without COnsidera-
ton. EXCEPT the consideration of expec-
tation in the future. They ask. and
coupled with their asking, the law and
The constitution imposes on them TIC
: duty to make rs whole for what they
ask 10 seize: and every step of the
; progress we shall rest absolutely OF
the principles declared i'll this luminous
decision. because they are the Yer!
t principles we ask for on the part of the
water company and have spent months
of labor i'm endeayoring to secure, ant
ty this decision we secured them. We
shall bottom every aspect of value or
l The language of our own court.
Now this nrOperty was CripipaJI-