The Corvallis times. (Corvallis, Or.) 1888-1909, 1905-05-03
THE WATER INJUNCTION

TO restrain the city council from
making a preliminary survey and
estimates for mountain water
system. No litigation of any kind
ought to be injected into a move
ment which has for its purpose
adequate fire protection and best
water supply for Corvallis. The
subject is one over which there
should not be differences and dis
tressful contest. but peace, good
will and mutual forbearance. No
home that is torn with family broils
ever attains complete happiness or
prosperity. 1t is handicapped,
hindered and hampered so that
those who belong to it are not ca
pable of best endeavor. No COM
munity that is distracted with bick-
ering and differences can rise and
make the most Of opportunity. It
cannot be progressive because if
one side makes a move, another
opposes, controversy arises, and
progress is impossible. No town
or city that divides into factions or
parties, and disputes, controverts
and opposes. can, except by, mere
accident, grow and prosper.
The proposition to bring noun
tain water to Corvallis is of such
Importance to all it's people that it
is almost sacred. More Of the tu-
ture welfare of the town Is tied up
in the proposition and its success
f11 accomplishment than can be
Joined in any other enterprise that
the community can at this time TN
dertake. More good, from the
standpoint of finance, health or
comfort would result from an ade-
quate and pure water supply than
could possibly come from any 9TH
er source. Thus the very import
ance, the benefits to be obtained,
the good to come to ali, are in
fuences that would seem to sug-
gest that peace, not controversy,
that good will, not anitnadversion.
that forbearauce. not wrangling,
should attend effort to promote the
system. This is sufficient reason
why the invocation of the law and
an attempt to defeat the plan by an
injunction, ought not to come to-
pass. If there is to be litigation,
who is to pay for it, who but all
the people of the town. 1t is they
if litigation comes, that will u1tim-
ately pay all the cost,-the lawyers
fees on both sides, the court costs
and every other expenditure, it not
directly, then indirectly, perhaps
in water rates that otherwise might
have been lower.
Since then, harmony and unity
not lawsuits and litigation
are the means by which public well
fare can best be promoted, all the
people of Corvallis ought first to
determine upon such course, and
then set about to find the means to
accomplish it. And how is it to
be done? If there are differences
over the water question will not an
application of common sense and a
sincere wish to agree, result in un-
ity? If there is objection to COM
mittee of 10 citizens that elects the
commission to operate the plant
and also names its own successors
in Office it is easy for changes
to be made so that these objections
can be removed. The members of
the committee of 10 have neither
disposition nor desire to perpetrate
themselves in a position where
there is all work and no pay, where
there is neither honor nor prestige,
and where, on the contrary, at the |
present time, their motives are i'm
pugned, their purposes questioned
and their good intentions doubted.
1t is likely that it is the view Of |
the committee of 10 that the res
possibility for the future operation
of the water plant, if built, should |
not be shifted on a few persons.