The Opelousas courier., 1905-09-16
More Push
Communicated

Mr.. EDITOR: NOone appreciates more
than the writer the fact that your paper
has ever been the advocate of all things
that make for the progress and advance
ment of our town; nor does anyone real
ice more fully than | the great influence
such well-directed effort on the part of
the press exerts upon the people of q
community. And it is due ia my firm
conviction of this fact, coupled with the
belief that no question nov confronting
our people deserves greater agitation,
that i called upon you to push the sub
ject matter of sewerage for town
with increasing effort. The question of
sewerage is one that lies at the very
core OF Our towns present and future
welfare. In q community where there
are only a few scattered houses, the
waste matter is easily disposed of, and
10 therefore no menace to the health of
the people; but when that community
has increased in population until there
are as many as ten privies in one block,
Gas there are ON some blocks in OpeIou-
sas); when the slop from the washtnbs
of ten or twelve families are emptied
into the cutters of a three hundred feet
square, then it ia that questions of sew
erage and drainage have to be taken up
and properly acted upon. We have ar
rived at that period in the development
of OpelOusas, and the end is not yet,
for every indication points to a popnla-
ton of eight or ten thousand within the
next two or three years. The question
is a burning one; it is before our people
and it can't be lodged. 1t is up to US to
decide whether we will tax ourselves
and make Opel0usas an inhabitable
place for ourselves, and such q c0mmu
nifty as people who have some consider
alton for the health of their families
would care to come to, or whether we
will kill the tax and let the demon, ty-
phoid. cast a pail over our community
and smother our growth beneath its
deadly shadow.
PUSH is sorry, indeed, to have been
misconstrued by Mr.. Homer Ventre.
He had been informed that that gentle-
q was on the wrong side of the sew
erage question, and wished only to win
him from the error OF his way
Push" had no intention of being
witty PUSH ia glad that Mr..
Ventre let the public know what his
objection is to sewerage. He thinks,
too, that the residents on the outskirts
of town have a "kickn coming, and as
Mr.. Ventre lie a member of the council,
be a very probably inform the public
why an appropriation has not been
made from the revenues of the town to
extend the light and water systems to
the eubnrbans, in whom he seems to
take such deep INTEREST," Is it not a fact
that, although the revenues of the town
have been greater during his admins
trati0n than at any other period in the
towns history, the present council has
done comparatively nothing in the way
OF public Improvement with the fundsq
Y0nr predecessors were able, under the
high license, to devote, / believe, some
thing like $4,000 to the building of
sidewalks during the last year of their
term. PUSH thinks that $12,00 0 would
20 q good way toward placing the water
and light system in reach of the inhab-
tied portions OF our suburbs.
"Pueh0 has no desire to ioatinto Office
on Q sewerage wave,n but it would ap-
pear that Mr.. Ventre would like to be
maintained in the council on o 'tsnbur-
ban wave,' even if he had to endanger
the health OF the inhabited portion of
town to win favor with the voters out
10 the tall timbers.n PUSH would
suggest. however. that opposition to the
sewerage system will very likely cause
him to float put of that body on a "p0p-
ularn wase.p The enlightened and pro-
gressive people of this town want sew
erage. and "Push" believes they are in
the majority. "PUsH.n