The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-08-25
EXORBITANT DEMANDS,

The exorbitant demands made by the
Knudsen and Bagley combine for their
water rights on Big Cottonwood en-
phasize anew tho utter lack of busi-
ness sense which was shown By the
incompetent and discredited Morris ad
ministration Without getting these
rights, without having any contract or
| any agreement whatever with respect
to them, the Morris administration let
the contract for building the Big Cot
torwood conduit II was precisely the
sort Of thing that has been done occa-
sionally In Utah IN mining opera tions
where n company would build q mill
for the treatment Of ores before it
found that it had any ores to treat.
Tha necessity for getting water to
run through the conduit was, of course,
the main point in the whole water
proposition. 1t was given out that
there was 10 he an addition through
this means to the city's water supply.
1t would he impossible to make such
addition, of course, unless the water
was TO be had TO bring to the city
through this conduit, the contract for
the building of which was let. The
most ordinary, common business pru
dence would suggest that this water
should be secured before any great eX-
pense was taken in providing means
for bringing it to the city. First Of all
get your water, then provide means for
I,rNp IN hn o0kN
taken By Morris without particle Of
sense or reason, has brought the city
up against the present proposition
whereby the owners os those rights
now demand value many times in ex-
cess of what tho worth OF those rights
were supposed TO be at the time the
water bonds were voted. It was given
out 10 the public that the knudsen
right could be had for something like
$4,000. While that was claimed moth
ing was done to obtain the right for
that money, or value something like
it, until the city was in hole by the
letting of the contract TO build this
conduit before trying to make any def
mite arrangements about getting the
water
1t is nothing more than the ordinary
experience Of mankind, whenever a case
of this sort appears, that the party
which goes on, assuming that 1t can get
what it wants later on; in such cases
it is always found that the later on,
means that the person who has not
closed the necessary details for the
enterprise in hand, is subject to very
bad awakening.
1t is not in the least likely that the
Knudsen and Bagley water rights can
be valued by an impartial jury or arbi-
TRAITOR at anything like the figure that
the claimants now put upon them. In
this matter, the American party, which
succeeded to the Morris contract after
it had been fully let and partly COM
pleted. is put under the disadvantage
that Morris himself would have labored
under could he have come to the final
point when the water must be had.
1t viii simply have to do the best it
can, but the water must be had, and
there must be fair and business like
value fixed upon it, Exorbitant ideas
must give way before plain, ordinary
facts, and the city's interest must be
protected on a fair basis, and the water
had for what it is actually worth.
Messrs. Knudsen and Bagley will do
we'll to cease their efforts to hold the
city up in this matter and come to a
fair basis whereby their rights will be
released.