The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-08-14
THE COMPLETED CONDUIT.

The Big Cottonwood conduit is COM
pleted to the mouth Of Parley's can
yon, according to the contract as
| amended; tho amendment consisting in
making the conduit tight so that it
would carry the water; that is to say,
under the old Morris graft the contract
| did not provide for covering or plaster
| ing, and q very easy test showed that it
was so leaky that it would not convey
much water to the city, even if great
deal was turned in.
The American administration amend
ed the contract by requiring the conduit
TO be plastcrcd and covered through
out its length This added $751;
900 TO Mr.. Moran 3 bid for the work,
but even so, the total cost is still well
within the estimate originally made Of
tho cost OF this work, The money set
apart for it in the apportionment Of the
$3.50, 900 OF the water bonds was $780,
000 Mr.. Moran 's bid for the work in
the faulty condition in which the for"
mer specifications required it to be done,
was $239,000. The addition Of the $751;
600 to mako the conduit water tight
makes the total cost $4,000, which is
a saving Of $4,000 on the original esti-
mate. Mr., Moran also completed the
contract two months ahead Of the time
| required in his contract.
This is excellent work, and the city,
rs well as the contractor, is to be con-
graduated upon the figures, both of cost
and of speedy work. All that remains
now is to construct the spillway to drop
the water the $50 feet from the ter
minus Of the conduit down to the Par
ley's canyon reservoir. 1t will take
something like two weeks to do this,
and then tho conduit and all appur-
tenances thereto will be ready for busi-
ness.
1t has been said that this conduit
Mr.. Moran; but it would not have been
much Of monument desired by any
one If Mr.. Moran had completed it
upon the old specifications made out
under the Morris administration. The
conduit would have been n leaky affair
IL Olu Iut Stdltt dui WOulu udN6 Dccu d
constant source of trouble and cost to
the city, AS it is now, it is monu-
ment of which any one might be proud
and of which Mr.. Moran undoubtedly is
proud. it is, however, in fact more Of
monument to the American admins
tration of this city than for any one
person, because it was the American ad-
ministration that took up the conduit
contract in the wretched state in which
it was left by the Morris administra-
ton, and made of it a work to be ad-
mired for its utility and because Of its
mammoth proportions and striking eff
fects
The great regret that the people OF
this city will have in this connection is
because of the fraudulent exclusion of
the city from the use Of the water
power which the great drop in the dis
charge to the Farley reservoir referred
to will afford. The pledge was made by
the Morris administration that if the
people would vota the bonds, this great
water power would be used by the city
to establish municipal light and power
plant. The old City Council, however,
Mayor Morris consenting, abandoned
that plege to the people Of this city,
betrayed them and falsifed the pledge
given TO the taxpayers, by agreeing
with the Utah Light G. Power company
that for fifty years the city would
not use this water power. This re-
striction was contained in the franchise
granted TO that company last year at
the demand Of President Smith Of the
Mormon church Councilman Fernstrom
appeared openly on the floor of the
Council advocating the betrayal Of the
people and acting as the counsel in
fact of the Utah Light s. Power COM
pany, lie habitually spoke of what
fwe' wanted or what "we' would
accept or what "we" would do, mean
ing thereby not the public or the city
Of Salt Lake, but the Utah Light s.
Railway company. He thus thoroughly
identified himself with that concern as
its spokesman, advocate and voting as
sistant. Thus the city has in this great
spillway water power which 1T IS
under obligation not to use for fifty
years, but which, If it could be used at
once, would afford the city immense re-
lief from excessive charges and afford
better service.
But the conduit as it is, is in fact a
mighty monument to the benefcence of
the American administration Of this
city. That administration took the
conduit in its first stages, found it was
being built in a faulty manner, was
open to the elements, and so leaky that
a large percentage of the water turned
into it was certain to escape between
the intake and the outlet. The Ameri-
can administration required the conduit
to be protected by an earth covering,
and to be plastered so as to be water
tight Without these requirements the
conduit would have been of but little
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