The Washington herald., 1907-08-19

Editor The Washington Herald:
II there is one thing more than another
on the line Of civic Righteousness, for
which the American people stand, It is a
square deal.
II there is one thing more than another
which illustrates the satisfying graces of
existence all along the life line, it is the
utter contempt for lodging humane con-
clusions and humane results, which speak
for themselves in distinctive terms.
The city government has earned FOR it.
self the contempt of its people in the act
Of closing the city wells. than which no
other government on earth has done its
equal.
In its unique desertion Of the first laws
Of nature, and setting itself up against the
DEGREES of Almighty God in its blind
reasoning. 1t stands alone and uneQualed
In the enforced necessity for the suffer
ing it has maliciously caused, it stands
as the peer of civilization.
The saint and the savage stand aghast
at its conscienceless manifestation in the
voluntary robbery from he-people of the
greatest blessing Of life-coel. sparkling
water
Presnitz. the founder of the water-cure
system Of treating disease, lived forty
days on nothing but water and cured him
self by its healing properties.
But then Priesnitz lived in an age before
the special eXegesis Of municipal wisdom
manifested by the city government Of the
District of Columbia; although he de-
record was one OF advantage to the race
of mankind, and not of detraction.
Priesnitz was not filed with theoretical
absurdities, that twisted and fell under
the weight of their unnatural specifica-
tionss the unresuained use of water
simple water-in his practice won the
applause of suffering humanity then, and
does to this day.
The published record of the board Of
health for the past two weeks shows q
heavy increase in cases Of typhoid fever,
especially among the cOlOTed people,
large percentage Of whom depended on
the pumps for their water supply. Does
the cause Of the excessive death rate
figure on the loss of the water from the
pumps2 If not, why not?
II this inhUman exaCtion had come to
Us over the wires from England, or Ire
land, or Manila, the Washington gov
ernment would have put itself on record
with holy horror IN discussing the
bi0Od-Curdling situation.
A government Of appointive officials
with life tenure IN view, takes little
thought Of public opinion regarding its
acts, or their results, as the present out
rage has fully demonstrated
When a city government, like that of
Washington, gets above its level. il is
high time that the aid of the courts was
called into requisition to undo its in
human policy, and force a restitution of
what 1t has surreptiously thrust aside.
10 the disfavor Of its people; or viii we
quietly accept the situation, and tura the
other side, for some other maliciously in
vented theory upon which to build future
conquests of vain glory?
There is no palliating circumstances to
justify inhumanity in any form; but when
it is forced upon a people gratuitously,
by robbing them of the cooling draught
furnished by town pumps, against their
expressed viii in protests and letters TO
the Commissioners. it begets contempt
for such maladministration Of power
The subordination of constitutional Eight
by the city government, in its own as
sumed right to destroy the wells, the heir
looms Of life-not on the spur Of the
moment. but after mature deliberation. 3"
and the causeless suffering forced upon
the people thereby-will go down to the
remotest history side by side with the
treason of Benedict Arnold.
It is high time that such occult nantes
tations were referred to an expert on civil
izatiOns along the line Of human rights
and under human exposition.
II might happen that public opinion
viii be accorded statutory relief in its