Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-01-23
LOSING INTEREST
Electors May Be Asked 10 Ex-
 press Opinion on Water.

Interest in the water question ap- pears to be dying out and when the thing is forgotten by the public the officials will do what they think is best. This may not suit, but so long as the public cannot agree upon something 1t is hard to see what other course there Is open to the pow CTS that be. It is big question and many smaller things have been made smart campaign issues. The wise ones say that the electors of Waterbury will be asked to give an expression of opinion on 1t next fall and if so the contest will be interesting. With a candidate pledged to meters and another opposed to their use 1t is thought that there would be good show for third man, one in favor of meters at fiat rate which would give water for domestic use at about one-third of what it costs for that purpose at present. The worst thing about this so-called campaign of ed |ucation regarding water is that 90 per cent of the people are losing sight of the main question. All have their ears to the ground to catch ev- cry sound that comes from advocates of meters, while but little notice taken of rates and as result the in- equality in the price of the article continues and man pays three times as much for the water he drinks as he does for what he uses for other purposes The public takes fit like this once in so often, but they get over it and many say that this little excitement will blow over, too, and then things will sail along in the usual way for another year or two. Perhaps that is so, but just the same every year brings people nearer to the goal. More understand the in- equality of the water rates now than ever before and just as soon as the real state of affairs is made clear to all then relief will come, but not be. fore.
 It is a good old democratic method, an honest way, for municipalities to treat all alike, bat we are living in an age when strict honesty is not considered good form and many feel justified not only in taking all they can get for nothing, but also making supreme effort to have evrybody contribute something towards add ing to their pile. They will tell you 1t is business and one could tell by the way they put 1t that they are not conscious of the least wrong do- ing, no matter how much hardship their conduct inflicts upon others.
 The very large consumers who get water for about half what it costs know that they have no right to it and some of them are candid enough to say so. Mir Elton once said that it was the duty of the city govern ment to discourage the factories and others who apply city water to other than domestic purposes to stop using 1t, but this is not being done. On the contrary that class of trade is sought after as anybody can see by a schedule of prices that makes the article considerably less to custom CTS that the city loses on than to those who pay price on which the city makes a little.
 What do you tbtnk of this as business proposition? If a private corporation should try that method it would soon go into bankruptcy and the same thing would happen to a if it didn't have un- limited credit, could levy a tax as high as 1t pleases, and also add to it's ready cash by issuing bonds.
 If you say anything about this question to the officials they will tell you that it cannot be settled definitely until the entire system is metered and the class of patrons who would profit most by this don't want 3 change, and there you are.