New-York tribune., 1907-04-18
THE LESSONS oF KAroNAH.

! AS announced IL The Tribune yesterday, the
| local departments of Health and Water. with
! ;he cooperation of the State Board of Health,
! have decided to keep representatives in the
| Croton watershed in order to guard against
repetition of the Katonah and Cross River Dam
! typhoid outbreak. The local officials will be
! able TO have all sources OF contamination re-
moved promptly through the state board,
which has full power. There will be no tenn
pOrzing with offenders. 1t was also announced
| that Controller Metz, with two engineers, and
! Water Commissioner O'Brien will to-day in
| vestigate the filtration possibilities at the Je-
/ rome Park Reservoir. All this Is gratifying to
| The Tribune which in calling attention to the
| shocking and dangerous conditions in the Gro
| ton watershed has had no desire to make q
sensation indeed, it has strongly and con-
| sistenty deprecated any such thing-but has
aimed simply at securing the doing OF an essen
| tial public work
While giving fun credit TO the city officials
| for their energetic action. II is impossible to
avoid the inquiry what these several depart
| ments of the city government would have
done or would now be doing II The Tribune
had not investigated and called their atten-
| ton TO the typhoid epidemic, pointed ont Its
source and shown the need OF prompt and
drastic action. 1t is gratifying to have them
act upon The Tribune'S initiative But II would
be far more gratifying and reassurlng 10 have
| those departments, to which the safeguarding
of the welfare Of great city IS confded. act
on their own Initiative and not wait to be
shown the way and be spurred to activity by
newspaper enterprise. II is not pleasant to con
template what the result OF further neglect at
hatonah might have been. An epidemic Of ty-
phold in this city would be a fearful thing
There were thirteen cases at Katonah in a pop
ulation of about 1900, or one to every 100
persons. At that ratio there would have been
1900 cases In this borough with possibilities
Of contaGion far greater than In the open rural
village in the watershed. The element OF panic
would have entered into the situation And It
must be remembered that it would have been
a most difficult matter to purify the great sup
ply used in Manhattan. II was easy at Ka-
tonah TO clean the small reservoir shut up the
pipe leading from Beaver Dam Brook into the
well and disinfect the cesspOols and other
danger sources. But the work here and In the
watershed would have been colossal
We are now probably OUT of this danger
and for the present have escaped the results
Of official neglect II is TO be hoped that the
lesson will prove lasting and that official vIgi.
lance and activity will not suffer relapse.
The Health Commissioner has taken the initia-
tive in course that should prove of lasting
benefit He will, with the Water Commits
siOner strive to have the laws repeaIed which
hamper the Water Department In its control
of the watershed at this time The CITY sbould
have the power to acquire land by cundemna-
ton proceedings where the land contains con-
unuous nuisances or where the ownership will
! be of advantage in guarding the water SUNNY
from contamination. The city may now inspect
all ii pleases, and the state may abate mi
sances. But this is a clumsy method Of cor
rection. If there is upstate jealousy Of the citv
this jealousy should apply itself 10 other in
terests than those Of such vital Importance as
the control Of the water supply. Surely the gov
ernment at Albany will see the wisdom OF Civ
ing the city of New York a free hand in the
Croton district