The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-23

this week and turning over sod. for mally inaugurated work on the new water supply system for New York. which will be the most tremendous ever undertaken. It will exceed the Suez Canal in cost, with a total of $161, ,00o. 900. and Is to ultimately fur nish the city with a mere trife of S00.- 000.000 gallons of water daily. in ad- dition to its present supply. So great is the consumption of water here that one after another all the available streams and watersheds In the imme- diate vicinity have been exhausted, and the proble of getting the neces- sary supply has assumed more and more serious proportions. AS result the greatest undertaking ever attempt ed for such purpose Is now under way. It involves nothing less than the transformation of a whole countryside. together with tunnels. aqueduct and reservoir constructions on a Titanic scale The water will flow 130 miles from the farthest limits of the sup ply to the fountain in City Hall Park, and the watersheds to be drained have an area of more than 900 square miles, filter plant sixty acres in extent and two reservoirs, one of them having a capacity of 10000, 100000 gallons and the other 10000, 100000. will be fea- lures of the work. The larger reser-
 
 ply from half a dozen smaller ones. will be twelve miles long by two miles wide while the smaller one will neces- itate the removal of the entire village of Kensico. including many old home steads where families have lived for generations. The great aqueduct con- veying the water to the city will have a bore larger than the subway and will pass under the Hudson river at depth of 600 feet Of course, New York does tnot expect to drink all of the water. Some of 1t will be used for bathing purposes. and Street Cleaning Commissioner Craven Is of the opin- ion that the streets also should be washed every day, an operation de- manding the contents of a small lake.
 It is not often that honors in academic, military aand diplomatic fields fall to the lot of one person, but nevertheless this was what came to the Hon. Herbert G. Squiers, now United States Minister to Panama, this week when Fordham University con ferred on him the honorary degree of LL D. to express in so doing, as her president stated in writing to MT. Squiers, "the affectionate regard in which she holds you and to testify to the pride she feels in the excellent service you have rendered our beloved country through a long and honorable career.'' That career began in the army In 1878 and was later transferred to the diplomatic fields in Berlin, China, where special honors were gained, Cuba and later Panama MT. Squiers is still, however a comparatively young man, being only AS years old, and It IS expected that he may shortly be made ambassador. Governor Hughes prob ably will hold the record of 1907 Tor the receipt of commencement honors' several institutions comforting degrees on him. Mark Twain is another proml- nent New Yorker to receive an academic badge of distinction. but he Is travel ling all the way to England Tor his' thus incidentally escaping some hlgn- lv unreasonable weather This year commencement in New York was re- earded as the coldest ever, both by Columbia and Fordham universities. and the graduating classes of both ln- stitutions will doubtless be able to re- member the date of their class pS counting back to the year of New Yorks springless sprng.
 About the Fourth of July Ezra Meeker, who has come out of the Tar west in a prairie schooner drawn by oven expects to lay before President Roosevelt at Oyster Bay plan for inc overthrow of MT. Hartman ana the solution of the problem of rall- road monopoly in the United states which deserves careful cohslueration. i: The plan contemplates nothing less tn
 tbe construction of a great continental roedwav from the Missouri River to Puget Sound, over the line of the old "oreeon Trail" and possibly continuing aostward from the Mississippi to the