The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-07-10
STREET LIGHTING.


street lights. Walia Walla, while its
streets are we'll lighted, could make
many improvements along this line,
and it is only fair to say that many
are now contemplated. This is true all
the more in winter, when darkness
falls at 5 o'clock, than at present; but
now is the time to start things for VIM
ter The proposition of Mr.. Meacham
TO light the streets and have SATURDAY
night a big night is a good one. Street
lighting pays 1t brings actual re-
turns for the money invested Mer-
chants will get back every cent they
put into lights, and that with liberal
interest.
A corner lot on Main street is worth
more than lot in the latest suburb
two miles out of town. Why? Simply
because more people pass that way
And it not inf,equently happens that
the two sides of the Same street have
different values. Simply because more
people pass on one side than on the
other. Anything, therefore, that adds
to the traffic of a street increases the
value of the property abutting. Of
course bank buildings, a federal build
ing, a hotel-any of these would in
crease the value of the property, by
lo t,~of Inf
public buildings, and theaters are not
easily to be obtained On the other
hand. lighting is a subsidiary aid that
is always at hand and is obtained with
comparative ease.
Cincinnati, for instance, has an open
square in the center of the business
section. One side of this square has
been lighted by private enterprise, and
in the evening there is no difficulty in
telling where the crowd goes, or why.
Nine tenths of the pedestrians take the
lighted side Merchants on one of New
arl1's streets noticed that the traffic
passed another way. They installed
a brilliant lighting system and now
they have the traffic Of course it
would be absurd to try to create a pop
ular thoroughfare in. remote district
but to business men on what is called
a side street. it is easily possible.
In a mc,e general way, lighting the
entire business section of a city up .to
the standards of modern illumination
does for the city as a whole what the
lighting of one street does for that
street. 1t increases values by in7
creasing traffic. not only from the city
itself but from the surrounding coun-
tryside and from the nearby towns an6
villages. Good street lighting in resi-
Dental districts needs no argument FOL
its support. Good street lighting, more
than any, one other thinG. gives a city
a tone of progressiveness and prosper
ity. Nothing succeeds like success,
and to appear prosperous is always TIL
first step toward being prosperous.
AS a protection to it's citizens it
well lighted streets are almost on a pa
with its policemen. 1t would be goini
too far to say that light alone woul,
give protection to the people. but tn
police force in residence districts ha
been found in large cities to be twic
as efficient On a well lighted street a
on a poorly illuminated one.
AS to health, it might be stretchin
a point to say that a well lighted stree
is healthier than a poorly lighted one
But this, is a sure venture one i'm
provement brings another. And wher
streets are we'll lighted. they will 500
be improved, and where they are i'm
proved they will be the more easil
kept clean and filth will not gathec.
From every view point. street light
are a good investment. Walla Wall
has found her street lights to be 81
And during the time when the incan
descants We're strung along Mai
street, there was universal talk owe