Los Angeles herald., 1909-03-20
MAYORALTY RACE
IN PASADENA ON
WATERHOUSE TO FIGHT HARD
AGAINST FARLEY
PRESENT MAYOR OF CROWN CITY
ISSUES LETTER
Water Question Is One of Principal
Issues of Election Campaign and
Each Faction Tries
to Use 1t

PASADENA, March 1s.-Now the
race Is on! With William Waterhouse
and his councilmanic running mates
talking water in North Pasadena to-
night, with the publication of Mayor
Earley's letter to the public this AFTER
noon. and the declaration by his cam
paign manager, II. c. Hotaling, that
the water question is the one issue
the party, had not the opposition beat
en- them to it, would have selected as
the one on which to make the cam
paign, the day was fairly exciting.
The Farley letter is a simple report
told in plain English, of the work
which has been done by the aoIhlnls-
tration forces during the paS two
years. 1t contains some $500 words
and there is no mention of issues save
in the last paragraph, where mayor
Farley says the campaign will not in
clude personalities.
ct wish to add the letter reads,
"that 1 do not care to have>any man
voting for me simply because he is
my personal friend or because he likes
me better than he does the man VINO
is opposed to me. Personalities should
not enter into for the high office OF
mayor of our city; we should be
Judged on what we have accomplished
and the statements we make TO the
public regarding our policies in ad-
ministering the citys business, justly
and fairly, to rich and poor alike. Dur
ing my administration l have tried to
use my best judgment after hearing
the evidence in every case that mas
been brought before me, and whether
O man voted for me or against me, l
never let that interfere in my de-
cisions on what was right or just IN
any of the city's affairs"
So it is to be a campaign, on the
side of the administration forces, Tor
the public approval of the work when
has been done by the party during the
two years past, with the added issue
of the water bond question, forced IN
by the Waterhouse faction and gladly
accepted by the Farley people, who be-
lieve, from the election of two years
ago and the bond election of a year
ago, that the public is already salts |
fed as to the position which Thomas
Farley occupied in this matter.
He refers to it in his letter, not as
an issue, but as a part of the work !
which the administration has had on
it's hands during his term of service.
In this part of the letter he says he
was elected to. do things in part1cu-
lar, acquire the municipal ownership
of water at the old price fixed in 1905, |
plus the cost of the betterments since
that date, and to complete the mu-
nicipal electric light plant.
The latter object is now carried out |
at least the money for the completion
sale of the bonds recently voted is in
the hands of the city and Manager
Koiner is planning the contracts for |
the work, which must be done before
the service can be further enlarged.
Mayor Farley goes on to say:
I'm regard to the water question, !
we used our best efforts TO acquire |
municipal ownership of water. The |
price we were to pay for the property |
of the three companies, according to
contract, was 1852, 800, plus the actual /
cost of betterments, until we were |
ready to pay for them. The interest |
on that amount at 4 per cent would |
be S34519 and the Pasadena Lake |
Vineyard Land and Water company |
paid the last year, in dividends to its |
stockholders, $3S,500 more than enough |
to pay the interest on the bonds to buy |
the three water companies. Besides, |
If we had acquired the property of the !
three water companies the city would |
own 7S4 acres of land, a large per-
centage of that being in the Arroyo ,
which would have made our city a |
beautiful natural park We only !
lacked thirtysix votes of carrying the !
main proposition by a tWo-thirds ma
jority, and then there We're about 900 |
voters who failed to vote on the main
proposition on account of its location |
being at the bottom of the ballot.
Question of the Opposition
1.-THE opposition raised the technical |
question that the water companies did !
not own the water they were selling |
to the city: also that the city did not |
know what it was buying. We had !
our attorneys and engineers go all over |
the matter and also got out maps |
showing the location of every piece of |
land that the city was acquiring, the |
number of acres that we were acquir-
ing, the number of inches of water |
cOIllH a.
duce with their present development, |
the size of the pipes on every street |
in our city, the average life of the /
pipe estimated by engineers and did |
everything in our power to give to the |
voter all the accurate information that |
1t was possible for us to give. 1t /
seems to me that it is the peoples /
desire that the question of municipal .
ownership of water DE again submitted /
If we can obtain a satisfactory price |
from the water companies. The water .
companies are under no contract or .
obligation to our city at the present .
time to sell us their plants.
Non-Partsan Water Commission
''I would willingly, and shah propose !
If elected mayor, to appoint commit |
tee of two, subject to the approval of |
the council, provided the opposition /
will appoint committee of two and |
let that committee select fifth man. |
ana let tneln submit the question IlaI /
was raised just before we voted on the |
bond issue about the water companies |
not owning the water that they were
selling to the city, or their right to
pay dividends, to a judge or judges, or
to attorneys that the committee might |
select. | would also be perfectly will |
ing to have that committee select en- |
gineers and competent men who would |
place values on the water, real estate, |
pipe lines, reservoirs, or any other /
property that the companies own, so
that all citizens might be satisfied |
with the investigation. 1 will agree |
to raise one-half of the money by sub |
scription if the opponents to our plan |
of municipal ownership of water will |
raise the balance to defray all eX-
penses of obtaining such information |
The only reason that we were able to |
secure as low & price on the water !
companies plants at the last election |
was on account of the water COM
panies being controlled by about 5000 |