The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1910-06-03

Editor News:
1t is comomnly said by those who
have given thought to the matter that |
Europeans could live on what we
waste.
Our country is so large and our re- I
sources so vast that We have never |
had to economize-consequen we
don't know how.
Agriculturists in America require
from three to five acres to raise as
large a crop as they raise in Holland
on one acre. We destroy our forests
without thought of replacing them for
future generations, and the produc-
tiveness is often worked out of land
without effort to conserve the fertility
of the soil. But it is in the more
familiar field of plumbing and water
supply that we are most interested,
and recently We have had brought
home to us some startling truths
which ought to prove a wholesome
lesson.
Water and air are commonly consid-
cred as free and inexhaustible and We
use them as though the supply would
never give out.
But Is Water Free?
Every gallon of water delivered
through street mains to dwellings or
business places must be gathered in
reservoirs or pumped from wells, then
forced through an expensive system
of piping, and the labor of operating,
repairing and installing that system,
| together with interest on the money
Invested and coal used for fuel. must
| Ill be charged against the water. And
water is not inexhaustible in quantity
that is, the available supply of
Il wholesome water in any locality.
Pollution of streams has decreased
|: the supply of portable water in many
II places. while drought often reduces
, the supply, wholesome and unwhole-
: some, to famine limits.
al There are many places where the
h. supply has dropped so low that man
IS ufactories have suspended operation
IN for a time in order that dwellings
tie could be supplied, and then only dur
he ing certain hours of the day. 1t would
be we'll for us as a whole, to try u
ri ;mpress upon the public the necessit.
b. of using water lavishly if necessary
b. but not so as to waste it; and whel
he we come to consider the waste
is water we will find that it is not tn
ID quantity drawn from faucets that
ri extravagant, but the unnoticed an
to sometimes invisible leaks that kee
Mt, IN their drain on the reservoirs nigh
to- and day.
m There are very few buildings IN TN
on city in which there is not a leake
some of the apparatus. In som
ed houses, for want of washer on tn
cir lancet, a constant stream Of wat'
of pours from sink bibb or basin coo
full day after day, and if you were to
ce, anime all the water closets you hay
of access to by placing your finger l
a side of the bowl so as to form ia
ch at the side you would be surprised
of the number you would find that le'
too fine stream to be detected
ich the eye, sometime, but leak, nevertf
ad- less.
fit, The amount of water squandereo
po- this manner each year is incaiculat
om- in a city the size of this. Some Id
ov- ~,,D ra gained nv considering I
be quantity of water that VIII IN
ect through a small orifce. One hundr
ats, hounds is not an unusually high pr
len sure for water-supply systems a
in under a pressure of this intensity
ests gallons of water will leak through
ex- orifice 1-32-inch in diameter in w
un- ty-four hours.
Inst by way of impressing the
oil