The Glenwood post., 1911-06-03
A. J. DICKSON, Editor and Proprietor
Saturday, June 8, 1911.
THE DEADLY PARALLEL

ln3 SO-calleQ -flcpuS Oh munlclpd
own lr.lip but who ought to be called
and 5v Judge Lewis were branded as
the advocates of jtstru ction, pretend to
see 40 defeat IN the recent suprema
court decision handed down at st. Paul
in the case of the Denver Union Watcr
company against the city of Denver
1t will be sorry day in the history
of our country when the courts refuse
to uphold the rights of property. The
right to life, the right to liberty and
the right to property are and have al
ways been considered sacred. We men
tion the Denver case because there is
considerable similarity between that
and the Glenwood case which has not
yet been decided
Several years ago the few people
then living in the town of Glenwood
Springs were hauling water in barrels
from the Roaring Fork or buying the
precious fluid of peddler who passed
through the streets. For a year or two
the citizens were clamoring for solu-
ton to the problem. Several meetings
were held and municipal ownership was
discussed, but this was declared to be
out of the question.
Finally some people appeared on the
scene, among them the Devereuxs, who
volunteered to try to raise the money
to supply the town of Glenwood with
water. The proposition was gladly ac-
cepted and the Glenwooi water system
is the result.
A recent effort was made, not to pur-
chase, but to destroy this system. 1t
ism It even confscation. it is destruction
-annihhation- has been aimed
at. If the city really wanted water
system, the right to purchase has al
ways been and still is open. But that
was not what the politicians wanted.
just how much similarity there is IN
the two eases, that of Denver and Glen
wood, the Post is not fully advised.
but it occurs to us that it is sufficient
TO make the following article from
Clay's Review Of interest and perhaps
of some value to some of our citizens
''Our civilization rests upon the safe
guarding of the rights of persons and
of the rights of property.
Through some hundreds of years,
through storm and stress, through con
flicts of greater or less duration and
NJ irht nf
of Anglo Saxon descent have been so
guarded that neither kings nor rulers,
whether monarchical or republican,
whether holding by grace of God or by
the votes of the people, may encroach
upon them.
''There remains, however, perpetu
al struggle over the right of property;
to be more specific, the right of con
tract, and upon the preservation of
these rights, no less than upon the right
of personal liberty. depends the safety
and prosperity of the individual.
"In fact today, where from Magma
Charta down, the personal liberty of the
citizen has by law and the decision of
the courts been so thoroughly guarded,
there remains no question so vital to
the well-being of the citizen, so neces
sary to the life and progress of our
civilization, as the preservation of the
right to property and the sacredness of
contract obligations.
"And so the recent decision in the
suit between the city and the Water
Company comes like a refreshing rain
in dry season to clear the atmosphere
and to say to every thoughtful, we'll
meaning , clear-thinking person that
cities as well as individuals must 10
as they agree to do, must keep faith,
must make good their contracts.
"It says that the City of Denver,
after inducing private citizens, rich or
poor, to invest their earnings in a sys
tenn to supply it with water by making
contract with them, which it had "A
lawful right to make, must make good.
1t cannot dodge, cannot repduiate,
cannot have the benefit of the use of
the millions of dollars that by virtue
of its contract have gone into, not only
the past and present, but into provision
for the future supply of water for its
people, and then get away from its OBJ
legations which were the basis of the
investment and made it possible.
"The thing is 50 clear that it should
never have got into court, so clear that