El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1914-11-26
THE STOCK YARDS
QUESTION AGAIN
What viii the Council Do?
Cattlemen Anxious for
A Square Deal"

According to newspaper reports. the
mayor and the city council will meet
a the city hall Friday morning to
take action on the stock yeards Gues-
ton. What action will be taken. so
far as has been made public, is not
known. 1t is to be hoped, however,
the city fathers will give heed to
the protests of those who opposed. on
sanitary grounds. the erection of stock
yards, packing houses fertilizer fac
tories and other concerns depending
upon stock yards for their raw ma
terial within the city limits
Health and Comfort at Stake
The health and comfort of the citi-
zens of Ell PasO should be the first
care of the city fathers It will do
the cattle industry, which is Ell PaSO's
greatest industry, no harm, indeed, it
will do it good, if the stock yards are
moved to point in any direction with
out the city limits but it may, and
undoubtedly will, work great harm to
the health and comfort of those who
are compelled to live and do business
in the city of FL PasO if stockyards
and packing houses and other indus
tries dependent upon stOckyards for
raw material are permitted to locate
within the city limits, where they will
breed flies, disease germs and ObnOX-
ious stinks and odOrs to be blown over
the business and residence portions of
the city by every vagrant breeze.
Lessons Should Not Be Lost.
The lessons of Chicago and Kansas
City should not be lost upon the mayor
and the city council Real estate values
in those cities amounting to millions
of dollars have been impaired by the
stockyards of those cities. The stlnks
arising from the stOckyards district IN
Chicago made that city a byWord
among the people OF the earth for
nearly half century and the nuisance
was only abated when, after long
years of fighting against vested rights,
= he. ri
sixteen million dollars for a drainage
canal which would carry the poisonous
sewage of the stOCkyards district into
the Illinois river. thence to the Mis-
sissippi and finally into the Gulf OF
Mexico. The maintenance of this canal
will be a burden upon the taxpayers OF
Chicago for all time to come.
Real Estate Values Impaired.
In those portions of Kansas City,
Mo- and Kansas City, Kans., adjacent
to the Kansas City stockyards, houses
that were built years ago to rent at
I from SIS to $50 per month are now
renting at from IS to SIS per month to
employees of the stOckyards and pack
ing houses, who must, perfOrce, live
near their work and who are glad TO
take advantage of the cheap rents.
At Fort Worth, though the city took
! the preCautiOn to establish its stock
| yards district eight miles away, It for
/ got that the sewage from that district
would be carried through the city by
the Trinity river and, in certain months
| of the year, when the water is low, as
/ it often is in our own Rio Grande, its
] citizens olfactOries are assailed by the
most horrible stenches imaginable
| arising from the putrescence which is
I permitted to float down from the stock
| yards.
Not Up the River.
Fort Worth is paying dearly for its
| carelessness in not having established
Gf0C<v9r6E district nDlnt he
/ low the city. The lesson of Fort Worth
/ should not be lost upon those who
would permit stOckyards and packing
| house centers at a point up the river
! from FL Paso, the drainage from which
might be carried by the Franklin canal
/ through the heart of the city, in the
Cotton addition where the miaSmatic
| drainage would flow into the slough
/ and bayous along the river front to
/ tester and rot and breed disease.
To Get Mexican Cattle.
J One of the objects in establishing the
! stock yards and packing house center
J along the river well to the eastward Of
/ the city is to enable the bringing over
! of cattle from Mexico at a minimum of
/ cost It is purpOsed to secure lands
| on the Mexican side of the river, direct
/ ly opposite the American stock yards.
1 to which cattle may be driven from
! Juarez II, indeed. the railroad COM
/ panies of Mexico do not build spurs to
] the site. and, after inspection and at
. leuLlOu 70 OlueT leBdl requirements DC
, sent over to the American yards through
| chutes for slaughter or shipment.
No Control Of Juarez.
| If this is not done stock yards and
| packing houses will be erected in Jua
| req, where we have no control over
I sanitation, and the doors therefrom viii
! forever be menace to FL PasO.
| ] The solution of the whole question
! may be found in moving the Ell PasO
! stock yards district to a point well
| down the river, where the JuareZ live
| stock industry will follow, and thus re-
! move the danger Of air pollution and
4 the other troubles which will surely