Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-09-04

Address The Courier fElhtilAs
pany, Ottumwa, Iowa.
Entered as second class matter oct
ober II, 1908, at the postoffice. ottun,
wa, Iowa, under the Act Of Congress
March 3. 1879.
Foreign representatives: Cone, Lor.
enzen & woodman. Mallers Buildins
Chicago; 225 Fifth Ave-, New 4ort
City; Gumbel Bldg, Kansas City, Mo.
CONSERVING PAVING.
New paving in Ottumwa cannot bt
torn up for q period of three years
after It is laid That is the promise
of the city council and it is taking
steps to enforce the order. The tire
year rule Is not new one-it has ex
listed for many years past-but unit,
the present administration came into
power it has never been enforced. The
ordinance, which is the basis of the
three year rule, requires that notices
be sent to all property owners along
a street which is to be paved telling
them of the proposed improvement
and notifying them to put in all sew
er water and gas connections prior
to the laying of the paving. Having
been properly notified, it then rests
with the property owner to put in the
pipes before the paving is down. AT
ter It is down, the property owner
who neglected the warning must wait
until tho expiration of the three years
before he can modernize his property
Everyone who has lived here knows
how often new paving has been torn
UP and improperly replaced.
But under the new administration
this will not be permitted. Every bit
of new paving this year is so pro.
tected-that Is, where the contracts
were let since the present council
was elected.
Not only is the council going to en-.
force the ordinance keeping the paw
ing intact for three years, but 1t is
also making an effort to keep 1t intact
for a longer time. One of the means
To this end Is requiring all water pipe
from the main to the lot line to be OF
wrought iron. The life of this sort OF
nine is several times that of the or
binary steel pipe.
OF course where a leak in, a main or
a pipe Is discovered, tearing up OF the
paving becomes necessary, but the
council will see to it that the paving
IL 01OO0Ily ICpldCCu. l. y ooo"AO $1,000
q bond OF $500 must be posted by the
one who wants to tear up the paving
and the bricks must be relaid under
the direction of the city engineer. A
concrete base must be put down with
all relaid paving
Precautions such as these will do
much toward keeping OttumWa's new
paving in tip-top shape. Cooperation
on the part Of the property owners
will mean that new paving need not
be torn up at the end of the three
years except for some special emer-
gency.
The fact that the ordinance has not
been enforced in the past has made
property owners somewhat lax in the
matter. The desired connections are
not made until the last minute. The
contractor who is paving North Court
street states that he has been delayed
considerably by having to wait on
work that could have been done a
month or two before he started the
actual paving.
People who own property along
streets hat are to be paved in the
near future, will save themselves and
the city much time and worry If they
will make their desired underground
nine connections as soon as possible.
Then there will be nothing in the way
OF pushing the paving through when
work is started.
West Second street furnishes a
chance for cooperation of this kind
Everyone knows that West Second
must either be re-paved in the near
future or fenced off. Therefore it be-
hooyes the property owners to do
what tearing up they have to do now
while the worthless paving is down.
10 that there will be nothing to him
der the laying of the new paving.
HAlTi-A MOCK REPUBLIC.
In the September number of the
Worlds Work George Marvin states
that Haiti is mock republic. The
hundred-years-old struggle OF negro
community to govern itself has proved
failure and out of the failure has
grown almost complete economic
atrophy. Socially the life of the
island has long been quaint mixture
of bucolic content, tempered by occa-
sional homicide.
POLITICALLY, Haiti is divided between
the ms and Outs. the latter always
necessarily In large majority and
therefore only temporarily out. by
the same token, politics are very fluid
in this republic; the divisions eternal
" interchangeable. In Haiti there are
no parties, no well established prin-
ciples of government, no platform, no
blanks. About ten or fifteen per
cent of the population make their l1v-
ing by politics, and to these gentry,
party. platforms and principles are al
summed up in the one shibboleth, per-
sonal profits.
a DIPLOMATIC VICTORY
Yesterdays Developments IN Tue
.-.-.rare,y with GERMANY are gen.