The Twin Falls times. [volume] (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1905-1916, 1916-08-15

the effect of chlorine and expressing
fears.
"Then l assume that to q certain
extent the purpose of your official
statement was to refute certain infer
ences which you thought were con-
tanned or which you believed others
to have understood as contained in the
editorial in question?
"No, that was not the purpose. The
purpose for which the council in
structed me to draft the statement,
and the purpose for which l did draft
it, was to present the facts relative to
the condition of the water system to
the people"
"THE TIMES published some things
about dead fish in the water supply,
began the reporter again
Eyes. Also, l notice something about
fish that did not die" interrupted the
mayor
Certainly. When some fish lived
in water in which others died, it was
feature story worthy of notice. But,
Mr.. Mayor, you perhaps have noticed
in THE TIMES that Water Superin-
tendent Porter in an interview declar-
ed that certain people were agitated
by a rumor to the effect that the
chlorine was hurting the grass in the
yards"
Eyes, noticed that in THE TIMES
yesterday"
"You do not attribute that misap-
prehension to anything that appeared
in THE TIMES, do you?"
mo (smiling), l suppose not With
/ rpfarnnon n fhQ Qffaqf Of of11nripa ~,
fish, I will not say that if a fish
should be present in the water at the
immediate point where the chlorine is
put in, that it would not kill it, It
would, however not kill anything in
the water by the time that it got to
the city Fish in the city water was
no new condition. They have been
found in the water for years. The wa
ter system has been unsatisfactory for
years. When the matter which caused
bad water was removed the citizens
were entitled to know it. The work
on the the line at the water works had
been in progress for some time and
was finished on August 3, the very
day on which the editorial in THE
TIMES to which l have referred was
published. l do not know how long
the men were engaged on the reser-
voir, nor the number engaged, but you
can get that from Mr.. Porter. The
water situation, while not yet satisfac-
tory, is better than it ever was"
''Mr. Sweeley, THE TIMES publish
ed the fact that the work was begun
when it was started and you may have
noticed news items in regard to its
progress from time to time. In regard
to the ending of the condition com
planned of, as far as the presence oi
fish was concerned, you perhaps have
noticed that the fullest publicity was
also given that in an editorial anC
two interviews; one with Water Su-
perintendent Porter and the other
with Fire Chief Carlson in which il
was stated that the water was better
than ever before. and that the system
had been flushed out thoroughly, anC
also that certain statements in re-
gard to chlorine were denied by Mr.
Porter?"
Eyes, l saw that in Tuesdays paper
But l did not read that until Thurs
day. The paper was delivered at the
office Tuesday after / had gone. l wa:
out of town Wednesday and did not ge
around to read what had been said il
that issue until Thursday. / drafted
the statement about the water situa
tion on Tuesday, before THE TIMES
of that day had been delivered, so tina
did not know of the publicity tina
you had given the matter at tha
time"
Il am going to repeat a question
which l asked of you while we were
waiting for the paper. Since you thinl
that the alleged misapprehensioni
with reference to the chlorine, which
led to the issuing of the official state
ment were possibly in some way ant
to some degree the result of state
ments made editorially in THI
TIMES, do you not think that it woult