The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1919-04-04
MAYOR BRUMBY COMES
BACK AGAIN IN ANSWER
TO NC NEEL CHALLENGE
Defends His Administration
of City Affairs
Admits Wells Bored Against Expert
Advice, But Says Time Has Shown
Experts Wrong. Says City Books
and Accounts are Wide Open.

TIC the Editors of The Marietta Jour
nal and Cobb County Times:
Please publish the following reply
to Mr.. NJ. L. McNeePs letter of last
week:
Carefully disregarding the facts
and figures published by me in my
former letter, which completely re-
futed his original charges, Mr.. Nc
Neel proceeds to reiterate these
charges, and along with them discov-
ers ten new ones, making a total of
fourteen points" These fourteen
charges represent Mr.. McNeel's in
dictment of my administration. At
ter reciting these charges in solemn
form, this self-appointed prosecutor
and chief witness against the admin
istration reaches the conclusion that
the city is in "deplorable condition"
He proposes to prove these charges,
and after fixing penalty for himself
in the event of failure, proceeds to
select the jury.
Now comes the defendant in the
above stated case, and makes an
swer for himself and his associates
as follows:
Charges No. l, 2, 3, and a were
made in Mr.. McNeel's former letter,
and were fully answered by me in my
previous communication. AS Mr.. Nc
Neel makes no reply to the facts then
presented by me, have no desire to
rub it in by offering any additional
evidence on thes points. After read
ing my reply, the prosecutor evident
~ lost faith in his four original al
legations as basis for his case, as
evidenced by the fact that he now
comes forward with ten more charges.
If this basis should become untenable,
and the number of charges proper
tionately increase, his next reply will
contain forty-nine charges.
Last week the Water Board was in
financial straits, but now, 10 and be-
hold, the city is in the hole to the
tune of $1O9, 100000. Mr.. McNeel
says that what he wants is the facts,
but it would seem that what he wants
is charges. He does not give my ad-
ministration credit for anything.
submit that you can not correctly or
fairly determine the condition of the
city's affairs by enumerating list
of charges, and purposely emitting
the credits which offset, them, any
more than you can arrive at the true
condition of business by taking off
a statement of the liabilities, and take
no account of the assets.
| will now take up Mr.. McNeel's
charges, beginning with number five,
and answer them in order:
No. 5. 1t is charged that the Board
of Lights & Water Works employed
Expert Engineers" and then would
not pay any attention to their expert
advice. Admitted without argument.
The experts" said the wells would go
dry in two or three years, but as they
made this statement three or four
years ago, and as the wells are giving
just as much water today as they were
the day they offered this advice, we
do not feel that we made very seri-
Gus blunder in disregarding their ad-
vice.
No. 6. Yes; the water is being
treated with chlorine, just as is being
done with practically all public sup
plies of water, and always where it
is filtered from streams. Atlanta uses
alum and chlorine; so does Carriers
vile. Where would you go to get
water that is as pure as our deep
well water? l quote the following
from letter from the State Board
Of Health, dated March 9th, 1919:
II find an average of bacteria
per &C. and no indication of the pres
ence of colon organisms.
"This water will pass all the re-
quirements set forth by the United
States Public Health Commission"
No. 7. 1t is charged that the water
from our wells is surface water. Is
it possible? Well, maybe it is surface
water. We are getting it out of the
ground, three hundred feet below the
surface, and our experts" tell us
that water gets into the ground
through the surface of the earth.
This is a very mysterious process
which nature employs, the under
standing of which is given only to
experts" We are now, and have
been since the year 1910, pumping
between eight and ten million gallons
per month of surface water" from
old Campbell's Hill, the highest and
driest place between Atlanta and
Chattanooga.
No. 8. AS soon as | was officially
advised that the water had a trace
of bacillus coli, l Immediately had
installed, within less than twenty
four hours, an apparatus recommend
ed by the State Board of Health, to
chlorinate the water, and didn't deem
it necessary to warn the people af-
ter the water had been made pure.
Continued on page twelve)