The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1919-11-21
WHY NOT GENERAL TAX
FOR DRAINING LANDS

was ISFlSWSu ny MT. aSTlOC CldThSOH
attorney for the Mecklenburg County
Drainage Association, in little pam
phlet which is exceedingly interesting
at this time, because it helps to dis
close the progress this work has made
in very few years.
Mr.. Clarkson shows that the i'm
portance of drainage was long ago
recognized in his state by quoting
from the decision of Supreme Court
Chief Justice Taylor, of North Caro-
lima, rendered in 1925. From that
decision we quote the following:
'It seems to me, that the evidence
IN this case approaches as nearly to
ascertain the certainty of the appre-
hended evil if not prevented, as can
be expected from the nature of the
subject. There was formerly mill
pond nearly in the situation where
the defendant proposes to establish
his, and during the whole time of it
being kept up the whole community,
and particularly the younger part of
it, were subject to destructive au-
tumnal diseases. Soon after the mill
pond was broke and the pond emp
tied, visible improvement took place
in the healthfulness of the place, chill
dren were raised to maturity, the
population increased, and a seminary
OF learning erected within what was
before the sphere of pestilential in
f1uences; of these facts it is impos-
sible to doubt after reading the de-
positions. Is it not to be expected
that the same cause, if put into oper-
alton, would produce the same effect?
Nor is the probability of this lessened
by the proposed alteration in the site
of the pond, its size, and the situa-
ton of the mill. The utmost allow
ance that can be made on this point
is, that it may not render the town
quite so unhealthful; but if the court
sees, that not merely in the fears of
the inhabitants, but moral certainty
exists that if the work is suffered to
proceed, the health of this community
will again be put in jeopardy, it is
it's bounden duty to interpose. Indeed
it is impossible to shut our eyes to the
fact, that in this climate, collection
OF stagnant water in the neighbor-
hood of town, will render the in
habitants unhealthy; and however
different theories may be pressed into
the service of accounting for it, or
plans proposed to mitigate the evil,
the painful conviction forces itself
upon us, that the effect invariably fol-
lows the cause, and no antidote is vet
discovered"
Then Mr.. Clarkson takes up later
decision of recent date by Chief JUS
tlce Clark and quotes as follows:
1T is an old saying that fragments
OF all sciences are taken up in ashes
of the law 1t is not long since that
our progressive brethren of the med
lcal profession have discovered that
one kind of mosquito (anopheles)
causes malaria; that another (stego-
myla) carries yellow fever, and an
other still spreads the Asiatic cholera
that house flies spread typhoid fever.
that fieas and rats communicate the
dreaded Bubonic plague, and lesser
germs, as bacteria and bacilli. are the
agents of other diseases. For thus do
the weak things of the world con-
found the things which are mighty.
l Cor. 27. Acting on these discover
les, under authority of the law the
stegomyia and yellow fever have been
eXtirpated in Cuba and the Bubonic
plague was stayed in San Francisco,
because mosquitoes and rats were sys-
tematically destroyed by the officers
OF the law. There is no reason that
the plaintiffs home shall not be freed
of malaria by authority of a judy
ment based upon medical advice, es-
pecially as the parties agreed that
such remedy whatever the majority
of the medical arbitrators should find
it to be- should be entered as the
Judgment of the court"
Acting under the General Drainage
Act of 1909 in North Carolina the
county OF Mecklenburg put a gen.
eral tax upon property to be used
for drainage purposes throughout the
county, and to assist citizens and les
sen the cost to landowners who had
drainage work done.
A county drainage commission was
organized, composed of progressive
citizens of the county, and the Act
gives this board the power to drain
all the creeks in Mecklenburg county.
This commission was elected by the
Board of County Commissioners and
the County Treasurer is also the
treasurer of this commission.
A special act of the legislature
vas passed comforting powers upon
this board, and the original members
of the board selected were named
IN this act, also authorizing the mode