Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-15
POLLUTION OF THE DELAWARE
II Isn't Merely an Academic Cues
tion for City Authorities, but 10
a Matter Closely Affecting
Our Daily Lives
T,HERE was a time when Delaware River

THERE was time when Delaware River
i shad was famous all !ver the Eastern
part of this country. And that was when
shad could be bought by the poor man and
he and his family could sit down to tooth
some and plenteous dinner without spending
more for the luscious main dish than he
would spend now for an individual piece OF
pie and cup of coffee. In the words Of the
immortal poet. Them was the happy
days"
That is only one Of the points Of close
contact between Philadclphia's daily life and
the objects of the league formed last week
TO combat the growing menace of oil pollu-
tion OF the waters along our Atlantic sea-
board: It sounds academic to speak Of the
Anti i-Pollution League. but. rs n matter OF
TACT, its objects enter pretty closely into the
daily routine of good many Phiadelphians.
Dun up any nice Saturday or Sunday to
~ the new city bathing beach at Torres
dale. You will soon be convinced by the
happy crowds that here Is a mighty profit
able investment in public health and we'll
being.
stages of the tide and you will wonder how
any sane person can deliberately go into
such black and vile looking water as flows
past its shores.
There are bathing beaches all along the
Delaware just as important to the various
city. There is strip Of shore along the
Sinex Annex settlement which draws its
daily thousands from Deanco and Riverside; ;
there are less crowded but very popular
swimming places at Riverton, Torresdale.
Beverly. Cornwcls. burlington. Bristol and
the Florence section. to say nothing OF
the elaborate pleasure park on Burlington
Island
And all of these places are becoming
gummy and sticky and black and malodorous
pu.ip lpnpSifp
thick oil upon their shores.
just opposite the city beach at Torresdhe
is the low shore of Hawk Island, at the
mouth of the Rancocas Creek. A few years
easily sloping, hard. firm sand that was
delight to bathers. Today this sand is buried
under the mud of many channel lredgers,
and this mud has become plentifully mixed
with clinging, cloying. disgusting waste oil,
and fresh deposits are foated up at certain
stages of each tide.
TliERE is a commercial aspect Of this
pollution matter that will total well up
into the millions in few years. The Della
ware, River Bridge is going to open up to
people who are now city dwcllcrs all the
delights of founding comfortable little hom, !,
along these pretty iNew Jersey shores, and
the rise in financial values all the way from
PALMYRA TO Burlington or even to Florence
should be enormous.
of this land and in its increase in value will
be its proximity to the river and all that
Tint means in health and recreation for the
wives and children. If the oil pollution con-
tnues to grow as 1t has grown in the last
ten years. this talking point will be null and
void. Values are likely to decrease instead
Of increase, and what should be a garden
spot for homes right at our very doors Is
likely to become disgrace to any COM
munity.
&c. -, 81.
dotted with its fleets Of pleasure boats as
II was in years gone by. Riverton still
boasts its club. but its feet is only'a skeleton
of what it once was. Beverly has abandoned
boating altogether and there are O. two
boats riding now off that former popular
anchorage at Torresdale.
And IT is the boating. the bathing, the
swimming and the fishing chat give the
actual dollars and cents value to property
along suburban waterway.
VOC can sit all day now and fsh--even
l. along the pilngs Of the trolley bridge
between Delanco and Riverside over the
Rancocas-and. if You land tired and dis
couraged little stunted "catty" after hours
Of patient angling, YOU are doing well.
Last season the shad fishermen did not
'pay for their nets" There are carp and
suckers and some herring and the bottom
feeding scavengers of the river can still be
caught down below the menace Of the oil,
but the day Is done when the haul of the
shad net brings that thrilling moment when
the encirClod fish break water and the whole
surface inclosed in the arc of bobbing corks
suddenly bursts into silver flame as n hun
! drcd fine. big follows leap and churn in n
| last desperate effort TO escape the oak plank
and the cptaph and requiem Of a Bellevue
| bill Of fare.
Memory will take the old waterman back
some fifteen or more years to the days when
| the Gloucester and Washington Park shores
| could be depended upon for their carloads
| Of sraly beauties and when the drift nets
| streaked the river all the way from Petty's
| Island to Burlington Island and often across
the very track of the Market street ferries.
The fishermen Of the lower river then had
shore winches worked by horses which
| podded about peacefully IN n narrow circle
| as the net came in until the shoal water
| was reached, and then what Il cleaning out =
| burst OF silver there was IN the sunlight I.
| And you could buy your pick of them Mt
| twenty cents ench-not twenty five
cents n pound, but twenty five cents for u
shad big enough for whole family, with
| perhaps ten or fifteen cents added II IT were
| a big roe shad But no more.
And you could anchor your small boat
| anywhere above the Clty--or down In the
backwater at ESNington, for that matter
| md come back the following week end IN
hawser or her moorng lines still fit to be
| handled without the necessity for pumice
soap and rough towel and hot water to
get the stains off before you dared don your
ducks for cruise with your friends.
| THERE'S n lot more than sentiment in
l. such "reminiscences as these They mean
| commercial value they mean larger lives of
happiness and health in an age when the
tendency IS to sleep away from the turmoil
and the twice breNthed air" of the city
and to come to town only for business or
the necessary shopping for the growing fam :
ily. And. with the bridge looming up into
reality, the lack of such things means mil
lions Of dollars in good. hard cash, to ray
nothing OF the less material considerations.
Philadelphia, of all cities, should support
the Anti Pollution League and should well
como the election Of Clifford Pinchnt TO Us