The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-20
BY WILLIAM F. COLLINS

NOTHING quite so bores me to
1 y tears as a fanatic. Having
hObbied about with the outdoors SO
many years, 1 have met my share
Of them. Something in conserva-
ton develops the symptoms of
fanaticism in many people or pos
sibly we are the fanatics and they,
because Of a potent urge to do
something for natural resources,
possess foresight not given to
most of us.
They work so hard for their de-
sire with SO slight an opportunity
for self gain that we can not I'M
derstand them.
The subject of stream pollution
brings to my mind small company
Of men and women, native-born
HOosierS, who long have labored in
vineyard that even now fails to
bring forth fruit. Some past oc-
currenCe planted in their breasts
the fervid desire to clean up the
streams and clean out the polluters.
The subject of their desire is
amalgamated closely with dynamite,
as cursory examination of our
legislative acts directed toward con-
troll of pollution will disclose.
This chapter can go into the In
diana statutes designed to permit
the pollutionists to accomplish
their desires, sufficient it is that we
know there are Indiana laws bear
ing stable teeth to give us back
our streams.
The department of health now
has fighting chief engineer in the
sanitary corps from whom we will
hear much on the subject of stream
pollution in the next four years.
I AM convinced firmly that citizens
Il of Indiana no longer can ignore
stream pollution. We have lived in
a spendthrift age. We have spent
our birthright to pure water as reck-
lessly as we have ignored our right
to control our everyday unitarian
necessities.
The gathering voice Of protest has
not risen above whisper, but it
is there none the less and is giving
the pOlluting industries bad dreams.
A whisper comes from Peru. A
fighting lawyer there has filed three
suits in the last year against gross
pollutionists, one on Little river, one
on Cicero creek, and one on the
MiSSiSSineWa. The riparian owners
employed him and his fees are only
the enjoyment he gets out of the
fight and the satisfaction of accom-
plishment.
Another whisper comes from New
castle. A few days ago I stepped
into the auto license bureau there
to renew my drivers ticket. The
efficient young woman in charge re-
SpOnded to my inquiry as to whether
I could obtain fishing permit with
the statement, Another fisherman,
just like my husband; I wonder
there are any fish left alive"
AS an afterthought, she voiced, in
almost the same words 1 frequently
have heard expressed by others in
Indiana. But there is no fishing
left around here. My husband
brought in three diseased bass last
week and our doctor friend ordered
us to throw them away.
He told us Sugar creek, out by
the chapel where these fish came
from, was polluted badly and dang
erous and 1 think the state should
condemn it, don't you?"
4 ND therein lies the entire story.
L N In swift kaleidoscope, I see
boys rafting OH the MisSissinewa be-
low Marion on water I know con-
tains typhoid bacillus; I see the
Death of my friend from septic I'LL
GERS in the frontal sinus gained from
swimming in White river north of
indianapolis; I see my own children
swimming in a hole on Big Lick
creek southwest of indianapolis, a
stream. in my blisSful ignorance, I
believed to be free from pollution.
I thought the water was clean
and pure until one day to my utter
disgust I found human sewage cast
up on a gravel bank above our
swimming hole. And it came from
one Of our state institutions, the
boys school at Plainfield