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Show II ' THE SAME OLD WOLF. I ; jH ; When decent men in respectful language pre- I. j sent propositions that are vital to the welfare of I ' the city, it is no answer to them to assume that I ! they are intended merely as "a policy of obstruc- I i i tion that has been inaugurated in aid of the plot I 'j f i to capture this municipality this fall." K i j ' That is characteristic of the News, from which II ji it is copied, and to those who know that journal II il l well, it at once awakens suspicions of what the K News itself may be engaged in. The News fought I; ' , all building of sewers, street sprinkling, bringing Ij j in water every measure to improve the health I j or add to the comforts of the people for a full Ij , j ; generation. At last it became an ardent advocate 1 j of a sewerage system. People rubbed their eyes in I 'fi j ! wonder until it was discovered that the city was I ij 1 , , being regularly colonized by men from the sur- I f j 1 1 rounding settlements in order to carry, if possible, I j ; 1 a pending election, and that the editor of the I I ' News, now a holy apostle, was the chief coloniza- I tion agent. Just now it is crazy for certain, as I if i ij, yet incohate, improvements, so crazy that it will I I j ' Ij brook no delay, though as yet the matter is not I . Ji half digested, and is ready to assail anyone who II I demands reasonable caution in the matter, as one H : ; who, for a petty larceny political point, is seeking i j . f to obstruct all progress. The sequel to it all came I I, ! out one day when a good Mormon revealed the I Ml secret to a friend that certian wards in the city I j( i , were being secretly but rapidly colonized to be I i ij I t able to register and vote at the coming election. I 'if J i When the News begins to cry "Wolf!" it is time I jj- 1 to watch the weak places. 1 i P ( In the same article the News says: I I ! y H The work to be done for the bringing in of the I 1 f h Cottonwood waters is hampered by the obstruc- I i I P tionists for that purpose. The frivolous objections, I ;. the distortion of facts and the absolute falsehoods I si, t 1 concerning the matter which they are interposing, 1 ! 'it ( I reveal the futility of their pretences and the utter I i ; j absence of a substantial reason for their hostility, t fff I evence haste or zeal for the prosecution I i i of the project that has been talked of for so many 1 'If I years, and has now become a possible reality 1 ? through the franchise which secures so many ad- I i ,jf I vantages to the city, is pounced upon and attacked I I and barriers are reared to block the way to its I l accomplishment. I I III It is the same as to sewers and to street im- 1 , ! jj provements. Anything to stop or delay them that I fj ; f can be invented is resorted to, and the purpose is I IBS 1 so plain to observant eyes that wonder is ex- I ! i a pressed at their lack of concealment. K j There have been objections offered to the pres- I ; i ' f cnt scheme for bringing in the waters of the Cot- I ! 1 1 l tonwoods, but they have not been frivolous, but I ; ' ave been such as any business man would make, 1 ij 11 and the News, while churning its epithets, has ' I ji pever dared to try to answer one of them. The K J If right to divert those waters has never been ob- K . I 1 tained. The bargain to give four gallons for one If ; in exchange is not only unjust in itself, but it I ! 1 i I places the city under a menace of perpetual dam- I j age suits from the farmers, and a costly repetition 1 1 ' of the Parley water experience. The proposal to I ; duplicate the pumping from Utah lake is flying JI of directly into the faces of more damage suits from HHV ffl I the canal companies, and the proposition to buy HB 'P I fw or $40,000 some shares in one of the canals is S fl Puc notice served on the people that the state- ments made last winter in order to carry out the scheme, were untrue. To keep the business in the hands of chumps who have no conception of the work, to refuse to take natural, prudent precautions against mistakes, mis-takes, to find every mornin" some new proposition for a grab at a portion of the $1,000,000; to work the whole business in a little circle of incompetents, incompe-tents, may be progress, but it has another look. Then, too, the extreme urgency of the News is a fact so sinister that it alone awakens profound suspicion and mistrust. Then as to street improvements. The belief is universal that when City Engineer Riter stopped the work on Brigham street, it was at the direct or indirect instance of the Utah Light & Railway company, and when Mr. Fernstrom interjected some changes and added materially to the cost of building some sewers that the council had ordered, and insisted that the matter should be pushed through without consideration, the natural conclusion con-clusion was that there was either a graft intended or a colonization scheme in incubation. That the News is so eager intensifies both suspicions. |