Show A RJSERY01R The season is making people desperate in the matter of water supply A good many of them are unreasonable and the utterances utter-ances of some would indicate a largo degree of insanity The blaniefor the water shortage short-age is put upon tho city council when the council is as innocent of reducing the supply sup-ply asitis of increasing temperature of the atmosphere and it is as free from any desire to injure the city or hurt individuals indi-viduals The distress is an affliction by nature and not one of mans bringing amman am-man should not bo held responsible But this and future councils should find in what we are now suffering an emphatic I incentive to determined effort There is I no record of such a dry season as this one We ma9 never experience another an-other such summer But the fact that there is a drouth should cause us to do what can be done to provide against future disasters dis-asters of the kind It will not do to trust to elements as has been abundantly demonstrated demon-strated We must help ourselves or suffer from our negligence TmHEiUn is not now going to advo rate the construction of a reservoir in City creek canon The Johnstown catastrophe of a few weeks ago makes it almost unsafe to suggest the storage of large bodies of water above cities At the same time we may mention that during March April and May of any year more water runs to waste down City crook than would bo required by a city twice as large as Salt Lake and containing four times as many inhabitants In ordinary years the water which flows to waste in May is more than would be consumed in an entire season sea-son There have been years when the water which ran down City creek in the spring would have supplied the city liberally liber-ally for ten years Now is it possible to construct a dam which will be absolutely safe Are there any such dams in America or on the earth It will not be urged by intelligent people that safe dams cannot be built and it will not be denied that there are safe dams in existence The construction of such a dam is simply a question of engineering en-gineering skill and money With that combination a reservoir can be built which will bo absolutely secure if anything on earth can be made secure Under the circumstances in tho gloom of the present and the threat of the future would it not be an act of wisdom on the part of the city council to make a thorough investigation of the matter of a dam across City creek and tho conversion of that cafion into a reservoir Can the money which such inquiry would cost be better spent in the interest of the public If the nature of the soil and the conformation of the cafion are such that an absolutely safe reservoir can bo constructed at such cost as the municipality can bear we do not believe there will be objection to the undertaking A reservoir which would hold tho water of City creek would solve for all time the water problem of Salt Lake city and put a quietus on the numerous schemes many of them idle and visionary for the purchase of this stream and that one for getting a supply from this lake and drawing from that source A reservoir with strength and capacity would make Salt Lake forever independent for her water supply could not be cut off THE HEUUD does not now advocato the reservoir but it does suggest the wisdom of the council taking immediate steps to ascertain all that can be learned with reference to the construction of a dam at some eligible point in tin cafion the depth to bedrock the cost of the undertaking the time of building the capacity of the reservoir and soon and I j that in making the investigation the best engineering ability available be employed We urge this because it must be plain to everybody that tho Cottonwood streams are now beyond ths financial reach of the city tho Utah lake offers anything but encouragement encour-agement look in direction and nowhere no-where else can wo turn for the relief which must come if Salt Lake is to grow beyond Its present limits or if the city is to con inuo the joy and pride of its owners and Its inhabitants Having ascertained all the facts thero can be given an intelligent decision by the council and by the people |