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Show ! WATER HOGS. Whether or not that department of our municipal government which has in cjiargo tho city's water service has been forcsighted enough to provide a sufficient storagc-apacity to meet a drouth emergency is a question that can be discussed at any time. Tho point at this moment is that there is a threatened shortage of water. The department has placed restrictions restric-tions upon water users, fixing certain hours when lawns may bo sprinkled. Those hours are plainly stated, so that there can be no mistaking tho period during which water may be drawn from the mains. Neither can there be any excuse for ignorance of the regulation. regu-lation. This being so, it is strange, indeed, that hundreds possibly thousands of persons in Salt Lake City are flagrantly fla-grantly disregarding the rules. In districts dis-tricts where the use of water is permitted per-mitted in the forenoon, say, the spectacle spec-tacle is presented of at least one-third of the property owners or tenants playing play-ing their hoses in tho evening. In no part of the city is there a general observance ob-servance of the regulations, or appar-1 appar-1 ently even a pretense at observance. Thoughtful people, realizing that a grave crisis may come in our water supply, willingly submit to the regulations, regula-tions, although the hours prescribed for their district may be extremely inconvenient in-convenient for them. They have a right to expect all other persons living liv-ing in the district to do likewise. When they can stand on their doorsteps and see half a dozen nozzles spouting in their immediate vicinity, they begin to ask if the water department has made these restrictive rules for somo householders only and not for others. A woll-kept lawn ia a beautiful thing. It is also an expensive luxury and requires infinite labor and care. Every lawn in Salt Lake represents a considerable outlay in money if it has been brought to a satisfactory state. It also represents a long and vigorous warfare on , noxious weeds. Without water, the grass in these lawns must perish. Under the ruling of the water department each greensward is entitled to a sufficient volume of water to keep it in a healthy state. The water user who has a decent regard for tho city beautiful and at the same time is not unmindful of the water situation will manage to maintain his lawn with the water to which he is properly entitled. That man is a good citizen. The one who ignores the water regulation is not fair to his neighbor or to his town. ' If the water department lays dow-n rules respecting the use of water, it is assumed that the water department also has the authority to enforce them. If that assumption be correct, then it is the water department's business to insist upon a rigid adherence to tho regulations, not by one or two householders house-holders in a block, but by every dweller therein. To endure a curtailment curtail-ment of our water supply is bad enough; let it not be mado worse by bald discrimination. |