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Show Ijljjfjj THE WATER CONDITIONS. . j j j j! - There is a fine apartment house in this city ji ,m that supplies its own electric light. The charges j M j are just about one-fourth of the city's charges, 1 1. and the light is quite twice as brilliant. By that I we see how much the power company gave away j Ii to secure their franchise. Again many families j 1 1 ! would be glad to do their cooking on gas stoves. ! I ! The charge for gas was maintained in the new ! franchise, though it is in excess of every other I Ii ; city, we believe, in the United States. That j 1 1 charity is now to be continued for fifty years. ! j I f But no matter, it was all in the programme, I 1 !' and had to be carried out. But the News and ' I i Herald are almost hysterical in anticipation of a i , I i flood of pure water that is going to be poured i into this city within a year. That is what we . j I ' have all been hoping for a great while. The city ! needs it. But the need was just as great a year j I ago, when the proposition of the Commercial , if ; club, through Colonel Holmes, was turned down i J so bruskly that it would have been impolite had i If the Colonel been dealing with gentlemen who un- j j derstood the proprieties of life. But is the present H plan sufficiently well planned to be a safe one? H I In the interest of the taxpayers of the city we ' 9 I would be glad to have the News and Herald tell H us just what it is by answering a few respectful fflj questions: ( I (1.) If the city should, by its labor and ex- - ill I pense, double the flow of the Cottonwoods as ,ffi jj it did the flow of Parley's creek, would not the II ( farmers in the valley who have Cottonwood water ' m ,! rights, claim and hold their full quota of the in- fH If creased water? II H (2.) By the present arrangement how many , ! Ii inches of Utah lake water will the farmers re- j 1 Ht ceive for every single inch which they will re- ! wm linquish of Cottonwood water? , 1 ' 8 (3.) To supply those farmers with Utah lake ' water, it will be necessary to add several pumps I m to produce that water from the lake, will it not? fijl (4.) What will that cost the city in damage Ma suts mstituted by the canal companies? It must i Bh : be kept in mind that notice has already been 1 1 H served upon the city that such suits will at HE flfl once be instituted if any proportion of the water Bj 1 1 nfl they are entitled to. is diverted. B fl (5.) Engineers declare that the Parley's con- Ej I BE duit is altogether of too small capacity to receive B ! js the additional flow from the Cottonwoods; that B Wfi a new conduit must be constructed. Now is it not B i ;3fl true that by going below the Light & Railway B Si bogus water power which, by the way, the com- B fl pany never received a cash offer of one-tenth of B 'H $100,000 for could not that stream be made to B l S flow by natural gravity to a point above Mount B 1, H Olivet cemetery? Are there not survey maps B I H ' showing that fact now on file in the city en- B 1 j" H gineer's office? B j B (6.) Had the very cold snap of last winter B j continued three days longer this city would have B ! 21 been in the grasp of a water famine. There is pre- B 'fnB sumably an inexhaustible supply of chemically B ''iB pure water within the city limits, which might B IflH be made to supply one-third of the city. Does K v''mB that enter at all into present calculations? B IMBl tie water s brought in, which is but a B HIS matter of engineering, labor, and money, are any Kg lifjB safeguards thrown around the city to keep it from B IH being robbed by the merciless farmers below the IB fflBB mouth of the Cottonwoods or by the canal com- KS ! Pamcs m damage suits? Can the News or Herald explain why the city should pay several thousand dollars for the good will of those farmers and then through ; ly, August and September, when the city needs water most, why th" city should in exchange give those farmers, 4, 6 and 8 inches of water for every inch .it receives? Some $67,000 was wasted in Parley's creek, and to that was added some damage suits which those generous farmers won, though the farms of half of them were half under water at the time. The money paid for the old mattress factory power was all lost. The same order of contracts have been entered into as a basis for dealing with the same class of grafters. We can understand the hilarity of the News and its sudden zeal for progress, for from every judgment collected in a damage suit against the city, 10 per cent is received for the church, but where does the exuberance of the Herald find a basis to rejoice over? From the first this has all been a crooked deal, and it is no answer to complaints against it to call the great bulk of the taxpayers of the city "obstructionists," though that is just up the sincerity and public spirit of the Deseret News. |