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A Word Of Explanation

A Word Of Explanation image
Parent Issue
Day
21
Month
August
Year
1891
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The Times of Wednesday evening editorially assumes to give the views of the editor of this paper regarding sewerage as follows, Mr. Beakes was questioned some time ago in regard to the matter, and the result was about like this "Are you in favor of sewerage Mr. Beakes?" "Yes, I am in favor of sewerage." "Are you in favor of emptying the sewerage into the Huron river?" "No, I am not in favor of that." "You are aware, are you not, that there is no other plan practicable?'' "Yes, I think that is true. The dry earth closet system is about the only other plan, and I do not believe that it can be carried out." The interviewer evidently writes from memory concerning a talk had some weeks ago, for he put some of his own words into our mouth. Consequently we must repudíate the interview. We did say that we were in favor of sewerage but that we did not with "our present knowledge favor emptying sewerage into the Hurón river. But we did not say that we thought no other plan was practicable. That was a statement Mr. Brown himself made. To the Times theory that no matter what one's belief concerning the possibility of the Huron carrying off sewage, he must if a friend of sewerage favor a plan proposed to the council because it was the only plan they would adopt, we would most emphatically dissent. A true friend of sewerage will not favor such a system of sewerage as will not promote the good health of the city. If the Huron river will not carry off the sewage of the city but will deposit it as a festering source of disease just outside the city limits, the foul odor to be blown back over portions of the city, then to empty crude sewage there will not promote the good health of the city. The object of expending money is not to have a system of sewerage merely. It is to promote good health. If the Huron river carried as much water as it did in the day it earned its name as the ragin Huron, then we believe Prof. Greene's system in its entirety would be the most proper to adopt here. For we believe the size of his pipes, which the Times calis too small, has been shown by experienc to be the most practicable for th purpose intended. But in the ho dry days of summer, the water in the Huron is low. The two large dams of the Cornwell's and of Sin clair's mili hold back, many times the little water that does come down, and there are places near the city where the river bed is en tirely filled up with grasses, through which tiny rivulets slowly trickle. This is not the kind of a river needed. Perhaps our boyhood recollections of the odors blown back over a town where we prepared for college because the stream of water into which the sewerage emptied was small, may have' prejudiced us. But the recollections of it and of the heavy damage suits in the air when we left the town, and1 the knowledge of supreme court decisions, against cities who fouled streams and the statements made two or three years ago by Mr. G. Frank Allmendinger, the chairman of the present sewerage committee concerning the sewerage of Rochester, were enough to put us on the inquiry. But we repudíate having part in killing sewerage, as the Times plainly intimates. We were not in the city when the committee finally made up their report and had no munication with any one in the city until our return after the meeting of the council. We did no log rolling and had taken no further interest in the matter than had Mr. Brown or any other citizen. Nor do we believe sewerage is dead. Nor did we ever declare as a certain editor who assumes to denounce us as an enemy of sewerage that if this plan failed to carry, we would oppose any other plan of sewerage no matter how good, that might come up two years from now. Ann Arbor will have sewerage and that at no distant day. But when it comes, it will come as the best system. She will not load up with a system which requires a large expense to make good. To her credit be it said she does not rush headlong into debt, as does a sister city, who, if it were not for the high taxes engendered by that habit, would with her progressive business men and manufacturing industries be running a neck and neck race with us in population and wealth.