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5418474_4_1463.xml
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<TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
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<title>
<bibl><title>Illinois Staats-Zeitung</title>,
<date when="1881-07-15">July 15, 1881</date>.
<title level="a">Danger Ahead</title><title level="a" type="sub">An Attempt to Rob the City of its Water Works</title></bibl>
</title>
</titleStmt>
<publicationStmt>
<publisher>The Newberry Library</publisher>
<pubPlace>Chicago, Illinois</pubPlace>
<address>
<addrLine>60 West Walton</addrLine>
<addrLine>Chicago, IL 60610</addrLine>
<addrLine>USA</addrLine>
<addrLine>http://www.newberry.org</addrLine>
</address>
<idno>5418474_4_1463</idno>
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<notesStmt>
<note>Transcribed from digital images contributed to the Internet
Archive by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.</note>
</notesStmt>
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<bibl><title>Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey</title>, <date>1936-1941</date>,
<sponsor>Works Projects Administration</sponsor>,
<sponsor>Chicago Public Library Omnibus Project</sponsor></bibl>
<bibl>
<title>Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey [microform]</title>
<sponsor>University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign</sponsor>
<sponsor>Internet Archive</sponsor>
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<div type="group">
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<item>GERMAN</item>
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<item>I F 6</item>
<item>I M</item>
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<div type="citation">
<bibl><title>Illinois Staats-Zeitung</title>,
<date when="1881-07-15">July 15, 1881</date>.
<title level="a">DANGER AHEAD</title><title level="a" type="sub">An Attempt to Rob the City of its Water Works</title></bibl>
</div>
</front>
<body>
<p>For years greedy capitalists have had their eyes upon the Chicago water works, one of the very few public institutions, which pay good interest on their first cost and do not require any help from general taxes. From time to time officials high in power in the City Hall have been approached by persons who have wanted to know what the city would sell the water works for, and in 1877, when a decision of the Supreme Court threatened to stop the city government because it had neither cash on hand nor the right to borrow money, the sale of the water works was talked about in earnest in the city council. Still, the authorities have always felt that the people would never consent to a sale of the water works, since that would make them the slaves of a monopoly.</p>
<p>The attempt to get possession of the water works is being repeated now, only in a more cunning and therefore in a far more dangerous manner. A company <pb facs="5418474_4_1464.jpg" n="2"/>is being formed which intends to compete with the city water works, and which if it ever gets a foothold certainly will soon monopolize the entire business of furnishing water, since a private corporation is not circumscribed by laws and hindered in its operations as is the case with a public corporation, such as the city of Chicago, thereby gaining inestimable advantage in any competition.</p>
<p>On last Monday evening an ordinance which enjoys the support of the Mayor was introduced in the council meeting. It intends to grant to Messrs. G. S. Pike, Alfred Cowles, and William E. Hale and to such other persons as they may associate with them or to any company which may take their place the right to lay water mains, etc., and to erect, maintain, and operate water works for the purpose of furnishing water for mechanical or other purposes to any or all houses in the city. The passage of the ordinance is urged in a petition which bears the signature of every big capitalist in the city, including all newspaper publishers except those of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung.</p>
<pb facs="5418474_4_1465.jpg" n="3"/>
<p>As a pretext for introducing such competition for the city water works the fact is used that our water works at present lack the capacity to drive water into the upper stories of our business palaces or to furnish reliable power for elevatofs and other machinery.</p>
<p>The gentlemen demand in the first place permission to tear up the streets for the purpose of laying mains in them; in other words, they want to destroy our streets, for even a blind man knows that to tear up a street, at least in Chicago, is equivalent to destroying it, for no workman has been invented as yet who will replace the pavement which he has torn up in such a manner as to obliterate the traces of his work. But that is really a small matter. The great danger lies in the fact that the projected water works will certainly monopolize the business of furnishing water on the South Side to begin with, which must result in increasing the cost of water in all the rest of the city, and then it will be a comparatively easy matter successfully to force the city water works to the wall and to get a monopoly of the profitable business of furnishing <pb facs="5418474_4_1466.jpg" n="4"/>water to the citizens of Chicago.</p>
<p>The pretense that the city has no money to increase the capacity of its water works so as to correspond with the ever increasing demand can cut no figure. If the gentlemen who urge the establishment of private water works would allow themselves to be assessed only somewhere near the amount of their property, Chicago would have a considerably larger revenue from taxes; and there is also no legal objection to raising a new water loan.</p>
<p>The scheme to meet the lack of capacity in the city's water works by competition should be killed effectively at once. The middle classes, the laboring men especially, who are threatened in this matter by the millionaires, should assemble in meetings and protest against the intended robbery. As far as the city council is concerned, no reliance is to be placed on any but the aldermen of the outlying wards, whose constituents should see to it that their rights and interests in this matter are protected. Never was a more dangerous proposition introduced in the council <pb facs="5418474_4_1467.jpg" n="5"/>than this franchise for high pressure water power".</p>
<p>The general interest which this scheme to monopolize the city's water works arouses and the fact that all our English-language papers favor the project, as well as the following communication which we have received, have induced us to reprint the above article in English. It was published in German last Wednesday.</p>
<p>The Letter</p>
<p>Chicago, July 13, 1881.</p>
<p>To the Editor of the Illinois Staats-Zeitung,</p>
<p>In speaking with Dr. Wickersham, who submitted the petition for "high pressure water power" to the city council, I mentioned your article, "Danger Ahead". Since several other citizens, including some very prominent businessmen of the community, questioned Dr. Wickersham, and <pb facs="5418474_4_1468.jpg" n="6"/>since he subsequently perceived the true significance of the affair and also the fact that the English papers ignored the proposal entirely--probably because they were unaware of its far reaching consequences-- Dr. Wickersham requested me to ask you to reprint your splendid article "Danger Ahead" in English as something of interest to the public as well as to him.</p>
<p>Respectfully,</p>
<p>J. M.</p>
</body>
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