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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 1915)
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAX. rOKTIiAND, JUNE 6, 1913. 13 EG. HOPSON SHOWS METER FALLACIES Proposed Change Is Declared to Be Based on False Economical Theory. POOR WOULD BEAR BURDEN Water Said to Be nentlful Enough for All Legitimate Uses and As sertion Made That Waste Can Be Checked at Less Cost. METERS ADD YEARLY COST OK 2.50 TO EACH WATER USER. The most reliable of engineer ing records as gleaned by E. G. Hopson, ex-supervising: engineer of the United States reclamation service, show that In other cities the cost of repairs and mainte nance on meters amounts to $2.50 yearly for each meter. This cost would be attached t the meters In Pprtland and would require water users (who are the only source of revenue for the city's water system) to bear that additional burden. For a meter system in Portland this would in volve an annual outlay of J125.000 for meter maintenance. Before the Portland Realty Board on Friday, E. J. Hopson, ex-supervising engineering of the United States Jleclam&tion Service. expounded his views upon the subject of a city-wide water meter system for Portland. Mr. Hopson is an eminent engineer in hydraulics and has made a thorough in vestigation of the meter Issue in Port land. Following' is the full test of his argument against meters: "The issue is not between meters and no meters but between metering the small Individual users and not metering them. All the economies that will be possible must come out of the small man and not out of the big one. Large users, such as manufac turers railroads, hotels, laundries and the like are already metered or will be in the near future; this is the uni versally adopted rule in all Ameri can cities of importance. "The issue is not between waste on one side and economy on the other. Wilf ul waste has no defenders, and thould be stopped, and meters are not necessary to stop wilful waste. Great cities like Boston, Syracuse, Newark and scores of others do this without metering the small user. "The issue is not between fire pro tection and no fire protection, or poor protection. The supply of water for fire protection is amply sufficient In all localities where the street mains comply with the requirements of the underwriters. The poor pressures that now exist in some suburban localities are due to the small street mains, and meters will not take the place of proper street mains. Cost Not Principle. "The issue Is not between cheap water and dear water. The cost of water to the average citizen will be more with the universal application of meters than with only the large users metered. This is because the added cost of meters will increase the gen eral assessment by that amount and It must be borne by the community. The total cost of delivering water in the city will be higher, not lower. "The issue is not whether Portland will need to increase its supply if meters are not universally applied. The supply conduits can carry more than tira as much water as the city uses, and the supply system at Bull Run can be developed at low cost to supply ten limes as mucn as the city uses. "The real issue is whether a measure or economy In use that may be ad visaDie in some cities where water is scanty should be applied here where tne reverse conditions obtain. "It is also whether a free or even lavish use of this most necessary and cheap commodity should not, on general principles, be encouraged and not re stricted. Public Good Cited. "It is whether our resources should be spent on a proposition that even at best may be regarded as of doubtful utility, but which many think is actual ly a detriment, when so many other cieariy-desirable measures cannot be attempted through lack of funds. "It is whether we desire to put a premium on petty economies in use of water, whereby a few cents can be saved by the penurious at some risk to cleanliness or health, and to the cer tain detriment of suburban homes that need the lavish use of the water supply for their use and beauty. "In the city .you have the poor man with a large family or the person that has to take in a large family of board ers or roomers to earn a living and that naturally uses more water than the childless couple with the require ments of only two people; nevertheless it Is proposed to make the large family pay the maximum and the other party the minimum. "Again, the average citizen with small suburban residence, a lawn and vegetable or flower garden, is necessar ily a larger user of water than the wealthy inhabitant of the city apart ment, who only pays for what he or she uses for washing or bathing. Theory Not Approved. "It will be insisted by the meter ad vocate that there will be a minimum charge for a reasonable amount of wa ter and the meter will only work to penalize the hog that uses an unrea sonable amount. That sounds good but how does it work out? "The supply reasonable and necessarj for the family of seven or eight per sons -with a lawn or garden is unrea sonable to the apartment house dwell er. It is therefore necessary to fix a minimum rate adjusted to the rea sonable requirements of the large class or suburbanites that are liberal users. This at once permits the other classes to waste freelj- and remain within their legal limitations. It does not appear to be a very fair and just ar rangement hat penalizes the man of large family while permitting need less waste by the childless flat dweller. "Is it not desirable as a matter of public policy that free or even lavish use of water in a city be encouraged? Water is the cheapest commodity, next to air. that we enjoy; it does not seem wise to be parsimonious in its use. Ancient writings describing- the lux uries and attractions of the civiliza tion of that time refer particularly to the numerous fountains and public and private baths, and the lavish use of water. Plenty of water usually means the cleanliness that is next to godliness. TI Meter la Simile. "One of the most annoying and aggra vating features of the taxicab is the recording apparatus that ticks off the cents and dollars as you ride. This dial, with its eternal scoring up of a bill to be paid soon, has a morbid at traction. Personally, I find it impos sible to enjoy the scenery or the pass ing features of interest to the fullest extent. The mind seems to revert to the miserable dial, with the inexorable hand that only goes one way. This is what a meter means on a house con nection. You cannot water the lawn without thinking whether you might not have saved 5 cents by deferring the operation for another day. The same thought pervades the entire do mestic economy. It is the difference between freedom and parsimony, with the ever-present thought of the saving of a cent or two, and to be balanced against the more Important considera tions of use and pleasure. "I maintain that the quantity of water to be used (and in the word use I do not include wilful waste) should never be a consideration forced on the mind of the individual user. He or she should never be constrained to have a thought as to the amount of water that will be needed for an extra bath or two or an extra sprinkling. The supply is, or should be, amply suffi cient for all purposes and for a great deal to run away. If desired. In foun tains or for other useful or ornamen tal purposes, without thought or rec ord. Waste Not Defended. "Now, although I would advocate a free and lavish use of water by the individual consumer,' I would favor rigid penalties for wilful -aste. "In Boston a rigorous system of In spection reduced the per capita con sumption from 91.5 gallons to 68 gal lons without the use of meters, save on some of the larger services. The method of Inspection consists of ap plying a special, meter on the street mains at certain selected points to de termine localities where unusual waste occurs. This Is followed up by a house-to-house inspection if unusual condi tions of waste are disclosed, and the condition of plumbing fixtures in that district is then made a special study and necessary remedial steps are tak en. A large proportion oi me city water supply, however, must inevitably be wasted. Careful investigation made in some of the larger cities show that from 10 to 30 gallons per inhabitant out of a supply of about 100 gallons may be wasted from leaking mains. through bad Joints or broken pipe, or through other defective places in tne water system, the waste in most cases running directly in the sewers ana es caping. Meters on the service pipes will not affect leaks of this descrip tion, which can only be remedied by a systematic inspection of the entire dis tributing system Dy quanriea inspec tors and the use of the pitometer. Necessary Waste Tolerated. "The occasional use of water to pre vent freezing of service pipes snouia not be considered as a waste, particu larly in a citv like Portland, where cold weather is the exception and where It would cost much more to protect all pipes from frost than to run a little of the service water through tne pipes occasionally to prevent freezing. With every service pipe metered the house holder would, however, hesitate to use this entirely legitimate method of pro tection. "The free or lavish use of water for culinary, washing, barthing or orna mental purposes cannot be considered as a waste in any sense. Even the free use of water for sprinkling lawns and gardens must not be regarded as waste, to be stopped or checked by meters. It is and should be the ambition of a city like Portland to encourage to the ut most extent the beautifying of the su burban homes by the free use of the lawn sprinkler. The waste due to leaky plumbing fixtures should, however, be promptly repaired or the owner penalized. Any willful running to waste without use or enjoyment should be considered as punishable. Even the sprinkling of lawns, desirable as it is, should not be carried to an abuse, and reasonable hours of use can and should be estab lished to prevent abuse. Practically all of these wastes, however, can be remedied without the universal appli cation of meters, and at a less cost and with less friction and annoyance. Metering; of Large Users Approved. "About 40 per cent of the city supply probably goes to trade, manufacturing and mechanical uses, or for public pur poses. I do not think the opinion that these large users should be metered has ever been seriously questioned. In cities like Baltimore, New York, Boston and other large centers the large user has always been metered, it is under stood that most of the large users in Portland are already metered, and no objection should arise to the universal application of meters to such large users as are not already metered. The issue now before the people is to install some 5000 meters, principally, as I un derstand it, for the larger users, but with the avowed purpose of following up this with a general application of meters to all services. It is the latter step that is to be deprecated and de feated. "It is urged that the waste of water in Portland is encroaching upon the supply for fire protection. This allega tion I believe to be utterly false. The per capita consumption of water, given as 112 gallons a day in 1912, was re ported in 1906 to be as high as 210 gal lons per capita. It has thus been found possible without the extended use of meters, or even without any effective system of inspection, to reduce con sumption to its present moderate di mensions." Portland's Consumption Contrasted. "If you compare the use of water in Portland with that in some of the larger and best-managed cities of the country it will be found that Portland makes a good showing. Compare Port land with its consumption of 112 gal lons with: Washington, D. C 220 gallon Buffalo. X. Y Zso KRllona Bridgeport, Conn aou gallons Pittsburg. Pa -Jl gallons Albany, JJ. Y gallons Jersey City, N. J 1411 gallons Fresno .'too gallons Allegheny ::y7 gallons New Orleans 400 gallons And also some of the larger centers with a consumption almost similar to Portland, such as: Baltimore 119 gallons Cincinnati lo gallons Syracuse 105 gallons Vlcksburg HO gallons St. Louis 1K1 gallons and others. It will be found by com parison that the use of water in Port land as compared with other cities is quite moderate. "If Boston can reduce its consump tion from 91 to 68 gallons by inspection, it should be a comparatively easy mat ter for Portland to reduce its consump tion to 100 gallons by similar methods at little cost and inconvenience. With proper sizes of water mains, a use of water of only 100 gallons per capita. or even 50 per cent more than that amount, would not endanger the water supply to the slightest extent In the report of the National Board of Fire Underwriters I find the following statement, written when the consump tion was as high as 200 gallons: "'Calculations indicate rfn available delivery for purposes of. fire protec tion from tlie main arteries leading Into the district (the congested value district) of about 15.000 gallons per minute at Fourth and Stark streets. This is a quantity ample for all rea sonable fire protection requirements. At other locations In the district less favorably situated with regard to main arteries the delivery is somewhat less. but can easily be increased bv the in stallation of larger distributing mains.' Small Mains, Criticised. "In 1912. out of about 600 miles of water mains in use in Portland of 12 inches or less in diameter, 170 miles were or less size tnan six inches. It may be safely asserted that mains less than six inches in diameter are of little use for fire protection. Some of these mains are ridiculously small, such as three inches, two inches or even 15c Fancy Maine Sugar Corn 8c Can 10c Choice Sardines 5c Can 15c Select Oysters 5c Can 10c Sapolio 5c J . 15c Select . Clams 5c Can -J lv 15c Alaska Salmon 5c Can GROCERIES JOe oold Dust Waahlna; Pandr B SOc l.old Dust tVaBhlaa; Powder 1 ) 1 Xj Unban Flosr, lack. . 01. OO 20c Canned SaarrkrSnt Arm and Hammer Soda, 3 J 5c Colirate'a Tnlo Powder. .... X4 10-1 b. ran Weddlmar Breakfast sorglium 75 10-lb. pan Carnatioa yrn...504 10-lb. can Clover Maple Syrus, 65 Quart pan I.ojt Cabin S.Tni...5 J4-rai. can Lob; t'abis Srrtin . . C.3 (.allon can Lots Cabin Syrup, 1.12 5 PIE FRUIT Pearlies. Apr I rota. Pears, . Apples, Cherries), Blackberries, tirapea, sasoerrlcsi Plana, Pumpkins, Rha. barb. Etc., gallon cans, your choice per can 234 15c Canned Shad Company now HALF PRICE Brick: and Cement Paint, Very ape- rial, the arallon 754 Shinsrle Stains, very special at, lte gallon 50) 81.50 Varnish, Ballon 75 ? 15c Karo Syrup 8c Quart Can Garden Hose 5 - ply Ouaraateed Garden Iloae, 60-ft. piece with attached coupllnacs. Sold all over town at f)..no. Very special price t S3.SO 15c Kippered Herring 6c Can 5c Jones' White Soap 3c 10c Peroxide Bath Soap one inch in diameter. In 1912 It also appears that not less than 16 miles of Pipe less than four Inches In diameter were added to the system. "If proper-sized mains were laid In the streets there would be no lack of fire protection so- far us water supply is concerned. The free use of water with a consumption of 100 or 150 gal lons per inhabitant, will not, to any appreciable extent, encroach upon the fire protection, with proper mains. The small mains now in use must in any event be relaid with larger ones. The installation of meters will not affect this situation In the slightest. If we had all services in Portland metered it is a practical certainty we could not reduce our consumption below what it is In other metered cities, such, for in stance, as: Worcester, Mass 83 gallons Rochester, N. Y HO gallons Paterson, N. J , 8(1 gallons Providence, R. 1 70 gallons San Francisco, without any meters save for large services, has a consump tion as low as 87 gallons. Scarcity Cause for Meters. "The few Eastern cities that have universally applied meters on their VOTERS, REMEMBER. You have to pay every tiickel of the cost of the meter system. The water fund has no other source of revenue. Meters are all manufactured in the East. No chance to help home conditions. All large water users are now metered. Reduction in consump tion of water will be at expense of small householder. Commissioner Daly experi mented with dumping garbage in gulches and it failed. The meter system i his next hobby. It will be .n expensive experiment. Mr. Daly makes no claim of water shortage. Small undersized water mains have to be rebuilt with or with out meters. Why not rebuild them before incurring addi tional expense for meters? Water meters are the source of much expense and annoyance for water users. There is no chance for rate reduction with meters. Tou can't spend and save at the same time. City reduced rates last Fall under present flat-rate system. It can be done again from time to time if revenue is not squan dered on meters. And don't forget that you bave to foot the bill. The water fund has no mystic source of revenue. Every red cent comes from the pockets of the water user. services have found it very difficult to obtain enough good water, hence their reasons for economy; these rea sons do not, however, affect Portland with its practically unlimited supply from the Bull Run reserve. "It is understood there are about 50. 000 services in Portland to be metered, which at an estimated cost of say $10 a meter means an aggregate expenditure of J500.000 for installation. "A fair estimate of cost of maintain ing a water meter, including depre ciation, interest, the keeping of records and computing bills, is $2.50 a meter. With the new services metered the total additional yearly bill for Portland would therefore be about $123,000. "If meters are not universally applied on the small services but an effective inspection force be organied. the yearly cost ot that should not exceed $30,000 per annum. Margin for Expansion LiberaL "The present supply system Is said to have a capacity of 68,000.000 gallons a day. The average consumption in 1D13 was only 27,000.000 gallon. If we take an extreme case and assume that the present use Of water will not be reduced but will even increase to as much as 150 gallons an inhabitant ai sZr I 30cand35c 0StBS0- 6Vac Pound tUs SALE MONDAY9A.M.H SO ( "fl" " ft Jone Store Simon makes deeper cuts on remainder uwac. inuiuui, xiicxvT ui icgaiu iui IF YOU WANT BARGAINS, GO DRY COODS 10c Apron Gingham, yard... 3$ 10c Calico, yard. ....40 10c Percale, yard 60 25c Poplin, yard .100 12 Ytc Outing Flannel, yd..7Yit 8-4 Unbleached Sheeting, the yard 150 75c Ready-Made Sheets 4O0 25c Table Oil Cloth. . ..150 15c Bath Towels 100 15c Linen Toweling, yd.... 100 $2.00 Lace Curtains $1.25 15c Pillow Cases 00 Chi-namel Products aa--j'' mrr-i .-"i.,- .wj . . The entire paint .tack saved Iron ft XatTLjr.JL W .saVJVV jtla l" the fire Of the Ohio Paint A Varnish I m'9 selling; here at about $2.00 "Frost oc tjrranue $20.00 Cast $5.00 18x30 ac I'lum&ers' Near 1 0 1 1 SIMON'S Aider ioi-ioo rmoi O I 10c Heinz Pork and Beans 10c Atmore's Mince Meat 5c 6c day, an amount which the eminenlf en gineers who designed the new water supply system for New York City have considered a reasonable amount for a large American city, we will find there is yet an ample margin of safety in the matter of supply. "The plea is often made that meters will reduce cost and that the person using a lot of water will have to pay ror it. and not place the burden on others. Meters Will not reduce the cost of water; they will actually increase it to the extent of about $2 a service a year. This money inevitably must come from the pocket of the consumer. The big user presumably will be me tered in any event and will pay for what he uses: the balance of the funds must come from the general public that is, the small users. The total yearly expense of the Water Depart ment after the installation of .meters will be larger than it would have been had the meters not been universally installed. The difference in cost will not come from the pocket of the large user, who, as before stated, will be metered in any event, but must come from the pocket of the small user, who In turn will attempt to recoup the extra charge by petty economies in use. There will thus tend to be a perpetual scrimping and saving in the use of water entirely unnecessary and unwarranted. "It would almost appear there has been a deliberate attempt to hoodwink the public on this question during re cent years, as metered rates have been set so low that in almost every case it has been easy to live inside ' the old flat rates and to make an appar ent saving. This has been so in my own case, as I am on a metered sys tem and only pay about half what I did before the meter wig placed, but I realize that this reduction is only made at the expense of the flat-rate people and that it must disappear as soon as the flat-rate is abandoned and everybody put on the metered system, when the rate must be advanced to a point where it will cover the difference of upkeep and installation. - "It is important for us to brush aside the delusion that applying meters will result in a general saving. The re verse is the case. All savings to the water supply system as a whole that are feasible and desirable can be ob tained without this universal and an noying. application of meters, and th additional charge of $125,000, which may be expected, can be saved to the city." PICTURE RIGHTS OBTAINED Mr. Considine Signs Agreement for "Bigf Four" Service for Orpheum Two of the most important and far- reaching contracts thus far signed In Portland s motion-picture history re ceived the signature of John W. Con sidine yesterday in New York City. By tne terms of the agreement Mr. Consi dine obtained the exclusive , rights in Portland of "The Big Four" service and the Mutual Master pictures. "The Big Jour is tne vitagraph-lubln-Selig- Essanay incorporation. The agreement will mean that the entire output of those companies will be shown first at the Portland Orpheum and that two master-pictures will be exhibited every week with a change of programme Sundays and Thursdays, Illness Attributed to Grief. BAKER, Or., June 5. (Special.) The sudden news that his mother and k's ter had died within a few days caused a shock which finally ended in spinal meningitis, and Charles Peddicord is now seriously ill at St. Ellzabetn's Hos pital here. Mr. Peddicord's relatives died in Ohio. Xonpartisan League, Attention. Your league has unqualifiedly in dorsed the Humane Society amendment to the city charter. Vote for it. No. 110 YES. HUMANITY FIRST. (Paid Adv. by Oregon Humane Society.) of all merchandise saved from the fire of Jones' Cash fcNffi xuxmcx wsi oiiuuii u inciters Ladies' Furnishings S3c Ladles' Ribbed Vest or Panto at .. 17 35c Ladles' Hone, nan 12V 15a Children's) Hose, now THci One lot of Children' Hose Supporters, now at 4 5o Ladles' Mean. I nlon Sulta, 25J SOe .ndles1 Porssknlt Union Suit, now at .-. 21 All Ladies' Muslin Underwear, now at i...HAU PRICE SOe Chlld'a Rompera. ......... .20 Ko Coveralls 40H Due Chlld'a Dresses 20c King" Ice Cream Freezers isucicets ior Iron White Enamel (5-foot) Bath Tubs Cast Iron White Enamel Sink friend force Cups SALVAG J. SIMON & BRO. OO ODOT CTHrrT" 10c Colton Tomatoes METERS ARE URGED Water Bureau Engineer Says Revenue Would Increase. CONSUMPTION TO BE CUT Argument for Mr. Daly's Scheme Is That Iiife of Small Pipes Also Would Be Extended and Saving Would Be Made. PORTLAND. June 5. (To the Ed itor.) Several times during recent weeks reference has been made in the columns of The Oregonian to the re ports of the water engineer to Com missioner Daly upon different phases of the meter problem and by your comments thereon I fear a wrong Im pression has been conveyed regarding the attitude of the engineers in th matter. Will you therefore kindly grant me space to say that I am unqualifiedly in favor of the policy of extending use of meters until every service in the city Is supplied; and, furthermore, I believe that the work of installing meters should be commenced at once and continued as rapidly as is consist ent with economy of operation and ai the needs of the service require. From the statements which have ap peared' in print, I think many have gained an erroneous impression regard ing the time required to complete thi work. The time that Will actually be taken will depend upon the growth of the city and the rapidity with which the present mains are overloaded, but in my opinion it is not probable that the work of metering present services will be completed in less than five yearB' time. It will, therefore, be seen that the cost of the work will be ex tended over a considerable period and need not be burdensome during any one year. Other Cities' Methods Cited. The experience of other cities in this respect is that the installation of me ters on old services at the rate of from 10 per cent to 20 per cent per year pro duces satisfactory results, and I have no reason to think such a plan would not work advantageously in Portland. By this method the consumption would be gradually regulated and controlled as the city grows, thus deferring the time when larger mains must be laid. and hence a saving in interest charges will be effected, continuing for a term of years and. largely offsetting the original cost of meter installation. As an Illustration of the probable ef fect of this regulation and control, I will state that on November 80. 1914, the total mileage of water pipes in use in this city, of all sizes, was 671.3. Of this number 613.1 miles were four-inch diameter and over, leaving 128.2 miles of pipes less than four inches diame ter, only about 6 per cent being larger than two Inches diameter. The estimated population supplied with city water on the above date was 252,000, or, say, an average of 875 'per mile of pipe, or 48,073 residing along the 128.2 miles of small pipes and sup plied by approximately 10,000 services. Assuming the cost of meters for these services to be $10 each, in place, the total cost would be $100,000. Mains Mast Be Replaced. The 128.2 miles of small mains will unquestionably in time have to be re placed with larger-sized pipes, as the population increases and the demand upon these particular pipes exceeds their normal capacity. BUUDULULIIIK Bl A.-1 1 UT 1 HU I eight-inch mains for these small pipes ss-r &zz : mM prices 10 me Done. TO SIMON'S Men's Furnishings "Arrow" and "SilTer" Brand Col lars, each 15c Men's Black Hose. 10c White Handkerchiefs..'. 85c Bib Overalls. $1.25 Black Sateen Shirts $1.50 to $2.00 Dress Shirts... $1.50, $2 and $2.50 Felt Hats. 50c Work Shirts . , sue iseits r 42-Piece Dinner Set 31.9S . Clear While Porcelain Dinner Set pf 43 pieees, durable quality, em bossed fancy border; north 3 the set, at fti LAWN MOWFHN Tllff Cadet (ut. ear Lawn Mower lasts Innceatf best lawn mower to buy. Sells else where at $S. Our prl.-e. i . . .S52.7K All kinds of tiarden Tools 1-3 off. vim', I t!. H H SI.OO 200 $14.00 $2.95 350 Near Alder FlL,H, i 8c 15c Bayless Mus- Prunes tard Horseradish Very Fine 7c 4c Pound 10c will approximate (676,896 feet at $1.40) $947,654.40. and interest on same at 4 per cent, $42,644.45. " .': If it is assumed, then, that the serv iceable life of but one-half of these small pipes could be prolonged for five years, the saving in interest charges alone would be $106,611.10, or more than sufficient to cover the cost of in stalling meters on the entire mileage of small pipes; and, besides, the me ters would still be good for years of service in detecting leaks and insuring that each consumer is required to pay only for the water actually used by him. Furthermore, it is but reasonable to expect that an improvement in the supply and increased pressure will ob tain in other districts where mains of a larger size have already been in stalled. For instance, I have no doubt that If meters had been generally in stalled in the Peninsula district three or four years ago, the laying of the 30-inch Highland main, now being completed at an approximate cost of $226,000. could have been delayed for at least five or ten years, with the saving of the interest charges, amount ing to approximately $10,000 per an num; and a similar saving in interest charges could undoubtedly be effected in otner portions or tne city by post poning the time when demands are made for larger mains than those now in use. Effect tt Meters Calculated, rh regard to the effect of meters upon the water supply for the entire city and the revenue derived there from, permit me to say further: Based upon the recorded consump tion through ?2, 585 meters during the year 1914, the average per capita con sumption was found to range from 236.5 gallons in the West Side business district to 127.3 gallons in the East Side business district, down to 41.9 gal ions per day in the district supplied through the Vernon standpipe, the av erage for the residence districts alone, in the entire city, being 64.1 gallons per day Deducting the record of the meters in the Bast and West Side business districts, and assuming that a fair sup ply for all other services in the city would not exceed the average rate through meters in the residence dis tricts (64.1 gallons per day per capita) this will give a total consumption of 20,989, 00J gallons for the entire city. It is noted that this amount is appre ciably less than the capacity of con duit No. 1 (which exceeds 22,000,000 gallons per day). If the above amount, 20.989,000 gal lons per day, was actually passed through meters and paid for at present meter rates. 10 cents per 100 cubic feet or 13 1-3 cents per 1000 gallons, the yearly income would amount to $1,021,481, or say $171,000 in excess of the entire receipts of the department for water sold during the year 1914, when the water actually furnished approximated SO. 000, 000 gallons per day. If all the water furnished U0 000.000 gallons was metered the rates could be reduced 40 per cent, or from 13 1-3 to 8 cents per 1000 gallons, and the revenue would etlll exceed that ob tained during the past year. Meters Reduce Consumption. In other cities it- is found that by the use of meters the average per capita consumption Is reduced, from that which prevails under flat rates, without hardship to anyone, the rates being adjusted so as to allow a gen erous use of water, amply sufficient for all legitimate purposes, the cost of same being generally less than by flat rates. In some cities It is noted that about 0 per cent of the consumers pay less. while the remainder have to pay more than they paid under a flat rate, the total income from the sale of water not being greatly affected. All unite, however. In .saying that there is a dis tinct saving in being able to control careless consumers, which results to mattr. the advantage of the entire water sup ply system. I have stated that other cities ap prove the use of meters, and as an P !i IT! T) 1 A Of Tflia nOllfV I XVAllIrt T. 1 the City of Log Angeles. kn6wn the Meo', Women's and dalidmn'a urmiHhinnr'S 6h, Fur niture, Hardware, Groeerim, Bed dlna; and Ory Goods. Contents of 3-stor building; retailed by SIMON 3AL- Sale Opens Daily at Si mon's Salvage Store, 131-133 First Street. yVAOB :rnu . 10c Campbell's Soups 4c 50 7i0 ..30 -500 650 .500 .750 20-Mule Team Borax, 5-lb. pkg. 150 25 35 15c Del Monte Tomatoes, Solid Pack IT 1 Fishing Tackle, Etc. A Blar Stock of KUhlig Tackle, l inen and Hooks at SO tKMR ON THK DOLLAR. 30c Coffee 3 lbs. for 50c $1.25 Holland Herring 75c Keg I. X. L. Chicken Tamales 6c Can country over as a city of the most pro gressive and modern type, and espe-' cially is this true regarding its mu nicipal water supply system. Within the last two years it has completed a system of aqueducts and pipes of large size conveying a 265.000,000-gallon ' gravity supply from a mountain source 225 miles distant at a cost of over $27,- . 000,000, which must be conceded as being quite an undertaking even for a . city, of 350,000 inhabitants or over. ,: Eniineer la Quoted. From the record it appears that they now have an abundant supply for which they have no immediate use ex- cept for irrigation purposes, and yet : this is what William Mulholland, chief engineer of the Los Angeles water de- partment, has to say upon the subject, of a universal meter system: "We favor meters because we believe it is the only fair and equitable method of selling water; because it prevents waste, and because it accomplishes a , saving in size of mains which would,, otherwise be required. We have been'' metering for J2 years at as fast a rate as finances will permit. We in- ' ' tend to continue this p61icy until every tap in the city is metered. Comple-'! tion of aqueduct in no way changes our " , policy in this regard." Please note that this statement was ". made February 26, 1914, or subsequent " to the completion of their new conduit. ,. Permit me also to say that a ma jority of the water works engineers , and managers the country over favor the installation of meters as an in-. dispensable aid to effective water works administration, and the knowledge n that Portland can rightly claim a place among the cities of the land possess-. .. ing an efficiently managed municipal ... water works would be a source of grat- . Ification to all water works employes and officers, including the engineer. D. D. CLARKE, Engineer Water Bureau. " A project for draining and reclaimins 1.000.UOU acres of land in Egypt, work on which has been begun. Is one of the greatest and most expensive tasks of the kind ever attempted. California Hotels San Francisco GEARY AT TAYLOR Bellevue Mote 10 minutes to Exposition without transfer.. Built of concrete . and 6teel. Private bath to every room. First class in every detail. H. W. WILLS, Maimer. (Member of Official Exposition Hotel Bureau.) Exposition visitors save si.oo day hoth Oakland's UfiTCI Excellent Meal Refined Family 11 U I LL Perfect Ser-rica KEY ROUTE INN OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA Key Route llrot to Exposition Entranoa Rates: SI o S2. With meals S2.50 toS 3.ff t" Weakly S6 to SI 2. With maais S 1 5 to $2 VOTE commissioner! PAID-ADV. 1 aanaanaanannnnaanaaannajnBannnn