Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 March 1894 — Lo! Here Is Richness. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Lo! Here Is Richness.

The People i.f Rensselaer to be Assessed for Having Their River Ruined. The construction of the proposed Iroquois ditch contemplates the cutting of a big channel through the rocky bed of the river at Rensselaer. This cut will *be 36 feet wide, extend from a little below the creamery to above Starr’s ice house. It will be from one to five feet deep, and have, perpendicular banks. The present pleasing and safe contour of the river bed will be changed into a thing ugly to look upon and dangerous to approach. The present bed of the river through town is about 80 feet wide. A cross section as it now is, looks about like this:

A cross section after this proposed channel is cut will look about like this:

Owing to the peculiar contour of the present channel, .'through town, together with its rapid current, the fall being 5 feet or more in half a mile, the river is now admirably adapted to washing away all kinds of sewage and refuse that gets iuto it. And when it does dry out, as it sometimes does, it dries out clean, with nothing to poison the air with its effluvium. There is no question but that the phenomenal healthfulness of our town is largely owing to the rocky and rapidly descending bed of our river.

When this proposed channel is cut, the river bed, instead of falling five feet in half a mile, will fall only 8 inches in hhat distance. This, except in occasional intervals of high water, will give a very sluggish current, much better adapted to deposit sewage, muck and dirt of all kinds than to carry it away. Every time the river goes dry, which will then be a much more frequent occurrence, it will leave on the bottom a reeking coating of filth, to poison the people with its noxious exhalation#.

Those portions of the present bed of the river which will be left “high and dry” when the channel is cut, being strips about 20 feet wide along eacfh side of the river, will have water over them only at rare intervals, and will have a tendency to gather soil and silt and to grow up with weeds and water plants, which with their rotting will furnish further sources for atmospheric pollution. Moreover, all the sewers in the town now discharge their contents upon these portions of the river which will be usually dry after the channel is cut, and the sewage which is now washed away by the water of the river will then be left to rot in the sun and “smell to heaven.” The idea that has been held out that the cutting of this channel, combined with the Iroquois and Gifford ditching operations, above, will have the effect to'fnake a permanent stream in the river, is an “irridescent dream.” It is contrary to common Bense and contrary to all experience. The more you drain a country, the sooner its surplus water runs away, ancf the greater the tendency of its channels to go dry in dry weather. The water which falls in the upper regions of the Iroquois and Pinkamink valleys, now seeps down slowly through bogs, bullrushes, sand and soil, and thus, except in very dry times, makes a continuous stream through our town. When all these drainage projects are completed; when all thei swamps and bogs are drained; and when all the under-ground streams fed from item are ex-

hausted, which will be in . a very few years, at most, then, it is safe to say, the river bed at Rensselaer will go dry a dozen times when it now goes dry a single time. And, what is much worse, instead of leaving a clean and harmless bed, as now, it will then leave a slimy, filthy bottom, to breed diseases among our people. Otheyr minor disadvantages to result from the cutting of this channel, will be"”that all the deepr and permanent water supplies just above the town will be drained out, and thus forever destroyed the opportunity for a cheap and pure ice supply. It will also ruin the several convenient fording places in town and result in the great inconvenience of many people, and probably the construction of one or more expensive new bridges. Below town, the river will so fill

up, and for miles below, will henceforth be only a shifting sand-bar, like the Platt in Nebraska and the Red River, in the south west. In view of all this inju ~y to result to the town from the cutting of this channel, the fact remains, incredible as it may see'nr, that the property of the town is to be assessed to make this channel. This is a fact and the report of the viewers and engineer of the Iroquois ditch, to be filed this week, will show it to be a fact. With some few trifling exceptions, every lot in town will be assessed, besides a general assessment upon the corporation, on account of benefits (better say damages) to roads and bridges. We knownothing about the total amount of these assessments.,' and mighty few people do, but be it 810 or 810,000, it is just that much more than it ought to be. Except one or two small, sometimes overflowed, tracts, there is not a foot of land in town in which the direct damages of this channel will not greatly exceed the direct benefits. As to the indirect benefits resulting from the developement of ! the surrounding country, it is doubtful if they offset the direct injuries; but whether they do or do not, they are not a proper basis of assessment. You might with as much reason make Smith pay for the benefit he derives from the fine house Jones builds across the street; or to lax Barkley township land, for macadamizing the streets of Rensselaer. The claim that the channel will improve the drainage of Rensselaer by cutting off the “seepage” of water from *the river above town, has no more in it than the claim that' the channel will give the river a constant current. Water don’t “seep” up hill and down dale, through open ditches and over railroad beds, to any great extent. There is nothing in this "seepage” pretext; absolutely nothing, except its use as a means to “seep” money out of the people to drain some one else’s land. Nor will this new channel have any beneficial • effect upon the drainage of the town in any more direct way. The sewers of the town are already constructed and have all the fall that they can use and more too. In fact every sewer in the town throws away several feet of fall, within the first 200 feet from the river, in order to > avoid cutting through the rock that lays so near the surface. These sewers will not carry off a single drop more water, nor carry it a second faster, after this channel is cut than they do now.. Neither will any future sewers be any better on account of this proposed channel. »

Even conceding that the people of Rensselaer ought to submit willingly to the damages they will sustain from the cutting of this channel, on account of the general benefit to the community at large, especially to the people of the Pmkamink and upper Iroquois valleys, that they should be expected to consent to be taxed for its construction seems to jus a most unreasonable and unjust, a preposterous proposition.

Thirt ecn-btop, full walnut case or gan, $35. C. B. Steward.