Remarks by J. H. Dockweiler

MR. DOCKWEILER: Mr. Chairman, I have given this question about nine years' thought, and have come to the conclusion that I do not know anything about it. I had the pleasure of appearing before various sections of each side of the bay presenting the outline of a water district and I found that the water question was somewhat of a local proposition. In some instances it took the form of a lovely gentleman who was out of a job, and whom his friends had got tired supporting, and they thought that the bill as framed did not give him that God-given right of getting a job which each American is entitled to, and so he was against the bill. And various objections were raised which in the aggregate totaled a sum which defeated the proposition.

Now, if you want to be a martyr to civic duty, just take the rostrum and submit a water district plan to the various interests of improvement clubs and all the others, and when you get through running the gauntlet of the owners who are rooted to the existing plan and of the chaps who are out and want a job, you have got a range that will cover human activity in a great many aspects, and the sum total will be that if you can frame a law which will meet their requirements you have come pretty nearly being the ideal legislator.

It is hard, viewing it from experience that I have had, to frame a law at least, to get a concert of action on the part of the smaller communities. You will be confronted with the proposition that San Francisco is using this as a cloak to annex the east side of the bay. And as the result of the study and experience that I have had through this era or campaign of education, I have concluded that the peninsula or the San Francisco side would have to solve its problem by itself, and that the east bay region would have to solve its problem, and when they have both taken care of their problems specifically relating to the point of acquiring the plant which is supplying them with water, that then they could come to the point of having one wholesaler purvey to the extent that the existing plants would demand added quantities of

water.

The district plan is the final solution, but to get all of these communities in that line of thinking is going to be a difficulty. And some of these communities cannot wait until the general plan is rounded out so as to make it a workable piece of mechanism. Richmond is an instance of one community. It needs water and it needs it badly, and the Municipal Water Board now is taking steps to secure a water supply. It cannot wait. That is a point in instance.

THE PRESIDENT: Before some of these other suburbanites escape, I will call on them. I would like to hear from Mr. Merrill, former Mayor of Redwood City.

Remarks by Geo. A. Merrill

MR. MERRILL: Redwood City is interested in this matter that is before you tonight, not only for its own sake but also because it is the seat of government of a population that is strung along the bay shore from the Santa Clara county line to the San Francisco line. Any pipeline that may be put in for the purpose of supplying San Francisco is likely to run through the entire length of that locality, and quite naturally the people situated along that line will look to that pipe-line for their future supply of water. Our present situation is that while our population has been growing somewhat rapidly our rainfall is not increasing at all. We have there an excellent watershed in the mountains, constituting the backbone of San Mateo county. We also have excellent storage capacity between the mountains and the adjacent foothills, but it happens that the available portion of that storage capacity has been preempted by the Spring Valley Water Company, and the water is brought from there to San Francisco; in other words, our water supply is being taken away from us and brought to you.

This question of taking our water supply from us and bringing it to you is one that would have come to an acute issue by this time if it had not been that we have felt that a supply would be forthcoming from Hetch Hetchy. But even if that supply were here, there is a question as to whether Spring Valley would use its San Mateo county reservoirs for supplying the people of that county. If we were always going to be outside of the limits of San Francisco, and if the Spring Valley Water Company were going to use the water stored there for supplying San Mateo people whenever the Hetch Hetchy supply might be brought in here, then I would say that perhaps we are not interested in this matter of a collective supply.

But it is very likely that, sooner or later, San Mateo county will become a part of San Francisco. It is also altogether likely that the reservoirs of the Spring Valley Water Company will be needed for all time for the storage of water to be used in large part by the metropolitan population of San Francisco. Therefore, I cannot see any visible supply for the growing communities of San Mateo county except through their acting in coöperation with San Francisco. We have a community of interest in this matter, and this community of interest is bound to become greater rather than less. Therefore, I am satisfied that when this matter of legislation to meet the common needs of the south bay

communities gets before the people of the peninsula they will be in favor of it. (Applause.)

The Motion Stated

THE PRESIDENT: The resolution that has been presented, and which is now before the meeting specifically stated, is as follows: That it is the opinion of the members of the Club present tonight that it would be to the interest of the bay cities named in the report of the section to coöperate in the formation of a water district substantially on the lines suggested by the section.

Who will continue the discussion? Mr. Kirkbride, could not you tell us about the interest of San Mateo in this problem?

Remarks by Charles N. Kirkbride

MR. KIRKBRIDE: I speak as one of the members of the committee and one who attended a number of the sessions, and with particular reference to some of the problems that Mr. Dockweiler foresaw would be met in the endeavors of those who might attempt to carry out something of this nature.

Coming from one of the smaller communities, I naturally have felt, and did feel during the sessions of the committee, somewhat jealous of the interests of the minority stockholders in this enterprise. I might state that that question of how the governing body should be organized was thoroughly threshed out, with particular view to the possibility of giving local representation in the matter of government, with the idea of making the scheme somewhat more attractive and more practical from the standpoint of getting it into immediate action. While it was recognized on the part of the committee as a whole that an organization built along those lines would probably be more attractive to the ordinary state Legislature, and to local representatives in the local legislature, and to the local governing bodies, and therefore perhaps more adaptable to present conditions, nevertheless it was admitted that such a working organization would be open to the serious criticism of showing a lack of efficiency when it came to actual work. Therefore, the plan proposed by the committee of yielding those matters, in the interest of ultimate efficiency, was propounded, and I think all of us will admit that a commission created along the lines of the recommendations of the committee would be absolutely efficient in carrying out the purposes of such a bay district organization. The members would be selected from an authority-insofar as it is possible to get an authority under our existing conditions-free from local influence and free from politics, and would be in a position to put into effect the actual acquisition of a sufficient supply of water.

I believe that the time will come in all our communities when they will be more disposed to yield their local judgment to something along this line. I think we are all agreed in the belief that our Railroad Commission has given us a wonderful example of efficiency. I further think that communities will take up these matters sometimes more rapidly than one expects, and I certainly hope that an effort will be made to introduce this bill, which the chairman of the section has presented to us, in the Legislature with a view of endeavoring to get it into working effect.

Now, I may say that we have had in our community an evidence of the benefits of coöperation, and that was in the organization of a tri-city mosquito district. We have been able by force of circumstances during the last few years to organize a coöperative commission, without authority of law, and carry it through in defiance of law, in a way, in order to give Burlingame, San Mateo and Hillsborough freedom from a certain nuisance, and we have accomplished it. Then we went about putting it into legal effect—had a bill put through the last Legislature, have organized our district, and so far it is working admirably. The movement is spreading and districts are now proposed of a union 'of municipalities in Santa Clara county and elsewhere in our own county, also in other parts of the state. We have found that municipalities can work in concert if they want to, and I believe it is perfectly practicable for certain selected communities to coöperate in the organization of this water district and bring about some of the relief which we all admit is needed.

We have felt the necessity in our town; it has been temporarily solved. Nearly all the communities around the bay have felt the threat of a possible shortage of water, and I feel the time is coming when they will be disposed to unite. The main problem is going to be the possibility of a smaller unit uniting with San Francisco, which is already programmed to a considerable extent. But the committee has worked out a feasible plan, and if we can eliminate these local jealousies over any particular source, and matters of that kind, I see no reason why it could not be put into operation.

THE PRESIDENT: It has been suggested that it would be interesting to hear from some of the representatives of the water companies. The name of Mr. Schussler, for about fifty years, I believe, has been practically synonymous with one of the local companies. We would be very glad to have some expression from Mr. Schussler.

Remarks by Hermann Schussler

MR. SCHUSSLER: I am afraid I am biased, for the reason that I have been for a great many years connected with the Spring Valley

Water Company. I will admit I am very strongly biased in connection with the many propositions that have been made by San Francisco for water. In the first place-am I only allowed to speak on the organization of the district proposed by this committee?

THE PRESIDENT: That is the resolution before the meeting.

MR. SCHUSSLER: Then I will sit down. I don't know anything about it, but I would like to speak on the subject of water, and at any time you raise your hand I will stop.

This whole water agitation has been going on to my knowledge since 1875, when I had the misfortune of advising the Board of Directors of the Spring Valley to purchase the Alameda Creek system, which had been offered to San Francisco and one of the morning contemporaries designated it as a cow pasture.

All of you gentlemen have been here long enough to know that owing to our climatic conditions you have to husband the water when there is plenty of water running in the streams.

The only way to meet the constantly growing demand for water is to store the water when you get any in the winter time. It makes no difference in this state where you go, you have got to build reservoirs everywhere.

I have always believed that the nearer to the place to be supplied you could get the water, the cheaper and the easier it would be; so when I began my career of fifty--one years in connection with supplying water to San Francisco, I laid stress on the idea of having our people acquire properties in the mountains of San Mateo county, where you have as a prerequisite a great watershed, and storage facilities and rainfall. Then, as the need of the city appeared to be growing, they purchased water rights across the bay.

The consequence of the foresight of the water company in acquiring its properties has been that we have been able to solve the water problem of these various communities, not only over in Alameda, but also on the peninsula.

THE PRESIDENT: Assuming that the city should at any time acquire these properties of the Spring Valley Water Company, either by agreement or condemnation, then, coming to the subject of the resolution, would there be any advantage in coöperation between these various communities referred to in this report?

MR. SCHUSSLER: The communities could all be taken care of. For instance, if San Francisco should acquire the properties of the Spring Valley, our people are broad enough to know that the welfare of all the towns around the bay is closely connected to the welfare of San