The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-04-02
street Cleaning.


ferring from City Councils, the Mayor, and
the Highway Department, the power they
have hitherto exercised over matters relating
TO the purifcation Of the streets, and the re-
moval Of garbage from the markets and
public highways of the city, to the Board of
Health. This change may prove highly bene-
Hcisl, and, at all events, it is scarcely possible
that it can exert q deleterious influence.
Councils have failed utterly as scsvengers.
II matters not what plan they adopt, 1t never
succeeds. II they authorize the Highway De.
partment to undertake the task, a great deal
of pains is taken to employ laborers in the
wards where their votes can be most effec-
tive, or to put on the payroll men more
famous for their skill at the polls than their
activity in handling scrapers and shovels.
About election times extraordinary ac
tivity prevails; but at all other seasons
the streets remain disgustingly dirty. IL
Councils employ contractors, the filth may be
gathered up and csrted off once or twice
year, but it seems vain to expect more fire.
quent and thorough publication. Contractors
calculate very closely. If they wait until the
streets are full of garbage, the cost of collec-
tion and removal is about repaid by the value
of the material as manure, and the sum
oeived from the city is nearly all clear profit;
while frequent sweepipgs and scrapings,
although decidedly desirable to the public,
leave too small margin. The contract
system, as practically administered in this city
during the last few years, has amounted to
but little more fhan an agreement to pay
the contractors for cleaning the stret5
ut intervals when they were sure of collect
Ing remunerative quantities Of manure. This
system is bad enough, but at one time even
worse custom prevailed in New York, for the
taxpayers Of that city were paying million
Of dollars, nominally, for cleaning the streets.
when no real service of any kind was rem
dered for this money, the whole sum being
reoklessly squandered among the favorites
and partisans Of plundering officials. In this
progressive age, when the world is startled
year after year by some stupendous new tri
nmph Of science or engineering skill, whe!
the mightiest rivers are spannsd by bridges
the bed Of old ocean made the resting place o
tslsgraphic cables, ship canals dug out o
deserts, cities built on piles, and the lofties
mountains crossed by railways, modern civil
zstion, as typifed in City Councils and High
way Departments, has proved totally incom
pstent to grapple with the mighty task o
sweeping up and keeping clean the public
streets Everybody knows how to do it NJ
superior mechanical or industrial knowledge
Is necessary. The end aimed at is thousand
times more simple than the labor imposed
npon Hercules when he was called upon t.
clean the Augean stables, but it is evidently
too much for the wisdom of City Councils
9hs most charitable conclusion is that they
have preferred practising the great govern
mental art of show not to do it," to an earnes'
and honest effort to devise a simple bat eff
Oient method for achieving a simple but very
important result.
In view of their continued failures, it Is i'm.
possible for the Board of Health to prove less
efficient, and there are good reasons for believ
ing that II that body is untrammelled 1T viii
net disappoint the just expectations and de
sires of the citizens of Philadelphia. at tn
outset, however, we regret that an apparen
conflict of jurisdiction is Threatened. The ac
of the Legislature directs the board, within
twenty days after its passage, to advertise TO
proposals, and to furnish specification
showing how often and in what manne
the proposed work is to be done
and it apparently contemplate
the commencement of a new system
of street cleaning in all portions of the city
with new contractors and new brooms, 81
that the proverbial advantages of novelty il
this department of industry may bs realiz, ID
Councils, however, after considering motion
to authorize the Mayor to rescind existin
contracts, have indefinitely postponed tn
further consideration of that proposition, au
adisposition is thus apparently evinced to adop
sort of dog-in-the manger policy. We pre-
sumo that in due season all the legal bearing
of this question will be fully explained; but i
the meantime there is little doubt that Cour
oils would best serve the public interests b
gracefully surrenderlng whatever real G
apparent control they may still possess owe
the business they have failed to transact in
satisfactory manner. Let the Board Of Healt
have q fair trial, and win credit or Odiuu
according to the skill and efficiency they di
play. In seasons when pestilence is threa
ened, that body can scarcely fail to prov
more alive to danger, and more anxious
avert 1t, than any other department.
LABOR AND IT'S WAGRs.-Some time sine
..,,o ,,la a N an alaborata and CAREFUL