Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-09-16
THE WATER DEPARTMENT PAY
ROLL AGAIN.


THE WATER DEPARTMENT PAY
| ROLL AGAIN.
Reply of John ii. Crane to Capt. Lusk.
To the Editor Of THE EvESrse STAR:
| The STAR of the 18th instant contains re-
ply from Capt. Lusk to letter 1 wrote to the
first controller on the water department pay
roll for the month of June, which in the inter-
ests of 40. 900 water takers, ask space in The
STAR to refute.
First. Capt Lusk says:
"The roll does state that the cakers were exclu
svey employed at calking water mains which consti-
prise the placing cutting aud fitting of pipes, valves
and special castings; EARNING pouring and driving
shuttng 9 the water sqPRy Of houses raising and
placing and repairing re ydrants repairing leaks in
duties pertaining to water distributions on a large
scale The caIker must also act as foreman or time
| keeper OF detached gangs"
| ANSWER.
| If Capt Lusk would examine his pay roll
more carefully he would see that the extra
labors he speaks Of as devoving upon calkers are
elsewhere provided for in the pay roll. There
| are two plumbers and two machinists on that
pay roll to attend to 1.-The cutting and fitting of
pipes, valves, and special castings" This
| work should be part of their duties though it
The EARNING, pouring, and driving joints is
not extra work but part of a calkers duties.
| 1.-THE opening and closing of valves and turn
| ing on and of of the water supply OF houses"
| has been done by two men for years, who re-
/ ceive pay for every day IN the year, but the
work should be done by the seven water in
| spectors, who have abundant time to attend to
| the turning on and off of water. They are not
on the laborer's pay roll, but are regular SAL
aried officers receiving salary of $500 per year
| each.
The rest of the work named by Capt. Lusk as
| falling upon the calkers is mainly done by
! laborers, of which there are tifty-one on the
| June pay roll. The oiling and repairing of
| fire hydrants is done by the machinists, who
are on the roll rs machinists. II, as Capt.
Lusk says, the calker acts time keeper,
| then why are there two time keepers on the
| pay roll? The next name above that of T. V.
Hayden. who Is down working 30 days as a
| calker, appears the name of Vim. E. Herbert,
time keeper, 10 days at 50 per day. and little fur
| Their down the name of w. e. Small time keeper,
% days at 50 per day. There is total of one
hundred and two names ON this pay roll. 1t
would seem that two men need not have to
work very hard to keep the time of 102 men,
even in dozen detached gangs. L am in
formed that Col. Elliot has but one time
keeper who takes the time made by all the men
employed laying the great 4S-inch main from
the reservoir to New Jersey ayenue-a distance
of miles,
second. capt. Lusk says:
"The duties of Mr.. +. V. Hayden consists in
counting for calkers material and other stores
tho ay Teh Hs Is a tsS
tests all meters, valves, hydrants and other appli
ards. be makes or assists in making all the joints
necessary for such testing work his rating calker
is believed to be entirely correct"
ANSWER.
do not care to split hairs on this question:
1 stated that L understood that Young Hayden
was clerk in his fathers Office and not
calker. Ihave been since informed that he never
calked foot Of water main in his life. His
father, the superintendent. has charge of the
U street pumping station, and Capt. Lusl says
part OF the sons duties are ''the accounting
for all material stored there" II this does not
make him clerk then what is he? He is GER
tainly not a calker. Why not call him what he
is! Why call spade a hoe when it can just as
well be called spade? II this young man is
competent to perform all the duties named by
Capt Lusk he is certainly deserving of better
rating than ''calker.p 1t would require
skilled machinist to perform some of the work
imputed to him. The work of testing meters
cannot be very arduous, the captains report
shows that there were bat fourteen in use at
the date of his report.
Third Capt. Lusk says
tin addition to the engineers foremen and watch
men necessarily employed Sunday there il inst
az necessarily employed force OF men for eIner-
essential as those Of the employees of the depart
There also certain streets in which additional
Valves must be opened whenever fire occurs Each
OF the force named l. required report for duty
and to hold himself in readiness during the whole OF
eaeh SUNDAY 70 answer at once summons to repair
f Me- u 'u'n On hishSF pressure In case OF
ANSWER.
If a force of six men is required to stand in
readiness to attend fires on Sunday am I'M
able to see the justice of paying them out of
the water fund. If this is true, which L deny,
then they should be paid out of the general
fund The old unrepeaied law makes it the
duty of the water Taper or superintendent to
attend all fires. The law reads as follows:
att shall be the duty Of said Taper to attend at all
fires and assist the hremen III operating the fire plugs
During tae CONTINUATION of the E-e and after the tire
carefully close the plugs prevent of water or
fleeing. "-lsee Webb's Digest, p l40.I
1t would therefore seem to be Superintepd-
ent Haydens duty to attend at fires. and with
out extra compensation. But it is only when
there Is a general alarm, or a large fire. that
there is any necessity of any one attending
from the water department, aud then Superin-
tendent Hayden should attend in person. Capt
Lusk greatly eXaggerates this matter. as there
has not been ten times in many years that
the services OF the water Taper have been re-
quired at a fire. Our perfect fire department
system makes such attendance unnecessary
l do not think the experience of the past
twenty years will bear out the captains state
ment that there are more leaks reported on
Sunday than other days. The greatest pressure
is not on Sunday, but about 2 o'clock in the
morning OF every day. The mains are made
to stand pressure of 800 pounds to the
square inch The greatest pressure at the