St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-07
YOURS FOR HEALTH.
The Sanitary Condition of
Minneapolis and
Chicago.
A Comparison Which Reflects
Credit Upon the
Former.
Last Nights Council Meeting
Next Years Expenses
ES timated.
VariouS Matters Of LoeaI Ham
Various Matters of Local Hap
pening in Minneapolis
Yesterday.

The visit of the health officer and council
committee on health and hospitals of Min
neapolis to inspect the sanitary condition
and regulations of the great city of Chicago
viii, in all probability, be highly beneficial in
its effects. The situation which prompted
the visit briefly stated. is this: until DR..
S. S. Kilyington assumed charge, but lit
tie attention had been paid to the
department of public health. His enthusi-
asm and evident earnestness in the
cause of sanitation has brought to his sup
port those who have taken some little inter
est in this important branch of the city ad-
ministration. Dr. KilvingtOn has. however.
been hampered and cramped by disposition
on the part of the council in its work OF re
trenchment and reform 10 curtall the ex-
penses of the department TO a degree which
has greatly diminished its efficiency. When
he asked for S24,0 600 to maintain his
department. the appropriation was cut
to $1,000 A crematory costing So. GOO for
the disposal OF garbage was built. and proved
a success until when again the plea of false
economy interfered, and the funds to sue
cessfully operate were refused. a cry was
raised that II allowed a nOXiouS stencil to
escape, and a week ago action was taken by
the council to abolish it as a nuisance. In
addition, the feeling has occasionally shown
itself even in the committee on health
and and hospital, o, that perhaps the at,
economically and satisfactorily handled,
so the committee went 10 Chicago. The
party consisted of Aid. Potter, Sterling,
Brazie, Cole, City Engineer Rinker, Comp
troller CalderwOo0. and besides Albert Chris
tella, of James Mcmillan & Co.; DR.. AllOWay,
superintendent of the stock yards; d. l..
Robinson, of Robinson d Mead; James A.
Byrnes, of the Minneapolis Provision com
pany; Charles A Carlson, contractor; 4. NJ.
Scott and GLOBE representative. The com
mlttee left Minneapolis Wednesday highland
arriving at Chicago Thursday morning put in
the day up to the time of return investigating
the workings of the health department OF
that CITY under the guidance of Assistant
Commissioner of Health Dickson, and ex
Commissioner of Ee nth De Wolf The Merz
system. which disposes of thirty tons day
of what might be called kitchen garbage, eX-
tracing the oil from the meat, and making
fertliZing material from the residue, was eX
amined, with its series of evapOrating
and cOndensing tanks. and the general
verdict was that about two dollars was spent
in disposing of 81 worth of garbage. The
Union Rendering works were next visited,
and there IL was found that dead horses,
hogs. sheep and cattle from the stock yards.
hauled out from the city, were thrown aboard
fiat cars ana hauled twenty-nine miles out of
The city 10 the rendering works. The
stencil was intolerable, sickening, nau-
seating. The disposition of night
soil was even worse. On the
outskirts, reached by a drive through thickly-
settled portions of the suburbs. there is an
eighty-acre tract in whrch watts are dug to the
depth of four or five feet. and walled in
with turf supply. into which the liquid ex-
creEent is poured and left with only thin
covering of manure. The roadway leading
10 this was beSprinkled with the drippings
from leaky wagons, and marked by
numerous dumping of cartS-altOgether
il was as foul and unwhOlesOme a spot as
could be well imagined. And the collection
and disposition of the garbage! Imagine
long rows of dwellings with boxes of reek-
ing filth III front of each waiting for wagons
TO haul them away, and for all this the city
Of Chicago pays $3.50 900. in addition TO
So 600 for the hauling away of its dead
animals.
The city of Chicago has a million of IN
habitantS and the city of Minneapolis has
less than one-quarter of its population. At
a prOpOrtiOnate rate Minneapolis might be
expected 10 spend 1000 for sanitary pro-
lection year. As IL is IL has spent Sl7 900,
and kicks on that.
so the committee returned abundantly sat
isfied on two points al least. that its system
of sanitation is far ahead of that of Chicago.
and that the difference in the prOpOrionate
cost is so great as to render an increase of
appropriation justifiable. not to say ex-
cusable The committee forthwith held
meeting upon its return, and decided to ask
that the closing of the crematory be
postponed. In the meanwhile a propo-
sitiOn for the maintenance of the
d
TO be submitted. AT the meeting OF the coun-
ell last evening, Aid Gray, at the request of
Aid. Sterling. moved to reconsider the vote
by which the garbage crematory was ordered
closed after Sept 10. In arguing the motion
Aid. Sterling gave some account OF the
health boards trip TO Chicago, and made the
claim that the Minneapolis system was
very much better and less offensive.
He thought all the trouble had
arisen from insufficient approximations
.InhnGnn Nv
cred Philippe against the creamatorv. He
said it actually made people in parts of the
second ward sick. SO i'll that they could not
eat their meals. while the creamatOry was
merrily steaming forth the refined essence OF
horses. cats and dogs.
Aid BraZie also pleaded for more time. and
told the council it would cost SO, 900 year
tn dispose of the Offal now delivered at the
creamatory by any other process.
Aid johnson had been figuring while D. N
BTaZie talked, and sprang TO his feet with the
statement that for Sc. 900, the amount asked
10 run the crematory, the 700 horses con-
sumed there last year could have been buried
in Lakewood and monuments erected TO
their memories, and the city council could
attend the funerals in body. In reply to
statement that the second ward had had
better health than any other ward in the
city, notwithstanding the crematory during
the past year. Aid. Johnson said the Second
ward always had the best health in the city.
Furthermore, large cities throughout the
world were enjoying better health than for
years back. @
Aid. Brazie-I deny that.
Aid. Johnson-I happen TO be connected
with an undertaking establishment which is
engaged in manufacturing collins and it has
been the dullest year in trade for series of
years.
The crema tory was batted back and forth
for while. the ants claiming that dead ami
mails could be more economically disposed of
at the stock yards The motion to reconsider
finally prevailed, eighteen to seventeen, and
the cTematory was given new lease of life
until Oct. Is.