New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1890-07-27


Commissioner Beattie'S report OF his dongo
30 tbo head Of the Street Cleaning Department
co,t,ins some mysterious assertions. lie says
,b,t durinc the last three months he has swept
1s77, miles of streets This falls short only
& ooo mile, of the equatorial circumference
&c tbc earth's surface In other words, he has
eyycpt a holt of about 100 feet IN Wid'h an" -
long - the distance from the mouth Of Inc -
Lawrence River t. Puget sound. no "ouId
have thought II? And yet 1t i lar from Us 10
Question Mr.. Bcattie's ycracity. II he had sal'
ne had swept a, many miles oi streets ~ inc
distance from here t. the moon We should nave
believed him Just a, implicitly as now
But the problem that puzzles MS is this
Is tba city grows diricr and dirtcr the NOR"
Mr. Bcat,ic sweeps, and if he Is going to IN
crease his energies aS he threatens 70 do what
tho mischief will become Of rs when his ncAt
three months are by? Mr.. Beattic has swept
4. 600 miles more than poor Mr.. Looms swept
and the unhappy Mr.. LOOMS used 10 tell MS
with i sob how many moro miles he had swept
than the ,yretched Mr.. Coleman did, and yet
rho public'S eyes and noses arc the unprcJu-
diced and unimpcachablc witnesses that the
streets have grown steadily fthicr. BeattioS
grim and relentless purposes are therefore
sufficiently alarming Unless he and his broom
ara called of Broadway VIII soon be swept 50
full of mud that the public Will have no Ic-
course but 20 travel on stills
The sum of $3.50, S35 was appropriated by
the Board of Estimate last December for street
cleaning purposes in 1890. II we will only LEI
orr minds dwell on these figures for moment
or two. il will be seen that they represent
vast deal of money Mr. Bcattic has that
enormous fortune 10 spend during u single
twclve-month, and he is spending it with the
utmost zeal and, under the bencfccnt cNplon-
age of Tammany Hall, with such discretion
that about 500. 900 goes to street cleaning
propcr and the other S900000 20 Tammany
only knows what The bitter complaints OF
tbc strcct-clcanng labOrcrS are the complaints
Of men who cannot get work enough to keep
their families from starving. although the work
miles of it, mountains of it lis there 10
do. and although there is plenty of money TO
do il with-or would be if it were honestly and
scnsibly spent.
And right there is the trouble and practical
~ the whole Of it. 1t Is true that the public IS
careless of its own comfort, and that IT dlrt'eS
the streets with ashes and garbage outrageous
". II is true that our system Of street clean
ing is all wrong, anyhow, and that II should
be under the control of the Police Depart
mcnt whose officers should be employed 10
enforce the municipal ordinances. II is true
that these wrctchod subway companies work
vast amount of mischief but all these circum-
! stances are as nothing compared with the fact
/ that these Tammany politicians spend the ap-
preparation in such Il way that 100000 is
sent out to see how 1928, 900 does its work
/ What that means is obvious enough
So far as the books OF the Department show
| its meaning they ask the public 10 believe that
the cost Of carting the dirt off and Of dumping
1 il at sea is nearly three times greater than the
cost of collecting it, This OF course is nom
sense: and if il is not nonsense then it is the
stuyGdcSt sort of nonsense 10 be employing such
devices When a person Is called upon to
spend three dollars i'll order &C. render the ex-
pcndture of one dollar effective there is some
thing desperately wrong about his way of doing
business. But this is just what We are doing
in the Street Cleaning Department, or at least,
| tho Tammany method of bookkeeping en-
ploycd there says II says that for every
dollar spent i'll cleaning the city three dollars
are spent in disposng of the rubbish and for
every nine dollars spent anywhere one dollar
is spent in the Commissioners Office. We need
, 80 no further than this " learn why Newly ork