The record-union., 1893-05-13

At last the people of Sacramento have
laid before them in the following article
all the facts relative to disposal of gar
bage by dumping and by cremation.
They can now study the danger of the
first. the healthfulness and the cheapness
OF the second method.
The Philadelphia Record, in whose city
garbarge incineration is successfully car
ried on, has, at great pains, compiled the
history of garbage cremation and incin-
orator machines. We reproduce the ar
ticle in full, and congratulate the Record
upon the clearness of the text and the
lucidity of the explanations.
Sacramento's citizens are paying now
for burying dead animals, hauling and
dumping vegetable and animal refuse
and decaying matter, and hauling and
burying refuse from streets and houses,
anywhere from 5000 to $3.50 year, or
in the neighborhood of so to 30 cents per
capita per annum for the whole popula-
tion for disposition of about twenty tons
a day of garbage, whereas forty tons a
day can be collected and disposed of by
cremation for twenty-five cents per cap
ita on the Eastern basis for labor and
fuel.
But besides that, Sacramento has been
dumping her garbage in low places, max
ing it, with the admixture of earth, a
filling on which to build houses in out
side districts-a system absolutely pro-
hibited by law and made q crime in some
countries, and that is condemned by
every sanitarian in the world as extremely
dangerous.
But the laws Of California, after the
middle of last March, prohibited the
dumping of garbage within city limits.
This TAR DiU be enforced if there is any
vigor whatever in the courts. The Board
OF Health. the Trustees and private citi-
zens who regard good health as an essen
tial propose to see to it that the law is en-
forced.
When that is done the cost of hauling
and dumping will advance to about 70
cents per capita per annum, or S2l, 600 a
year, whereas cremation can be had by
an outlay of from $1,000 to $4,000 for the
plant and from $4,000 to $500 a year for
collection and operation, according to the
system adopted, the fuel used and the
amount of garbage consumed. This
would be anywhere from 10 cents to 25
cents per capita per annum.
But as a matter of facthouseholders pay
never less than so cents a month for
dumping garbage, no matter how few are
in the family. So that every householder
who pays for hauling and disposing of
garbage expends So year at the lowest.
Assuming there are six in the family, the
tax is 81 per capita per annum, and Will
be 81 80 if we do not cremate and do
enforce the law and compel scavengers to
haul to points outside of the city, under
which system they must nearly double
their rates, because they cannot make
more than half the number of trips they
now do, in the same time.
But suppose we do not adopt crema-
ton and do adhere to dumping, and en-
force the law and have the filth dumped a
quarter of a mile outside of city limits,
we have but removed the offense OF
dumping a little way off and the evil OF
the system is about as great as before.
Under the crematory system herein
considered no account has been taken OF
the value OF the resultant ash, which at
the Boston crematory sells at SO per ton
as a fertilizer.
With this much of introduction we ask
our readers TO ponder upon the following
facts as gathered by our Philadelphia
contemporary
A QUESTION TO BE FACED.
Sooner or later all urban communities,
great and small. must face the question
OF disposition of their garbage and other
refuse matter in q manner which shall
best conserve the public health. Inc
methods now generally adopted are either
offensive to the city employing them or
prejudicial to the health of neighboriug
communities. Destruction by tire seems
to be the only certain remedy. Phila-