Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-06-26

After devoting a great deal of time and
attention to the important matter of gar
bage collection and disposal the District
Commissioners have awarded the contract
under the new system to the contractors
who have rendered unsatisfactory service
under the old system, the present garbage
collectors, and the holders of the tenn
pcrary four months contract from July
1st. Incarceration is the variety of garbage
disposal for which official preference has
been expressed, and definite announcement
has been made that the sum of 900 a
year will be paid for the collection and de-
struction of the waste matter which is now
largely disposed of by being dumped into
the Potomac. The people of Washington
cannot be otherwise than glad to know
that the improper and unhealthy methods
which have been in vogue here for such
long time are to be displaced by better ad-
ministration and modern machinery. The
new contract does not by it's terms become
for this four months of ancient-style, Of
fensive and unsatisfactory service from
.he 1st day of July the same contractors
are to receive as compensation a sum sufh-
Client to pay for six months of the i'm
proved service and nearly as much as one
or two of the bidders were willing to do
the work for the whole year through and
to do II under one of the modern systems.
Since the temporary and permanent con-
tractors are practically the same, the tenn
porary should be merged in the permanent
arrangement and the Commissioners may
properly insist that all haste be made in
the construction of such buildings and
equipments as are needed to incinerate
our garbage. so that the city may no
longer be disgraced by the anti-hygienic
garbage-dispoSal practices which have
stirred Alexandrians up to physical pro-
test. Experts say that 1t would be posi-
tle to have the crematories In full running
order in about forty days; if that really be
so then the Commissioners should stir the
contractors to instant activity. so that the
present extremely offensive method of dis
posal may be discontinued at the earliest
possible da.e. 1t may be urged that the
contractor who will attend to the collec-
ton and disposal for four months. in con-
of the payment by the District
of an enormous price. is not the success
full bidder for the remainder of the five
years term. but those who know anything
as to the local situation will not be de-
ceived by such specious technicality, for
the two brothers are practically one firm
1t is indicated that the cremation system
used in Atlanta is to be employed, unless
the Commissioners impose a veto, and that
the crematories are to be placed within the
city limits. The residents of one of the
sections where the location of a crematory
Is proposed have announced that they will
not meekly acquiesce in placing what they
claim will be 4 nuisance in the immediate
n nd hot
surely be appeals to law for their protec-
ton. This action may not be unreasonable,
since 1t is on record that the system which
the contractor proposes to operate here is
not entirely unobjectionable. At least the
New York commissioners who were en-
gagged in searching for a garbage-destroy-
Ing plant that worked satisfactorily, came
TO this conclusion, according to Munich
pality and County, which, telling the story,
says:
1T IL erroneous to state that this sys-
tenn has no unobjectionable features. Even
while the commissioners were making the
Inspection there was litigation pending in
the superior court of Atlanta concerning
1t. About thirty people who own property
near the works are seeking to enjoin the
city from the use of these dumping grounds
because it is a nuisance, claiming that it
produces smoke and noisome smells, and
Is making the people in that vicinity sick
and their lives miserable"
The District Commissioners will doubt
less require either disproval of the OBJ
jections urged against the Atlanta system,
or, If this system Is used, the location of
the crematories outside the city limits
Under an Incarceration system there are
no inducements held out to the contractor
to collect all the garbage. The less the
amount he collects, the smaller will be the
of collection and burning and
the greater the contractors profit. 1t there
fore behooves the Commissioners to bind
the contractor more tightly on this point
than heretofore, and to provide an efficient
Inspection force which shall see to it that
the contractor does not neglect his duty
to the community. Not SO long ago the
was urging in his own behalf
that thorough collection could not be ex-
pected of him because the amount of money
he received would not Justify him in en-
ploylnS larger number of men and horses
and carts. There never was anything in
that claim. for it was the contractors bust
ness to do everything he promised to do or
throw up his job. But under the new con-
tract there can be no possible excuse for
anything less than complete collection and
q destruction so satisfactory that neither
nor the general pubic Shall
have any cause for complaint. The Com
missioners have been supplied with ample
funds to prevent the city garbage from be-
coming a nuisance. either uncollected at
the houses of citizens. or at the crematory
where it is disposed of, and the community
will expect nc thing less than this to be &C
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