St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-02-02
VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS,

We publish in another column this
morning a letter from a gentleman
thoroughly familiar with the subject
and competent to pass upon it, con-
tanning some suggestions to the city
in the matter of street and private
lighting, which seem to us of more
practical value than anything that has
appeared. These take the form of
comments upon the specifications for
electric, gas and gasoline lighting sub
mitted to the common council by the
board Of public works in connection
with its recent report. They deal with
a detail which is altogether overlooked
in the common course of our municipal
business arrangements. When we have
settled upon the method Of lighting, the
illuminant to be used, whether the
business shall be municipal or private,
and have laid down requirements to
be observed, we are in the habit Of
thinking that protection to the public
and the securing of it's rights are suffi-
GENTLY guaranteed. We entirely for
get that compliance with prescribed
conditions is a matter that needs con-
slant looking after. If it is agreed that
such and such service shall be rem
dered to the city for a specified sum,
bids are called for, and a contract let
on that basis, the whole arrangement
is practically valueless unless we have
provided some machinery to insure the
exact performance of the service ac-
cording to the specifications.
We need go no further than the sys-
tenn of dealing with city garbage in
the past to point the moral with a hor-
rible example. Garbage contracts have
been let year after year under specif-
cations that were, upon the whole. sat
isfactory. Bidders have agreed to do
the work for sums which it was gen
orally believed were below the actual
cost of the service. Naturally enough,
the conditions laid down were not
compiled with. The whole service was
thus made unsatisfactory, and the con-
tract itself was vitiated by on-observ-
ance. Now this is a perfectly idiotic
policy for any city to pursue. To de-
eide upon what it wants, to get bids
upon that basis and then to permit the
successful bidder to offer something
less than it wants, is not defensible
either from the financial or the prac-
teal standpoint. The central sugges-
ton Of our correspondent that there
should be thorough test made con-
tinuously of the quality and quantity
Of light supplied to the city by the
contractor, whoever 1t may be, with
penalties for insufficiency strictly en-
forced, is second in Importance only to
the main question of methods of light
ing itself. Perhaps it is not even sec
ond, but first.
It is pointed out that, in the first
place, there is not at present in st,
Paul any such systematic inspection
as there ought to be and must be, if
public and private rights are to be ade-
quately protected. Neither do the spe-
cifications in the proposed contracts
cover the ground fully. There is GER
tainly no reason why st. Paul should
require for it's street gas lamps only
eighteen candle power at the works.
with an allowance of 10 per cent for
depreciation one and one-half miles dis
tant, while in Minneapolis they require
twenfy-ave-candle power at the works.
and twenty-three- candle power one and
one-half miles distant. It requires a
light as excellent in both quality and
quantity to illuminate q given street
space In st. Paul as in Minneapolis.