The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-24
THE OLD HUMBUG.


After the performances Of the pres
ent city council in relation to
other matters, it would have required
a most sanguine mind to suppose that
it would make any Improvement upon
the ancient and odoriferous method of
dealing with the disposal Of the city
garbage. It's utter Incompetence to deal
in a. practical and businesslike way
with questions of municipal admins
tration made it a foregone conclusion
that, when it came to letting new gar
bage contracts. the same old worth
less and impossible arrangement would
be continued. The council appears to
have lifted an eyelid far enough to dis
cover that it ought to make some sort of
change, if for nothing else than to give
an appearance of Improvement. SO 1t
| has elected to have the work done by
districts, instead of a single contract,
and the joint committee Of the two
| houses has received bids and rec
ommends the awarding Of contracts
to six different persons, covering the
eleven districts into which the city has
| been divided.
On the face of it, the prob
abilities are that work of this sort
can be done better under the control
Of single individual or corporation
than when distributed among half a
dozen different persons acting without
concert or unity of plan. This applies
even more to the disposition of gar
| bage than to it's collection. One
great difficulty has always been to Sc
cure such disposition of the offal Of a
city as would not offend comfort or
threaten injury to public health. 1t is
hard enough to find a proper dumping
place or burial place when but one is
to be chosen. If half dozen contrac-
tors have to find each his own method
Of putting garbage out of sight and
| smell, and their teams are making for
different points, it is hardly likely to
prove satisfactory.
The crucial test of the whole matter,
! however, is the question of cost. 1t has
been proved by a series of years of
conclusive experiment that the gar
bage in st. Paul cannot be collected,
carried away and destroyed for the
price paid. AS we have seen, one con-
tractor after another, after squabbling
and fighting over the privilege Of doing
the business, has come before the coun-
ell. when hauled up by the health Of
ficer for not doing his duty, and pleaded
in extenuation that it was impossible
at the price paid, and that he was do
ins the best that he could for the
money. The result has been that the
work was poorly performed, complaints
were numerous, and ceased only when
the people finally settled down to the
conclusion that they had no remedy.
Since the sum of the amounts mentioned
in the different proposed contracts is
no greater than that paid on the single
ccrtract last year. it follows that the
| work Will be no better done IN the 1u-
ture than in the past.
We have no desire to see the expen-
ditures in st. Paul increased. We have
a great desire that the city garbage
should be collected thoroughly and eff
ficientIy and taken away where it can
not be a source of offense. We are
convinced that this is a physical
impossibility under the proposed
contract The most competent author
tiles have testified positively that it
cannot be done for anything like S13,-
coo a year. If this be true, and we see
no reason to doubt it, the council is
simply preparing to repeat the action
of previous years, except that it will
divide among half a dozen men the
money formerly paid to one This may
be politics, but it is not efficient city
government. Nobody, however, is left
in St Paul sufficiently lacking in san,
ity to expect the latter from our pres
ent city council.