Evening star., 1897-06-09
PERPLExING PROBLEM
Commissioner Still Wrestling With Street
Sweeping Plans.
A Compeomise Hay he Adopted Pro-
viding for the Employment of Some
New Yoek Features.

| magic skeins and thereby solve the riddle
/ as to how the streets of the city are to be
kept clean during the coming fiscal year.
For several weeks they have been thinking,
and for several days they have been inves-
tigatiEg. The former has resulted in prac-
tically nothing. while the investigations
have given them Information enough to .'e-
move several obstacles. Gradually the sew
eral propositions for which they advertised
have dwindled down. until now they are
confronted with only three plans for keep
ing the city clean. One Is to do the work
| by machines. under the new specifications
which provides for broom men to clean de-
presstons In asphalt pavements. and which
the authorities believe will greatly i'm
prove the present method Of street sweep
Ing; another is to combine the machine
work with a system of hand labor, with.
the patrol system on certain streets. and a
third is to sweep the entire city by hand in
lieu of machines
One Decision Reached.
One thing at least has been deciled
There will be no pickup machines enl-
ployed. no matter what plan is followed.
The Commissioners do not think them prac-
ticable, and have decided not to have them
| In Washington.
Except upon the principal business streets
and few of the more important residence
streets, the patrol system as employed in
New York, is impossible. The District has
not the money to do the work. although
the Commissioners are all convinced that
by that method the streets of the city can
be Kept cleaner than by any other system
Ihere are several propositions under
slderat1on and it is expected that some
time this evening the board will evolve a
plan which at least will give the city
sample of hand labor with the patrol fea-
lures. One idea is to sweep the less In
pCrtant streets by mac hine to the extent
a Of nf ha ,t-iatt
leaving the balance to be expended upon
the principal business streets, with few
of the residence streets thrown in To in
crease the amount of hand labor that can
| be done, IT is proposed to reject all bids for
cleaning Pennsylvania avenue by hand as
at present done, and take that money and
apply 1t to the general fund. This will
largely increase the means available for
the work, and is believed to be an excellent
plan.
Conditions Are Different,
1t has been found difficult to apply the
experience gained in New York to Wash
ington. The conditions are SO widely diff
ferent that comparison is hardly pos
sible. 1t has been demonstrated to the
satisfaction of all the Commissioners how
ever, that such system of cleaning is
the best. and with a sufficient appropria-
ton they would not hesitate to nauSurate
the method here They point out very con-
clusively that if a street is once thorough
~ cleaned. it is an easy matter for a la
borer TO constantly patrol it. and keen il
clean. But here in Washington, where
street schedules are made necessary by
reason OF insufficient appropriations. and
streets are not cleaned regularly every
DAY, the patrol system would fail.
As an example, take a street which is
swept but twice week by machines. The
patroman intrdsted to a district in which
several OF these streets are located would
find it an impossible task to sweep all the
the streets and keep them clean. because
OF the large amount OF dirt, which must
necessarily accumulate during the days
the streets remain untouched
1t is this consideration that has brought
the commissioners to realization that
TO II augLrate hand sweeping they must
effect some compromise between a hand
system and a machine system. They do
not altogether subscribe to the belief that
gang of laborels. with scoops. shoyels
ana bIocms, can go along a street and
clean 1t as well machine unless there
Is some kind of patrol work done after
ward. This. however. is combated by Col.
WaEng, who stated broadly that hand
iaDor was rore efficient than machines
The friends of hand labor. however, are
earnest in their protest against machines
ana Inc business men who signed the De-
titlon for hand labor still believe that hand
sweeping during the day is better than
machine sweeping at night.
Compromise Plan.
This brings the Commissioners to a CON-
are resting. strcng in the belief that by
the employment Of a combina ton method.
as mentioned in previous paragraph, all
can be satisfied and the city receive a sys-
t. m of cleaning that would be in every way
better than the one now in use.
The reror orter of The Star who visited New
York with Commission er Black, to investi-
gate street sweeping. made a calculation
today upon the combination system pro-
posed. Briefly il may be summed up as
fellows:
At the present time the contractor sweeps
in the neigLborhcod of 320,OO0.O0o square
yards of face streets per year Should
the Commissioners decide upon a mixed
system they could have 260,OoO.OO0 square
yards per year of unimportant streets
swept by macbiEes and 7S,OO0.000 square
yards of streets swept by hand labor, with
the patrol feature, and still be within the
al propriation- Add to this the money ex-
pended upon Pennsylvania avenue, and in
clude that street between LIST and 18th
streets in the hand patrol system and the
Commissioners could include several other
streets in the hs nd method.
1t is understood there will be another
conference upon this street sweeping mat
ter this afternoon.