Worcester morning daily spy. (Worcester, Mass.) 1888-1898, 1898-01-28
WARNINGS WORK.
New York's Elk. Street Cleaning
Commissioner Talks.
He Tells the Members of the Woman's
Club and Their Friends About the
Care Of City Streets.

Col George f. Warning, New York's
ex-street cleaning commissioners told
Worcester people, Thursday evening,
something about the work of his fa-
nous white wings" of the department
during his two and a half years term of
office
His talk was under the auspices of
the Woman's Club, which is just now
attempting an agitation in favor of
cleaner ard better streets in this mu-
nicipality, and was given in Associa-
ton Hall, While primarily intended for
the members of the club, an invitation
had been extended to many others to
attend, among whom were the members
Of the city government.
| Few of those, however, who are shap-
| ing the city's policies this year were
to be noticed in the audience, which was
| not so large as the occasion deserved.
| Alderman Burton W. Potter and Henry
Brannon represented the upper board,
While Councilman O'Connell, Ryan, Will
| hanson and George @. Hunt were about
! the only ones from the common council.
! The various departments, however,
were better represented. Street Com
missioner Prior WAS an interested lis
| tener, as was also his brother, the as
sistant commissioner, and it is not ex-
| travagant to suppose they got few
pointers that may prove of value to
them here. Clerk of the Board of Health
James c.. Coffey and City Physician
w. T. Clark sat together, and listened
to the discourse, as did also Superin-
| tendent Of Sewers Harrison P Eddy and
| City Clerk Towne. Indeed, the audience
as whole contained very few men;
and, of the 300 who We're present, not %
were of the sterner sex.
Every word that Col. Warning uttered
was interesting. Ard yet, as one lis
tened to what he had to say, he could
not help but be struck with the thought
that all this had little application to
/ Worcester. One of the greatest difficult
ties that Col. Warning experienced in his
New York work was the removal of
ashes and odds and ends of all sorts.
But here in Worcester we have no ash
barrels, although the board of health
has been recommending their adoption
year after year, until they have become
tired, and have ceased to recommend.
/ The colonel is an interesting looking
! gentleman, a tri6e beyond the prime OF
4 life. His face, his manner and his
II
i quality of character by which he was
enabled to reform the department as
soon as he assumed control, and to
Drlng order out Of chaos. Although not
speaking from manuscript, he referred
very often to the book he has written
bearing upon the subject. Occasionally
he would read long extracts from 1t.
Mrs Archibald McCullagh, president
q the Woman's Club, introduced Col
a II frNf S14.s-.
work that the organization contemplat.
ed doing in the interests of better and
cleaner streets Mrs. Burton w. Potter
: sat upon the platform with Mrs. McCul-
i lagh.
AS he began his talk, Col. Waring re.
marked that undoubtedly the people
who were assembled before him would
much prefer to hear about the cleaning
II of the streets of Worcester than the
cleaning of New York streets. "Expe-
! rlence has told me- he added, that 1t
Is always safer to talk only about that
which l know and then to leave it to
i the Intelligence of my hearers to trans
late what ! say and apply It to local
| conditions and surroundings. True to
this sentiment he confined himself en-
tirely to his New York work.
! Col. Waring was inclined to believe
that he did not merit all the good things
that had been said of him during his
| administration. The work was not diff
| ficult he said 1t was simply the TAX
| ing of the department that had been or
| gani2ed by law to clean the streets and
keeping it free from being merely a re-
ward to ward heelers for political work
and effort. The one matter of politics
was the only difficulty he encountered.
| The speaker then proceeded to explain
| the condition Of some of the streets in
the poorer sections of New York when
\ he assumed control in January, '95.
| These descriptions he read from his
! printed book They were certainly
| graphic, but hardly appreciable to the
man who had never seen the thing in
real life They told Of a condition OF
filth and mire of ashes and garbage in
the streets, such as we of the heart of
| the commonwealth have never dreamed
! of much less expect to ever find here.
| Some of the streets he cited were found
| to contain anywhere from one to two
/ feet of ashes and garbage scattered over
| their surface when work was begun up
on them in systematic manner
1.-THE department was what the con-
| dition Of these streets have cited would
| Indicate" he continued. 1T was hard
! ly an organization. No man felt secure
4 in his position. There was no sweeper
! who did not know how long it would
/ be before the politician who had given
/ him his place, would turn him out. in
| order to make room for another and a
/ later favorite. 1t may seem strange to
| you, and yet I have seen an order which
one of my predecessors issued, virtually
| making every man in the department
1 pay a certain portion Of his earnings to
political fund The district superin-
4 tendents or foremen would not
/ or could not exert any con-
troll over those over whom they
had authority. suppose ally. Disor-
der and Generalization were the rule.
] The best thing that could be said of It
I was that it was quite uniform in its
lack of uniformity. This condemnation
/ know is severe, and yet 1t is just. The
department was throttled by the party
in control 1t was made an adjunct of
| the party, school of reward, as it
were. and in this it was always a sue
cess" SO much for his Characterization
of the department at the time he took
charge.
Col Waring then spoke of the method
of disposing of the refuse collected from
houses by the scowing scheme, and how
the many evils arising from the load
ing of the scows had been gradually
overcome. and at last wholly removed
All OF this was interesting enough, but
of course could be given NJ local appli-
cation, for Worcester is not on the sea
coast, and the Blackstone is not naviga-
BILE.
The ex-eommissioner afterwards took
up the subject of street cleaning proper.
of sweeping the streets themselves. He
said that while it was a great fashion
in this country to believe that things
could be better, more quickly and more
cheaply done by machine than by hand,
ne firmly believed that in no way could
paved streets be kept as clean as by
hand sweeping In New York 1t had
been found to be great deal cheaper to