The times., 1898-02-06
Street Cleaning in New York.


Now that the beginning of the reform
movement in New York city has pass.
ed into history the people who tool
part IN it seem to have taken breath
and prepared to eulogize 1t in books
| The latest work in this line is Street
| Cleaning" by George E. Waring
| Theodore Roosevelt has told what hs
| did; DR.. Parkhurst has told what he
did; Mr.. Stead has told what the Lex
ow Committee did; reform newspapers
| have told, and continue to tell, what
| they did, and now Commissioner War
| ing has concluded that ii is time foI
him to join in the chorus and tell what
he did. When all these books are TAX
Ell together and studied by some fu-
ture historian, they Will give very
good resume of the horrible condition
of New York at the beginning of the
reform movement, and the literal, met
aphorical mental, physical, moral and
extremely thorough, housecleanins
which she underwent at the hands of
the reform administration.
Mr.. Waring dedicates his book to
Mayor Strong, to whose support he
says his success is very, largely due.
He begins by describing, as the other
historians have done, the condition of
New OTh dl lHe lIillS liHljieuIdltlS pre-
cedinS her change of heart. His state
ments are Illustrated by photographs
of given streets before and after TAX
ing the Waring cure, and the change
is certainly startling. Streets half
choked With rubbish, the sidewalks
crowded with barrels, boxes and trucks
have been transformed into Seemly, or
derly thoroughfares. Mr.. Waring eX-
plains at the outset that he regards
of one political party, but of politics in
municipal administration, and points
out the obvious fact that no contractor
or foreman can do good work when half
his force is composed of men who
have a pull and who know that If
they are dismissed for cause they will
not stay dismissed two days, and who,
as one fellow said in SO many words,
didn't come there to work. Disci-
pline, order and promotion by merit
were what was needed in this case, and
these Mr. Waring says he has intro
duced. He tells of one man who was at
the outset of the Waring rule in a very
important position, and who was a
Tammany captain. This workman fully
expected to be turned out, but was not,
as he proved to be faithful and eff
cient man. After he became better ac-
quainted with Colonel Waring, he said
IN course OF a conversation.
DO you know what a Tammany man
is? He is a man who votes for his job.
/ have been a Tammany man, and
faithful one. But 1 am Waring man
now" And that was the whole mat
ter in a nutshell.
A number of chapters are devoted to
schemes for the incineration of garbage
and the disposal of rubbish generally,
and other chapters to a discussion of
the best method of street sweeping. In
New York it has been found that hand
work is the best, and the machines
have been discarded. The first nine
chapters, dealing with these subjects,
are the work of Commissioner Waring
but in regard to mat
ters of which his assistants
have had charge, he has call
ed upon them for a report, and the
chapter on the stock and plant of the
street cleaning department is the work
Of Major H. c. Gushing, assistant su-
perintendent, while E. l.. Stidham,
snow inspector, writes of the removal
of snow, and David Willard of the Ju-
venile Street Cleaning League. New
York is compared by Commissioner
Waring to other cities which he has
inspected for the purpose Of obtaining
on his speciality, and his
Of the methods Of street
cleaning in Paris, Berlin, London,
and Brussels will be found
very interesting. The concluding chap