The record-union., 1899-04-05
STREET spR1NKL1NG METHODS.

In several of the Eastern cities and
TOWNS water carts have been taken
from wagon gearing, mounted on plat
form trucks and placed upon the rails
of electric street railways operated by
trolley The sprinkler tube is hinged
and as the car runs over the lines OF
the railway first one side then the other
of a street is sprinkled. BY running
fast or slow the amount or distribution
of the water IS managed precisely as is
called for by conditions of shade, sun or
character Of the street.
The swinging sprinkler is not so much
an obstruction to travel in the streets
as is the ordinary watering cart. The
tanks are filled in one-half the time now
required for carts and horse-hauled
sprinkling wagons, because the trips to
the points of supply are SO quickly
made. Economically the sprinkling
costs the city less than for horse carts
and wagons, though, of course, the sys-
tenn only partially eliminates them.
Second, J, K, G, Fifteenth, Third, p,
Twenty-first, H, Twentieth, Tenth, M
and Seventh, in part, could thus be
sprInkled in Sacramento, say eleven
miles of much used streets, Including
the business streets in largest part. OF
course it will be objected that such a
system will cut out of employment the
men and teams now necessary for that
mileage, and, therefore, that it is not
fair to labor. But in administering the
affairs of a city maintained by the
money of taxpayers, the first considera-
ton is not the interests of individuals,
but the best system of government at
the economic cost, worth and efficiency
being always kept in view.
If city government is to be conducted
with an eye single to distributing
loaveS and fishes, to employing the
largest number at the cost of the gen
eIai purse, then as matter of course
no improved systems of any kind should
be introduced into city affairs But
the plan referred to does not so greatly
diminish the number of men employed.
Each car needs two men, the motorman
and the man who manipulates the
sprinkling lever, fills the tanks and
keeps the device in order.
The gain is in the better work done,
the saving in water used, because the
use is better distributed and time saved
in sprinkling, since more frequent and
finer applications can be made. The
cost for movement has, we understand,
been found to be about equal TO the
cost for teams to haul a. watering cart
or wagon There is economy in the
thoroughness with which the work is
done, in the ability to do much of it at
times when the streets are not crowded.
and in the removal of the obstruction to
street traffic that the watering cart
surely is.
1t will be said that such system
-favors the street railway corporation.
l'dt the reply is that franchises have
been granted to the company and are
enjoyed by it, the rails occupy the
streets. and just as far as their use
can be made to contribute to the gem
eral good by municipal utilization they
should be employed. There is, it is
said, no special if any profit to street
railway companies in leasing the right
of transit for water cars over their
lines. AS a rule they charge no more
than it would cost for horses to haul
over the same route, and as rule they
do not favor such use of their rails.
This is the subject as we understand
dt as considered in other cities. There
are two sides to the question, and both
should be considered. But it is con-
ceded In Eastern towns where tried that
the only negative side to the use of rail
line sprinIders is the argument that
few drivers and teams are displaced:
but in some towns it has displaced
Zone. but enabled the sprinkling system
no be enlarged and bettered in service,
and thus benefited rather than dis
placed labor.