Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-08-20


win be under direct ecntrol of the munici-
pality, SO that when a11y section Of the city
shall require special attention a sufficient
force may be at once transferred to such
danger of complaint of infringing upon his
rights, and no troublesome contentious as
to compensation for extra work.
Another point in fav6r of municipal con-
troll is that but one set of employees VIII be
under supervision, with no clauses OF con-
tract to be interpreted In cases where the
work may be sighted; the work of super
vision may be brought within smaller COM
minimum. because largely of the absence
OF motive to do inferior work or to wholly
neglect any part of It.
The point Is SO frequently raised that
pohtlcai patronage would SO handicap the
department and increase the cost of mu-
nicipal street cleaning as to make it i'm
practicable; but in the years experimental
work under my direction l experienced no
embarrassments whatever in that regard
nor do fear any should the entire control
OF the work be put under my direction
For the foregoing and other reasons,
am OF the opinion that so far as street
cleaning is concerned, it would be greatly
to the interest of any municipality to per-
form such service itself by day labor with
out contract
Machine Sweeping.
The six schedules for machine sweeping
for the fiscal year ended June 80, 1900, aver
aged about 10000 square yards. having
been prepared at the beginning Of the year
In accordance with the amount of money
aVa1labie Tor that class of work. Machine
sweeping is done at night between the
hours OF pm. and am, the six sched-
ues being swept in regular order, COM
mencing with No. on Monday night.
The lowest bid for machine sweeping
Tor the current year was is cents per 1000
square yards, provided the contract was
entered into for three years, this being a
very low rate and by the same firm that
ola the work last year, which was wei
done. The contract was let for three years,
SUBJECT to annual appropriations by Con-
gress.
by letting the contract for three years
instead or one year saving was made of
1A cents per 1000 square yards, which
amounts to quite an item at the end of
year.
For the current year we have for this
class of work So, 900 This amount should
be so increased as to enable us to sweep
some or the streets oftener than twice per
week, and l submit herewith an estimate
OF $4O,oOO for machine sweeping.
Improved Alleys.
THE work of cleaning the improved al
leys for the fiscal year ending June 30,
1890, was done under contract at 33 cents
per LOCO square yards. The daily sched-
ules averaged about 10000 square yards,
once per week, according to schedule num-
Der, commencing with No. 1 on Monday.
The force employed to do this work was
eighteen laborers, six horses and carts with
drivers and three one-horse sprink.ers with
drivers. The service for the past year was
very good, as shown by the infrequency
of complaints. The rate for cleaning alleys
has gradually decreased from 42.4 cents per
1000 square yards in 1895 to 32B cents for
the current year.
UnimprOved Streets.
THE contract rate for cleaning unim-
proved streets and alleys for the fiscal year
ended June 80. 1900. was 500. 30 per day for
furnishing thirty-six laborers, twelve horses
and carts with drivers and al tools neces-
sary to do the work. with provision to fur
nish extra laborers and horses and carts
with drivers at sl.35 and s175. respectively.
when ordered by the Commissioners.
The three gangs are assigned to differ
ent sections of the city each in charge OF
an inspector, whose duty 1t is to that
the roadway is kept clean. the drainage of
the cutters clear and free from weeds and
grass. and also to attend to complaints
caused by the failure Of the property hold
ers to comply with the law requiring them
to remove dirt washed from their property
upon the sidewalks, streets and alleys.
by consulting the table it will be seen
that this comparatively small force has
kept large area clean during the year.
and thereby rendered valuable service, as
many of the unmproved streets are located
in the most densely populated sections of
the city The regular force was not suffi-
GENTLY large to do the work at all times. as
will be observed in the foregoing table by
the additional force employed during the
year, the cost of which amounted to
S4,13S.02
Unimproyed Alleys.
ITO keep unmproved alleys clean is diff
fcuit task, and one that requires special
pains. for the reason that a great many Of
them are narrow that a horse and cart
cannot be gotten into Them the laborers
having to scrape the filth to the entrance or
carry it out in small receptacles. 1t is into
this class of alleys that most all of the
filth and rubbish from adjacent premises
finds its way, besides being made dump
ing ground by the scavenger or ashman, in
defiance of police and sanitary regulations.
This work is done under contract, in con-
nectiOn with that Of unimproved street
work, at a cost of s1662 per day for nine
la borers, three horses and carts, in charge
of inspector This class of alleys is
cleaned once In six days the city having
been laid out in six different routes, and
schedules printed showing the number of
alleys, location and area to be cleaned each
day.
Public Dumps.
This branch of the service has been of
great benefit to the department as well as
TO the general public lue dement, TO the
department is derived from the fact that
the dumps, located as they are in different
sections Of the city, afford the District
dumping places for the sweepings from the
streets, etc, within short hauling distances
and save thereby a great deal of time and
expense in the hauling. The public was
benefited for the reason that they We're al
lowed the use of these dumps for the de-
post Of the ashes and other unobjection-
able material collected from the houses and
back yards of residents, thereby avoiding
to a large extent the great public nuisance
of depositing such refuse upon the vacant
lots in the thickly settled parts of the city
"A great many persons hauling refuse
have a mistaken idea as to the kind of ma
terial allowable on these dumps. They seem
to think that because they are called pub
lie dumps the public has the right to dump
garbage and refuse Of all kinds upon them;
but the fact is they have no right to dump
anything whatever unless given permits
sion to do by the man in charge of the
dump, after he has examined the load and
he has emphatic instructions not to permit
the dumping Of Objectionable material
thereon.
Now that arrangements have been per-
fected for the systematic collection and
separation of ashes and miscellaneous re-
fuse, and the burning of all conclusive
waste at the crematory, it is believed that
there will be no further cause for COMPLAINT
on our public dumps.