New-York tribune., 1902-12-05
HOW TO Do THINGS.
certain.

The Street Cleaning Commissioners breezy
| talk before the League for Political Education
! the other evening ought to convince even the
| most inert and diffident of the folly of saying
! about desirable thing. 1T can't be done
| How often did We hear those words in the oden
! days. When somebody suggested that the
| streets should be kept cleaner the reply was,
| 1T can't be done" When it was hinted that
some better disposal of ashes, garbage and
refuse might be made than dumping it at sea
really In the harbor-men said, 1T can't be
done" When it was pointed out that other
cities were successfully doing such things the
same old parrot answer was all that was vouch-
safed on the part of New York, 1T can't be
done
Well DR.. Woodbury. reminds us that some Of
those very things are being done, TO the
great profit of the public and OF the municipal
ity Ashes and garbage now separated de
spite the reiterated protestation that it could
not be done and instead of paying from II to
% cents a load to get rid of the ashes the city
now gets from : to Il cents a load for them
By the end of the year $685.. 900 worth of new
land will have been created by judicious dump
ing of stuff which few years ago would
have been dumped into the Sandy Hook Chan
mel for steamships to run aground upon and
for the government TO dredge out great ex
pense. Other refuse that used TO he cast into
the sea is sold for SO ton: and so the
good work goes on. The streets are kept clean.
The sanitation Of the city is improved. The
harbor is not filled up The beaches are not
defiled. Heavy expense is transformed into
substantial profit: and every one of these i'm
provements is something OF which II used to he
said ''Tt can't be done"
There are other things which need to be
e+iu saxfp
be done. but which certainly Will. be done one
of these days. DR.. Woodbury. thinks people
should be stopped from throwing banana skins
and waste paper and the like into the streets.
He is quite right They should be stopped.
they can be, and one Of these days they will be.
In Vienna IL a man opens a letter and throws
the torn envelope into the street he Is arrested
and fined. That Is not tyranny; It is neatness
and cleanliness. Public highways made for
travelling on. not for use as dustbns and gar
bage pals. There is the waste of 90 per cent
OF water supply through defective plumb
ing. 1t ought to be stopped. Some people say
it can't be, but IT be and we believe II
will be.
There are some things which can he done Just
as well as some other things; and there are
some cities which can do things just well
some other cities-New York. for example If
Liverpool and London can stop the waste OF
water. and Berlin can dispose OF garbage and
sewage at profit, and Vienna can keep streets
from being Uttered, and Paris and Hamburg
can filter river water into state of crystalline
purity. why, then. New-York can do all those
things. too. New York, thanks to DIR. Wood.
bury and other men Of the same stamp is al
ready doing some OF them which used TO be
declared impossible. 1t will do all the rest or
them one OF these days. and that day is not far
distant. The way to do such things is TO get a
move on and do them.