The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-09-15
Mr.. Osborn Wants a New Crema.
tory Franchise.
Says That He Is in Earnest This
Time.
PROPOSE TO BURN 1T.
Won't Throw the Refuse into
the River.
Question About Which the City
Has Grown Weary.

l
grant him a franchise to build a new
crematory for taking care of the city
| garbage. He will make application
for such a franchise within a short
time.
| There is no new tangled desiccating
plant idea about Mr.. Osborn's propo-
sition. 1t is likely that Mr.. Osborn
has had all the desiccating plant he
wants. His plan now is to simply
build crematory and burn everything
up. He says he does not care whether
he is located on the river or not, and
that means that he really intends to
burn things, and not merely pipe the
garbage out into the bosom of the kaw
as has been done in the past.
Mr.. Osborn is the man who is now
handling the city garbage business,
but he is doing it without any fran
chise or contract The city pays him
$50 month, and he carries off the
dead animals and garbage The dead
animals are burned at the old Thomp-
son crematory. The rest of the stuff
is piped into the river. This is merely
a makeshift way of getting rid of the
city refuse, and the board of health,
with its accustomed celebrity, has per-
mitted it to continue during the whole
summer in spite of the protests of
people living near the old dump and
crematory.
No doubt Mr.. Osborn has been do
ing the work as well as anyone would,
but it is the system which the city
ought to change. If Mr.. Osborn is
willing to put in the right kind of
system. the city should hasten to enter
into contract with him.
Topeka has grown tired waiting for
a "desiccating" plant, and it is ready
to welcome real, good, red-hot Gre
matory, which will burn everything up
and make an end of the constant COM
plant about the garbage problem. At
"a fOy-
working, it caused a terrible stencil,
and the council decided that it needed
a desiccating plant A company was
formed, in which w. L. Osborn was
the purpose of building such a plant
The company got a franchise and
built its plant on the north bank of
the Kansas river about a half mile
east of North Topeka. The plan was
to convert the dead animals into tai |
low, pulveriZed bone and fertilizer and
the rest of the garbage into fertilizer |
Somehow the plant failed to work. It
did not convert the animals and the !
garbage into anything but a bad odor, |
and the company was obliged to do |
as its predecessors had done-pipe the |
stuff out into the river. Then came
the flood, and the remains of the 'des- |
locating" plant were washed away The |
company then took up temporary
headquarters at the old Thompson Gre |
matory, which, they have been using |
was revival of the desiccating plant |
talk, and at one time it seemed that |
the construction of big $4,000 es-
tanHshment on approved designs |
would De actually accomplished. But |
the scheme fell through because of |
Lack of financial backing and things |
were back where they were five years |
ago.
Now Mr.. Osborn says his plan is TO
abandon the desiccating plant PROPOSE |
ton, which costs too much to establish
on large enough scale for Topeka. |
ana 10 pulid $1,000 crematory instead, |
PROVIDED the city council will let him |
am willing to put in $1,000 Gre |
matory here, with four furnaces and |
a 6O-foot brick stack, capable of act
ualIy burning up everything. All I ask
is that the council give me a liberal |
FRANCHISE or contract, at the present |
rates 1 am perfectly willing to locate
this plant as far from the river as the
council desires, so that there will he NO |
possibility of any more piping into the |
river.
Il have just completed putting in a |
small crematory down at Coffeyville !
There they pay me so cents a barrel |
for handling nightsoil while here we |
get only 40 cents. There we have gas |
at 10 cents a thousand for fuel and |
small expense.
Il think there is no doubt that the
sum of $1,000 could be raised here for
the purpose of building a crematorv. It |
IS quite a dIfferent proposition than |
raising $4,000 for a desiccating plant |
A good four furnace crematory would |
burn up all the city garbage and dead |
and would not make any dis |
agreeable SMELL
The city board of health and the |
health and sanitation committee of the |
council seem to be waiting for each
other to do something. If the two
bodies could get together and take
some action. there might be such |
thing as having an effective crematory
in operation in Topeka sometime be-
fore the hot weather of next summer
1t usually takes about that length of
time for the city council to bring any
thing to pass.