Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-09-07


hours per day When the District employs
labor directly it would be a violation OF the
law on the part of any officer having con-
troll of the men to permit them TO WORK
more than eight hours. But where tne
District makes a contract with an individual
to perform certain work and he employs the
labor then 1t would be no violation of the
law for an officer experimenting the WORK
to allow the contractor to work MS men
more than eight hours. In Such case the
officer could not direct the contractor not
to work his men more than eight hours He
would have no control of the contractor IA
that regard directly. The contractor Woulq
be liable to the penalty of the law, but the
officer would not. We give this as our
oninion of the proper construction of the
statute and we have talked with the OIL
fcer of the United States navy haViiis
these matters in charge, and ne INFORMS us
that that is the view taken by the Secre-
tarv Of the Navy-that in independent CON
tracts the officers of the government nav
no concern with the eight-hour law anu
the Navy Department does not put any
reference to it in its contracts.
|. Ninth Specification.
The ninth specification charges tiiat sii'oe
Mr. Rusk became contractor LOT machine
sweeping Stutler has taken away the au-
thority of the inspectors, with reiei eAoo W
aacidtne as to whether or not the contractor
80, he allowed to work. This charge also
alleges that one of the inspectors ST. ttnr o
two of Rusk's sprinklers at "oih "A'oA .
rain. A., o,,depce of the
,nsnectors substantially agrees that .hey
still have authority to decioe Wmon Viii
shall permit the machines TO WORK. IN
reference to the sprinklers peihs SCI.
after a rain mention is made that the yes.
timony before the Commissioners 81 w. =
that the streets were not muooy rortv
no rain had fallen for the preceoihs ao' ~
eight hours according W 'he
the weather bureau. ,o ,.uao
In this connection attention Is also Ea,e or
to the fact that on the recommends 't ~ ha
Stutler sprinkling by contract 10 1870 IN
whoIlv discontinued, except tnat uolie ~
connection with the horse machine sweep
ing. and is to be done by the Dlstfic''
The Area Swept by Machines
With regard to the recent increase IN inc
area swept by machines the ofiei s''
that: ,.u,o
nower machines is not due to MT. Stutier'
". believed and still believes in decreasing
that and increasing the hand cleaning. bu'
he is under the direction of the Sohhie
sioners, and they under the dlrectlon y,
Congress At the last session OF Cohsl ss'
in the consideration of the Distl.oI ap 49,
priation bill by a subcommittee OF the o in
mittee on appropriations seVerai seh e
expressed themselves as strongly III lh 49,
of increasing the horsepower -nhacl,i y,
sweeping. and since that tune S,nantta,, Of
increase has been made by the directlon oi
the Commissioners. This is a Hldttei wen
known to the Commissioners.
"Also during the investigation MI com
missioner West stated that wheh d. INC ne
time Rusk became the contractor flahy "
the streets in which street railway ,iachs
are laid were not being swept by the morse
machines, and for reasons gwen 10y mn,
which seemed cogent, he directed .he" "
be so swept, which in itself caused a con-
siderable increase"
Removal of Slush and Snow.
The eleventh charge alleges that on the
22d of February last Rusk should have oeen
allowed only one-third pay for sweeping
slush and snow, as no gutter men or carts
followed the machines but that ne was
paid practically in full for sweeping GER
tain streets. s5f
1.-THE occasion referred to In this specih-
cation was an extraordinary one, says the
| brief 1T was admitted at the hearing that
machines never were ordered to sweep STOW
and slush and never did so In the history
of the department except on this occasion
The contract Is for sweeping the Ordinary
accommodations from the streets, not .no
snow or Ice or slusn, and the cohtrac.ol
could not have been required to DO TINS
work under his contract and II ne hao de-
clined to sweep the slush there would nave
been no violation of it. The testimony ny
showed that the piling was not Done OF
| carts used because it was both unnecessary
| and impracticable to do either. Slush can
not well be made into piles or shoveied OF
hauied IN carts. Besides when swept mo
| the cutters most of it ran into the sewers.
1t was shown that Pennsylvania avenue
ana l4th street We're both swept twice. a
considerable part of the ether streets that
We're swept We're cut out and not allowed
for at ALL
Alleged to Be Withou, Foundation.
III cannot be said, under the facts devel-
oped' that more was allowed Rusk than
was equitable and just under the circum-
stances, and there is no ground for alleg-
ing tnat stutler did it unde. the belief that
was unjust to the District and for the
PaT bs,sev OF fayerng Rusk en II + should
Ter did more than assent to the suggestions
o. the inspectors as to the quantity 70 be