The Washington times., 1905-10-11
Street Cleaning Sense.

At last there is a fair chance that
Washington may be kept clean. The
city is finding out what the difficulty
is and its officials have the courage
to propose means of solving that
difficulty. This may not sound like
great progress. but it is great prog
ress beyond the old condition of
complacent satisfaction, no matter
whether dust blew into your eyes
and dirt smudged your clothes or
not.
These observations are called forth
by the estimates recently submitted
by the new superintendent of Street
Cleaning, Harrison Stidham. In
stead of the present allowance of
$4,000 for sweeping, Mr.. Stidham
asks s273, ,140, and in support of that
increase he submits a general review
of the Districts street cleaning de-
partment which is worth the atten-
ton Of every one of us.
AT present he has four corps of
inspectors, covering the collection of
ashes and garbage, and the inspec-
tion of alleys and streets. If four
residents of one city block enter COM
plants covering these different
branches OF his service he must send
four inspectors to that one block.
This is so clear a waste of energy,
time, and money that it needs no
argument. He ought to have, and
he asks that he be given, single
corps of inspectors competent enough
to learn the details of all four de-
partments, and proposes to divide
the city into districts and assign
each inspector to one district with
purpose, then, to hold that inspec-
tor responsible for the condition of
his district This is the plan pro-
posed by Commissioner West to Mr..
Stidham's predecessor and by him
pronounced "impracticable.'
Furthermore. Mr.. Stidham asks for
an adjustment of the salaries paid in
his department so that they may bear
some reasonable relation to the work
done. His recommendations would
make the pay of his assistants 81, 800
year each, and his own salary So, 600
year. Surely If these men do their
work well they are worth that much,
and If they do not do 1t well the
District should find men who will.
As it is, the increases would ad-
vance the present salary roll Of
SAT 400 only by 81 100.
Finally, he asks an increase of
about $4,000 for street cleaning.
This, The Times thinks. is the most
sensible thing in the report, sensible
as that paper is throughout In
Washington the city cleans about
100000 square yards of pavement
every week. In Detroit the area is
only 100000 square yards. Yet
Detroit spends $4,000 year more on
street cleaning than Washington,
We are spreading our allowance too
thin. Until we spend more money
we cannot hope to keep the city,
clean.
The difficulty, then, is threefold:
bad organization, poor pay, and
penuriousness. Mr.. Stidham cane be
relied upon to correct the organization
under the supervision of Mr.. West
If the two are given a chance. But
Congress must correct the two other
evils. 1t ought TO do so by every
consideration of common sense, es-
pecially as the District is powerless
to help itself If Congress neglects it.
II Congress does not correct these
evils We shall go on as we have gone
on these past ten years-increasing
the area. to be cleaned every year
- keeping the allowance for clean
ing where it was ten years ago.