The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-10-11
bIRTY STREETS THE CAUSE
OFMUCH SICKNESS IN CITY IT IS
 CLAIMED

At Hearing Given by Special Alder
 manic Committee on Increase of La-
 bOrers' Pay-Men Deserve the In-
 crease from S1.75 to $2,OO Per Day.
 Patrick Kent Wants Superintendent
 of Streets to Have Full Power to
 Hire and Discharge Men.
 At the close of the public hearing held in city hall last night by the spe- clal committee of the board of aldermen which is Investigating the adVisability of increasing the pay of city laborers from A75 to $2 per day, Chairman w. F. Curtiss asked all those present who favored the increase the rise. All of the fifty citizens present signified their approval of the measure by rising. No one opposed tho measure.
 The speeches which preceded this vote were warm ones and brought out variety of opinions. The first speaker was William J. O'Brien. He stated that he had nc personal interest in the mat ter, but he thought that the laborers were worthy of the increase and that he thought they earned every cent ttey got He said there was less graft among the employees of this department than in any other in the city govern ment.
 Alderman Homan asked MT. O'Brien what he meant by graft. In reply MT O'Bren called attention to what he thought the excessive cost of repairing the street-sprinkling carts during the past summer, and added that the cost of carrying through city elections was very heavy The statements were ruled out as being irrelevant.
 Mir. O'Brien was followed by Patrick Kent. MT. Kent said that the city la- borers received OH an average $2lG per year. The present system makes it inn possible to give any of the men more than three days work per week. Most of the men, he said, were entirely de- pendent on this small income. He held 1 that it was insufficient wages for men who have families 10 support. He also said he was in favor of giving the SUI perintendent of streets full power to employ or discharge men as he saw 1t. This, he said, was not being done un- l der the present system and the super l intendent was forced by politicians to carry larger force of men on the payroll than he required for the work | He stated that he knew of instances where undesirable men had been forced upon the superintendent of streets. 1 Mir. Kent was followed by Terrence Kelly, who said that an increase of pay would be sure to increase the efficiency of the force He spoke of several in- stances in the history of the public works department where this had been true. He asserted that, while he was lopposed 10 the methods of the present management no private contractor was getting more out of the men in his em- ploy than the superintendent of streets was getting out of his men. He consid- cred the men employed efficient MT. Kelly was formerly superintendent of streets.
 Other speakers were Anthony Car
 
 roll, John Reyes. Richard Kenyon, MT. Horan formerly president ot the Trades council; Frank Russell and Jo- seph J. Reilly. MT. Reilly said the great amount of sickness in the Fourth ward was directly due to the filthy con- dttion of the streets. Each speaker was closely questioned by the commit tee as to the changes he would have made in the management of the streets. The replies showed that all were in fa- yor of keeping the men now employed, although admitting that most of them were men who could not get employ ment elsewhere because of their age and decreased physical powers. They also favored the increase per day to in- crease In the number of days of em- ployment at the present rate
 The committee held an executive ses- sion after the hearing, but would not give out what the nature of it's report to the board of aldermen would be.