Daily Kennebec journal., 1906-04-17
CLEANING UP DAY.
A Unique and Successful Work in Spo
kane, Washington.

Spokane, Wash, April 16.-Rcports
still are coming from the organized
work done in this city March a. which
was proclaimed Il special "Arbor day
| ana cleaning up day" by Mayor Dag
e-ett, but enough already is known to
show that never before was there such
a concerted and general movement in
any American city to make it both
| clcanly and beautiful. The city
beautiful committee of the 80 900 club,
the latter an organization formed to
double the population of Spokane by
the time of the next United States
census, planned this work for two
months, and accomplished more than
it ever expected would be possible and
met with remarkable response from
al! classes of citizens. Most remark
able OF all is the fact that not one dol
lar was raised or used for the work, Ill
being done by voluntary service. Be
cause spring comes 80 early here, the
mayer proclaimed special Arbor day
at this early date, and probably 10000
people, or half the entire population.
some time during the day took a hand
in the cleaning and tree planting
| movement. Public offices closed, bust
ness mon closed their offices, and even
the doors of the banks were not opened
all day. Bankers could only be found
in their yards, cleaning, or planting
trees.
The city beautiful committee is or
ganized like Tammany Hall. Mr.. A..
l.. White is chairman of the head COM
| mittce, and he and Mr.. Ren Rice, sec
rotary of the 10000 club, had gem
eral supervision of the work, while
Mr.. II. L. Lilienthal acted as master Of
the day and had charge of a wagon
train. the teams of which were donated
by Individuals and corporations. but
were not able to cart away more than
a fifth Of all the rubbish which was
piled in front of residences during the
day. The city government has agreed
to see that the rest is removed. and is
doing 50 as rapidly as possible.
BESIDES the city beautiful committee,
consisting of a dozen leading citizens.
the cleaning day committee ana tree
planting committee co-operatcd in th"
work. The general city beautiful
committee is divided into 4 number Of
sub-committccS, each one having 4
spccal purpose in view. The govern
ing board is composed of a general
chairman, vice chairman in each
ward, a captain in each precinct ana
lieutenant in each block. The man in
charge Of each block was expected To
ask each resident to do all he could
that day to make his own premises,
the street in front of him, and the al
ley in the rear of his lot as prcscntablc
as possible. Owners of vacant lots
were asked to clean up these in tho
same way, and public spirited citizens
provided vegetable seed to be planted
on these vacant lots to remove their
barren appearance.
by eleven o'clock smoke hung 50
heavily over the city that it gave Il
duh appearance to the usually clear at-
mosphcrc. The smoke was from thou
sands of b0nnrcs which were permitted
by the mayor for that day only. Mr.
Rice reported that that morning he
found Il hohiircs in distance Of three
blocks ON one street.
Six thousand trees is the estimate
of the number planted that day. but
the reports are not yet all in. ono
syndicate planted 1000 trees. ana tho
WooGmcn donated many hundred t.
churches and other organizations. tp
be planted in front Of their pr"Irrt io-
Nursery men prepared in advance far
large orders. but were unable to slppiv
all that were wanted on that daE. wi:h