New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1907-05-17
WANT CRAVEN REMOVED
Women 4Sk Mayor to DepoSc Street
Cleaning Commissioner.

After exhausting all practicable means Of Sc
curing clean streets and after thorough and
detailed investigation Of existing conditions by
It's five hundred members. the Woman's Munich
pal League has decided that the Commissioner
Of Street Cleaning Marlborough Craven, is be-
yond redemption and has therefore determined
to demand his head. The following letter has
been addressed TO the Mayor and will be re
ceived ny him to-day:
Honorable George B. Mcclellan, Mayor OF
Greater New York.
Dear Sir: The Womans Municipal League
respectfully requests your honor to call for the
resignation of Macdonough Craven, Commits
sioner Of Street Cleaning, on account Of tnefh-
cheney. Of which there have been daily evidences
IN all departments of the system from the time
JOSEPHINE REDDING.
Secretary Womans Municipal League.
This action was determined upon a. meeting
OF the executive committee OF the league on
wednesday and would have been submitted TO
the whole body for ratification al its monthly
meeting, held at the league headquarters yes
terday afternoon but for the fact that city Of
dcials had been invited TO address the assembly.
on this account the formality Of ratification was
omitted. the action of the executive holding good
without il.
The demand fo- Commissioner Craven's resg-
nation is the outcome of long series Of efforts
10 secure reform by other means. The latest
step an investigation Of the condition OF
the streets by the members Of the league. as
sisted by other civic organizations the results
Of which were published in Nil the newspapers.
MRS. RUSSELL sACEs LETTER.
Yesterdays meeting was devoted TO the sub
3ect Of street cleaning. and Or. James E. BayIes
advocated measures much more strenuous than
those that have been taken by the league.
IF you wait Till the education of the public
gives you clean streets" he said, you viii wait
Till it doesn't matter whether you have them or
not The trouble with the Street Cleaning De
partment is that he commissioners hands are
tied by the system. No one but Colonel Waring
ever succee6cd in breaking through it. The
commissioner is forced To appoint unfit men.
who hold their jobs Just long they hold
their pull, and who viii break the back of any
commissioner who tries 10 hold them to their
duty You may talk TO the local boss till YOU
are black In the face. He may be polite and he
may not and he viii probably think the women
Nho complain are cr4nlfs, but he doesn't care
five cents whether Craven is removed or not
Tho thing for you 10 do is To find out what are
your o.yn rights and what are the duties Of Ger
tain officials. like a district superintendent, for
instance. Then if you find he is not performing
those duties, bring charges against him in court
Don't complain 10 the commissioner, but arrest
him if ne is arrestable and indict him if he is
3ndictable. one example like that would be
worth more than all the resolutions you could
pass between now and the end Of the year. You
would the results Of it before the end of the
summer. You would have the street cleaning
officials sitting up and wondering what was go
ing TO become of their jobs. But they no
more for public opinion and public meetings and
resolutions than the moon does for the baying
of hound"
Park Commissioner Berry, Of The Bronx
complained about vandalism in the parks. and
said that Bronx Park on Monday morning looked
like the outskirts of a garbage pile"
A letter from Mrs. Russell Sage dealt with
the same subject. and deplored also tho rohbing
OF birds nests. She said particularly distress
ing case-that Of a cardinals nest full of young
birds-had Just come TO her notice, and she
hoped that the league would interest itself in
this subject
Mrs T. r. French presided in the absence Of
the president Mrs Richard Aldrich