Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1907-08-23
|CLEAN|NC OF STREETS.
What the Women of Kalamazoo,
Mich, Have Accomplished.
CUT COST NEARLY IN HALF.

Women's Civic improvement League
~ Took Up Problem and Proved Il
Could Be Solved-How Streets Were
Flushed-cans Provided For Rubbish.
Writing on Charities and Com
MONS" Caroline Bartlett Crane gives
an account of what has been done by
the Women's Civic Improvement
league In Kalamazoo Mich, a city Of
( $4,000 population. to prove that 1t does
X not cost too much to have clean streets,
says the Philadelphia Public Ledger
1--WE studied the matter of street
( cleaning as we'll as we could, and then
we asked for and received permission
from the city council to take charge Of
elk blocks of the main business street
for three months. Then we introduced
the Waring system, the salient fea-
lures of which are:
"First.-Sweeping the pavements by
hand with push brooms and collecting the
dirt into piles.
"a Observation-Disclosures taking up each
belp Of a small hand broom and shovel.
into bag suspended upon two wheeled
bag carrier, which the sweeper pushes
about with him.
''Third-Tying the bags when filled and
deposiung them in convenient places in
Alleys or along the street, to be removed
by wagon.
Fourth. The orderly or patrol
system. by which each man is given
definite portion of the street to keep clean
and is held responsible for this portion.
''F1fth.-A white uniform (of at least
white coat and hat or helmet and a wa
terproof outfit for rainy days.
'Sixth.-Flushing the streets at stated
intervals-once a week-in the absence Of
drenchins rains.
I'VE secured carts, brooms, uniforms
for the men, and we made three neat
galvanized iron street cans, aluminium
fpainted and inscribed, For Waste Pa
per, Fruit Skins, ETC. We also succeed
ed in getting the council to pass an
antispitting ordinance. We took pho
tographs OF all the filthy downtown
alleys and Of the hideous refuse dumps
which disfigured our naturally beauti-
tul river banks.
ION the appointed day we began all
along the line at once. The men be-
"A gan to seek the pavement, and after
Y they found 1t the fire department came
out at 3 o'clock In the morning with
some secondhand hose and flushed the
streets under the direction Of the chair
Y man Of the women's committee. Diff
ferent ways Of flushing were tried on
N successive mornings until the right
4 way was found-fushing without noz-
zle from the middle Of the street each
way and either bagging the storm
sewer entrances or stntioning men
with hoes to keep the coarser dirt from
entering. OF course the best way to
flush is with patent street flushing
machine which works with compress
ed air and which can be charged with
air as we'll as water at any street
hydrant.
"Our very attractive cans were
placed at intervals on poles along the
streets, and boys from our Junior
league distributed thousands of little
dodgers like this:
"PLEASEl
league has undertaken TO keep Main
street clean We ask YOU to help us.
Please do not throw anything-paper,
fruit skins, peanut shells or other litter
In the street Put II in the waste paper
can at the corner. And. gentlemen. please
do not spit on the sidewalks or In the
gratings or anywhere but in the gutter.
Now, please don't throw this in the
street,
"Our alley pictures were sent to the
tenants or the owners, sometimes to
the health officer, with the result that
the alleys were cleaned up like magic
and have been kept fairly clean ever
since.
"The experiment was an entire sue
4 cess. The street was clean, people
liked it. visitors commented on 1t, mer-
chants said the lack OF dust In their
stores was most noticeable. and we did
It with no more cost to the city than
the old dirty way-namely, s. day.
Then the street commissioner un-
dertook to keep the street as clean as
we did, but without the Waring sys-
TEN. 1t cost him $500 a day.
THE league made to the city's COM
mittee on streets and bridges an ex-
haustive report showing the need OF
really clean streets throughout the
paved district and demonstrating the
superiority Of the Waring system and
its relative cheapness. We succeeded
In getting the Waring system inaugu-
-, tbraa ~, fias ~