The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-26
CHICAGO MAN HAS
RESPONSIBLE JOB
Commissioner of Public Works
Is Busiest City Official
FREE ICE CHARITIES

Charitable Organization Is Planning to
Buy Small Ice Boxes and Loan
Them to Poor Families who
May Need Them
Chicago, May 25.-(Special.)- THE big
gest job in Chicago is that recently given
TO Mayor Busse's secretary and official
commissioner of public works, with a
salary of $4,000. The scope of that job
is colossal; 1t includes general supervision
over the water supply, last year totalins
15o,000,000 gallons; the city street cleaning
and garbage removal, the sewers, rail-
way track elevation and the small parks
and Fairgrounds. That means general
supervision over the municipal operations
that are closest to the citizens, the re-
sponsibility for the acts of employees,
numbering several thousand, who collect
and disburse over 100000. and have
charge of property valued at s65. 100000
The bridges and viaducts, the river and
harbors and the buildings all produce
problems and predicaments for the COM
missioner of public works. No wonder
that the Merriam commission which has
been probing the municipal departments,
found loose system in this huge depart
ment The purchasing of the department
alone is a huge task, particularly in the
bureau of engineering, for pumps of
capacity of 100000 gallons and even
40 100000 gallons are among the items to
be purchased The task of garbage re-
moval has reached unwieldy proportions,
and the method of disposal is antiquated,
fact which each succeeding commits
sioner has had to contend with on top
of all his other troubles Those other
troubles include complaints against the
sewers, of which in 1907 there were TO-
1903; the sewage pumping, which totals
nearly 100000 gallons year, and the
bureau of maps The REMEMBERING and
changing of streets makes the map bu-
reau important. Against all these bu-
reaus there is. a continual fusilade of
kicks" which makes the life of the
commissioner no round of pleasure.
The free ice charities of Chicago have
developed a new need, a means to keep
the ice from quickly melting on the
kitchen floor. Efforts are being made
this year to meet that need and one
charitable organization is planning to buy
small iceboxes and loan them to families
where there is sickness or which must
have ice to keep baby's milk sweet,
but which cannot afford to buy either
ice or refrigerator. The present plans
provide for a box that will hold % pounds
of ice and three milk bottles. Cases have
been reported where mothers have bought
So pound pieces of ice. but for lack of an
icebox the ice has been left on the floor,
and soon disappears. 1.-THE problem OF
making iceboxes for the poor said
George M. Shirk, refrigerator expert,
sis to build box that can be sold very
cheap and yet is we'll insulated. is easy
to keep clean and is substantial. Health
Commissioner Evans greatest concern
during the hot months, now at hand, is
for the babies, and he and the infant
welfare committee of the United Charities
have their hands full. A health depart
ment bulletin said with the advent of
hot weather comes the serious problem
to MANY poor families of how to properly
preserve the baby's milk. Clean milk re-
ouires not cold to preserve 1t, but
very few poor, families possess refrig-
orator The cost of an ordinary icebox
and the expense of icing is really too
great for many families" One of Chi
Cages most indefatigable charity work
ers Mrs. Herman Falkenstein, said;
Crowd a whole family into two or three
rooms and a. couple of boarders or more
and a sick and aiing baby and then mix
the whole up with a heavy dose of Chi
cago summer weather, what happens?
How long does 20 pounds last? Not very
long, does it? Then how do you expect
ice to keep babys milk sweet during
the hot summer days or nights in the
sitting tenements? 1t is no exaggeration
to say that the ghetto buries city full
of babies every summer
The war on funeral extortions begun in
Chicago will be made nationwide during
the conference in st. Louis of the Ma
tional Association of Charities and Cor
rections, to which the revelations OF the
Chicago inquiry will be transmitted. Min
isterial associations also will take a hand.
Bishop Samuel Fallows and Judge C. 5.
Cutting of the probate court have ap-
proved the movement, also 10 social set
Elements. II would be in favor said
Bishop Fallows. "of burying our dead
in a simple wicker basket The idea OF
burial Is to return the mortal remains to
the dust from which they sprang. Do
not the scriptures say, For dust thou art
and unto dust shalt thou return? When
a heavy, elaborate casket is provided this
scriptural command is disobeyed. All the
elaborateness of burials with the attend
ant customs such as embalming. are
but relics of ancient Egyptian customs.
and were originally intended to preserve
the mortal remains until the day OF resur-
rection That idea, of course. has
long since been proved fallacious. and
it is to be regretted that the scriptures
are not more closely followed in our
burial customs. When l die l do not
want a casket used. What desire Is to
be inferred in plain board coffin. and
the thinner the material the better. OF
course, a great deal of the funeral ex-