The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-12-16
@GENERAL MANAGER"
FOR CITY BUSINESS
Boston Transcript.

Stauntor. Va. city of about 1900
inhabitants, was once, as most Amert-
can cities are now, in a bad way imam
cially. Though the unwieldy govern
ment was not gTaft-ridden to the eX-
tent that some are. the well-meaning
unable in municipal affairs, to apply
the business methods that helped them
personally to prosper. The city eX-
pended 100000 ta@Year, had little to
''show for it." and was annually in
creasing a debt of 100000. The streets
were sinking into the mud; there was
no sewerage system; at intervals the
water supply ran short; in brief. the
place had "slumped," and nobody
seemed to know Just how it could
be remedied. Probably the progressive
members of the administration would
have adopted the plan of government
by commission had the statutes of Vir-
ginia permitted. AS the case stood,
they did the next best thing, employ
ing Charles E. Ashburner of Richmond,
a civil engineer and railroad man, as
the citys general manager, and au-
thorizing him to take charge of all the
northumberland. water. lighting,
health, police, public grounds and
buildings, purchasing, and relief-and
run them precisely as he would do If
he were in the service of a progressive
firm or corporation.
Mr. Ashburner began to be busy in
March, 1908, his first specific under
taking being connected with the laying
5 of a short stretch of granolithic side
walk. Contractors. having been in
yited to tender, bid for the job at S2.25
a yard and upward; whereupon the
general manager, knowing something
about such work, went into the paving
business on the city's behalf, and laid
the walk at cost of ninety-siX cents
a yard. Presently citizens observed
that in other sections the general man
ager was tearing up skin" pavements,
put down under the old regime and
consequently collapsible, and laying
other pavements which were built to
last. Under the council system of
government the city had paved on an
average 1000 feet a year; but Mr..
AsIburner, applying business methods,
has been paving more than $500 feet Il
year-during the three years about 49,
900 feet OF macadam and asphalt
streets and gTanolithic sidewalks and
curbs-and this without mourning In
debtedness, but actually developing a
surplus for a department which, in the
evil DAYS of waste and confusion,
sometimes had to postpone an i'm
provement three years for lack of
funds.
We have dwelt upon this phase of
Mr.. Ashburner's reformative efforts
average American city is the most con-
spicuous of all the ratholes into which
the tax collections drop. 1t would ap-
pear. however, from the statement of
a contributor to the Worlds Work,
that the general manager has been by
no means slothful in other directions.
He has overcome the water shortage,
installed a sewerage system, closed q
malodorous dump" in the centre of
Stanton. reformed the practice of coll
lecting garbage, put up street signs,
paved school Fairgrounds, and, Incl
dentally, made city employees earn their
salaries. by refusing to pay them for
idle time. And he has not increased
the tax rate. Yet Mr.. Ashburner is
not paid excessively. by modern BUSH
ness standards, his salary being only
$4,000. and of course he, being an en-
thusiast, derives the larger part of his
remuneration from his opportunity to
do something worth while, something
that will not only show but endure.
L mean to make this the finest little
city in America, bar none" he says.
and, having technical knowledge and
practical experience to second his in
tention. he will probably succeed. Yet
this little summary of one mans
work would be incomplete if we neg
lected to add that there are many
strong and capable men who would
welcome a chance like Mr.. Ashburner's.
Moreover. there is many a city which
needs a general manager as badly as
Staunton did.