The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-08
PLANS Big SAVING
IN CITY CHARITIES
Kingsbury Hopes to Save on
Coffee Bill Alone 1890 by
Buying Green Bean.
$4,000 SAVING ON ICE
Commissioner Wants TO Raise
Pigs and Turn Garbage
Waste to Profit.
$4,000 SAVING ON ICE

The Charities Department Is going 10
save 1880 a year 10y buying green cor,,
and roasting IL. instead of getting m,
berries already roasted. BY substtutlng
pea for egg coal and buying large quaint
ties 1t will save $500 more. The lie,
plant OF the City Hospital can shave on
$4,000 by manufacturing ice for all the
institutions Of the department on Black.
wells and Randalrs islands. And IL Com.
missioner Klngsbury Is permitted to raise
pigs he figures he can turn garbage waste
into $4,000 profit
These are a few OF the minor economic,
set forth In the final section OF the Com.
m ssionerSs report to Mayor Mitchell. ind
eating what has been planned in this
department since January ].
The report says that the Manhattan
Ipookiyn and Richmond branches Of IN.
department were found 20 be highly de
centralized and demoralized." In Brook
lyn were a useless hospital bureau and a
score OF clerks duplicating work done else
where. There was no definite assignment
OF field workers, land the private hospitals
in Brooklyn are practically unsupervised'
HAD No once system.
The report says:
Indeed. there were field workers who
reported only when they felt like II. some
OF whom could not be- located for several
weeks There was absolutely nothing
which could be called an office system; no
control OF supplies. which were scattered
about through the entire building occupied
as the central ONCE. In one Instance IL
was customary for private hospital to
| exact a So ambulance fee from poor pa
tents for whose care the CITY paid the
| bills
,rhc centrN Office in Brooklyn, says
Mr. Kingsbuv, has been thoroughly re
| organized. BY the transfer OF employees
| who were wasting their time several bu'
reaus have been adequately manned with
| out adding to the budget
In Richmond the Commissioner round
that the department Office was little In
dependent principally. consisting. he says
| "of practically a useless force OF -FOUR pco-
| pie working in absolute Independence OF
| the central office. the work being very
poor and perhaps unnecessary as a sep
arate office"
| Highly DeceutraliIed.
The Manhattan office is described as
| having been highly decentralized' and
lacking ordinary business methods. There
| were multitudinous defects which MI
| King sbury is trying TO correct In the
! reorganization the most important step
| so far has been TO abandon the old geo
I
| OF definite functional assignments. In
| this regard Mayor Mitchell comments:
II consider this reorganization a mos
| important change making FOR efficiency.
| For example. First Deputy Commissioner
| kenry G. Wright. who for the past two
years has been carrying on a special study
| OF public hospitals for the Board OF Fs-
innate and Apportonment, has been as
| signed in charge OF all matters pertaining
directly TO the care Of patients. such as
their dietary, the construction OF new hos
pitfalls and questions relating to medical
| care.
| Second Deputy Commissioner William
| j. Doherty who Is In charge OF the Brook
| Ign office. which he has literally trans
F, formed from a disorganized and dernoral-
| tied institution into a modern business
| Organization. has charge OF all matters
| pertaining to the care. of the city's de-
| pendents in private institutions. The city
! provides for the care Of some $4,000 chill
| dren In private orphan asylums
saving to the CITY.
Third Deputy Commissioner Gordon
| Ireland has charge of all matters per
| tanning to contracts. to the personnel and
to the care OF the physical plant
This functional assignment OF dep
uties has enabled the department TO give
| the necessary expert attention TO details.
which has resulted in considerable saving
to the city
The Commissioner says that the saving
20 the city by changes already made
will be s666.967.
| No large graft or gross waste has been
discovered. Mr.. Kingsbury says. But Il
appears that the families OF heads OF
institutions have been INDUCING too freely
In meat.
ut was not unusual for families TO
receive from the storehouse an average
/ al of
day and In some instances II ran as high
as four pounds a day." the Commissioner
| tells the Mayor.
Dietary experts have been consulted
with the result OF reducing the meat
allowance Tor each employee to not more
than one pound a day.
Better bills of Fare.
Better balanced bills OF fare are Offered
In all the institutions. The daily dole
OF butter has been doubled and milk
and sugar go with the cereals. Children
and tubercular patients get chicken once
week and cocoa every morning. stew
formerly the centrepiece OF every meal,
now appears only once a week and IN us
place roasts and boiled meats are dis
pensed. Complaint OF monotony has been
further met by extending the dietary from
, one to two weeks.
Commissioner Kingsbury says further
''The quarters for storing and preparing
food in many institutions, which were
a | found in IA filthy condition, have been
. made sanitary and attractive"
And by making butterine out ~ taliow
, | fat, to be used In the city's institutions
he hopes 10 effect IA gross saving Of ht'
e tween s25, 900 and $50, 900 a year.
I |
AID SOCIETY NEEDS $4,000,