Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1915-05-04

Everybody's Business.

ipon q community clean-up-menta.,
moral and physical. we are assured
Already the business men have en-
braeed it and the ministers have ap
proved it and advocated it from their
pulpits. The mayor and city gov
eminent cooperating with the board
Of trade are behind the movement.
They have distributed 1900 Clean
Up" buttons among the school chill
dren Of tine city. They mean business
cleaner business, cleaner streets.
cleaner street manners, cleaner Ian
gusge. cleaner politics. cleaner side
walks, cleaner backyarcs and alleys,
cleaner everything.
This doesn': mean that Augusta is
any dirtier OF stands more in need OF
moral or physical shining up than
any other city Of Maine or New Eng
land, but that she calculates to be the
cleanest and shiniest Of them all. The
promoters Of this 1915 movement are
converts of the faith that advertising
pays" and they foresee the advan-
tages of the word going forth thai
Augusta is at the top Of the list as an
it Is that now, but there are misin-
formed cities On the map which are
not ready to admit it, and it is up to
US to place our claim beyond conten-
ton.
Therefore, get busy.
A Cleanup" in any city means a
getting together in the interests of
sanitation, good health, attractive ap-
pearance, livable conditions. If other
cities can abolish flies and dirt and
with them disease, Augusta can do i.
and do it even better than the other
fellow
A city is as clean as its people. 1t
is cheaper to be clean than be sick.
Just get that religion into your civic
soul and the fight is half won.
Oh, yes; we know that some viii
treat it lightly and say that lit is
only temporary splurge, soon to die
out" But such ones should be an
swered as Billy Sunday answered his
critic who complained that his revivals
were Of temporary benefit, that they
soon died out when he was gone. Billy
snapped back: "A bath is temporary
in it's effect but it does one good"
He might have added that after a
time one gets the bath habit, the re-
vival habit or the cleanup habit-an1
Augusta has her hopes on all Of them
II every one Of our readers could
carefully study Mabel Potter Dagget's
article in Pictorial Review for May, il
would do them good and make Au-
gusta's cleanup an easier task. Here
are a few extracts:
There is no dust blowing in at the
windows in Berlin faster than all the
maids can sweep it out and wipe it up.
There is even no dust outside. The dam
ty lowered cloths on the cafe tables
everywhere set along the sidewalks, are
speckless. There is even no dust In the
Underground, the Berlin subway system,
where the tiled walls are washed every
morning, and you can run white gloved
hand along a molding anywhere as con-
fidently. more confidently. than you could
in my parior, because dirt. anywhere in
Berlin, is simply against the law.
morning under the golden shade Of the
linden trees along streets that were
washed and secured last night. After
scrubbing machines came the sprlnkiing
machines to scatter in a fine shower
chemical disinfectant over the pavement
that shines now like housewives
kitchen floor. All day, white uniformed
street. cleaners Will keep it tidy, patrol
ling with small carts and brooms imme-
diately to remove any debris from street
traffic. This will not be swept into piles
beside the curb to be scattered by the
wind. as here in New York. into your
house and mine. Every half block are
stationed metal boxes into which the
street refuse is deposited as neatly as
There at the corner, the Department of
Highways is making some minor repairs
and over the opening in the pavement
small Widowed tent is erected to con11ne
this block an old building is being torn
down to make way for a new one. and
the contractor Is required to conduct his
operations behind dust-proof enclosure.
sidewalk, for the use of which he is
paying the city SO many Pfennige the
square foot per day. Consequently, the
work is proceeding with an alacrity that
promises not long to obstruct a thor
oughfare and inconvenience pedestrians.
On the sidewalks which are the city's
property clean swept and even clean
washed by each householder, no passing
pedestrian even though Philistne and
not a German, could think Of throwing
so much as scrap of paper. You. an
American, couldn't. You will carry
your unused street car transfer rolled in
a little ball in the palm of your hand
all day. unless you happen to notice that
there is a municipal waste basket set
against nearby tree for your conven-
fence. For you probably have not failed
to observe the municipal guardian Of
public order in the shining helmet who
stands at the next street corner.
In Rosika Van Hofman's flyless city,
tho collection Of the household refuse Is
accomplished without any mess or any
muss. From her door to the disposal
plant, the contents are never exposed.
Here, ours have to be spilled and scat
tered all the way. In New York they are
emptied and handled over some five times
before being deposited at their final desti-
nation The refuse that rattles by my
house and the other houses in New York
in open carts this morning, will be
thrown on some fifty-four dumps" To-
Gated along our river fronts and some Of
them in the heart of the most congested
districts of the city These reeking
dumps to which the wagons are always
bringing more refuse faster than the