Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-10-31
"NELLY'S ALLEY"
REFORM SLOGAN
1t Means That Contract Govern
ment of Public Works"
Must End
BY HOWARD S. ANDERs, M D.

By HOWARD S. ANDERS, MAD.
WHETHER this be the psychologist rio-
w ment or not to recur to the ever-pres-
ent mess and menace OF our dirty dusty
highways and "Nelly's Alleys" the recent
| concurrence Of political aggression with
violence and murder and official indifference
would seem at least to confirm the Just
ness and fitness Of many years Of indvid-
ual and recent representative complaints
and protests against the City Hall regime
SO patiently responsible for the filthy con-
ditions.
1t is manIfestly and startlingly self-evi-
dent In this present crisis in Philadelphia
rapidly making history that we need here
a revolution against bureaucratic bosslsm
OF local politicians as did Russia against
autocratlc and Rasputlnic Czarism.
Is Philadelphia Cor philadelphia" as an
up-to-the-minute Italian gives II to the
Wares down In the "NeclS') really awaken
Ing, then? Is there immediate hope OF an
arousing, activating, dynamic civic spirit !;
a real ethic of social and political con-
sciousness? II 30, TO save time and mis-
direction of effort, let the attack be central
and root out the foundational and vital
cause OF the misgovernment, namely, con-
tract government of public works and al
lied departments Of official control.
Control of government by contractors
means camouflage control of contractors.
Contractors who are surreptitiously inter-
ested in screening this manipulation Of the
specifications and derelictions Of street.
cleaning contracts are simultaneously and
financially interested, perforce, In gaining
and maintaining, as ruthlessly and perpetu-
ally as public apathy and acquiescence VIII
allow, their political leadership and license
of ambition and avarice,
We may be temporarily subdued and
stifled, shaken and shattered. Nevertheless,
we must get together and 60 on in the
acute and strenuous development Of col
lective individuality that is becoming In
creasingly stimulated and emphasized In
the progress Of social consciousness and
solidarity upon which the substance and
stability of our future democracy must de-
pend for assurance and permanence.
The "Nelly's Alley" agitation inaugurated
last summer has not received the extension
and repetition its significance demanded
for a "Nely's Alley" is most assuredly
local symptom Of serious disease in our
body polite.
"Nelly's Alley" Slogan
BY this time the constant. or even the
casual readers of the enterprising EVE
MING LEDGER know that "Nely's Alley is
not an empty phrase that it is as far from
vacuity and levlty and obscurtty as their
antitheses can land il. Neither Is IT the
title of a wartime poem or a ragtme song
nor the foreground OF a settlement house or
the background Of a movie actor drama
although, really, it might be adaptable to
all Of these arts Of glad service in sentt-
ment and struggle I'm things comic, didactc
and tragic.
No, "Nelly's Alley" is no longer simply a
byword of accumulated and neglected refuse
an hut ynr1 NJ
tunity and duty. 1t is the shibboleth of
rising body of citizens who believe in giving
publicity and exposure to the red-handed
contractors and politicians who
put wealth before health political security
against sanitary safety; private profit be-
fore public performance according to the |
specifications and adequate standards of |
efficient and satisfactory street cleaning
"Nellys Alleys" are small local, concen- |
trated masses of filth and dirt that are |
widespread and relatively filmed |
all over the streets and sidewalks of COM |
industrial and residential Phia- |
ielphia. Now streets form the bottoms of !
what might be termed the ventilating flues |
)f cities: and obviously II they are covered |
with layer of foul mud in wet weather !
which becomes dry dirt I'm clear or fair |
weather. the air we breathe is constantly |
and dangerously laden with a dust haze |
)ften putrid and Smelly; always poisoned |
'ected animal and vegetable matter, waste,
sXcretions eXpectOrations, etc. 1t is farce |
% take a walk in such so-called fresh air.
1t is amazing, and it would be admirable,
Il not suicidal to public health, to witness
The tolerance that persons exhibit toward
he d!stressful, deleteriOus prevalence Of the
disease -propagating fabriC-runing dust
rom our city streets. Great quantities of
his pulverized poison, reeking with cultiva-
)le bacteria, is hourly blowing and seepng
nto our houses, into crevlces and corners
rom which 1t will not be removed-and
where II will not be reached by fresh air
md sunshine--until the closed and warmed |
looms OF winter energize and develop them
nto the potential activities Of pus infection,
nd then people complain of colds" which
hey do not catch" but really suffer from
,us catarrhs, fouls" grips" tonsillitis,
bronchitis and so on, which catch them
while lying in walt to be stirred up to the
ace level by guilty methods of dusting and
weeping and guileless but nevertheless in
dious air currents.