Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1917-04-05

rWIll OIL course De TeSpoHSiple ioi e'1SAA
sutterances. AS a guarantee Of good
IStaith, the name and address of the
writer of any article submitted Tor
publication will be required In each
Instance Editor Gazette,
Editor Gazette:
i This is written to thank you for
your editorial, "Why Not Do 1t
Now" in yesterdays Gazette, sug-
costing that the citizens of AleXan-
dria unite in general cleaning up
on the same lines as other cities are
being active in these days, in clean
ing-up and painting their own resi-
dences and doing everything to make
their property and city look better
in every way The writer, a new
conner to Alexandria, has been I'M
! pressed with the need of just this
kind of action but has hesitated to
express the thought even to close
personal friends, but now that you
have opened the ball, as it were, ne
feels that it would be a splendid
thing to do, for, to speak frankly,
the condition of certain parts OF
our city are not calculated to I'M
press stranger with desire to
live here permanently unless he
happened to know something about
the fine character Of citizens that
are to be found living here. These
bad conditions, the writer feels
sure, are simply the result Of
thoughtlessness on the part Of those
whose premises need attention and
few further suggestions from the
Gazette and the cooperation of your
civic bodies, Chamber Of Commerce
and other organizations, will soon put
Alexandria OH the map as the clean
est city of its size anywhere.
In walks about the city the
writer has been impressed with the
unusual amount Of old iron, boilers,
parts of engines and machinery that
are allowed to occupy the vacant
lots, valuable space in yards, in the
streets and in some places on the
sidewalks; piles Of sheet iron, old
smoke stacks and similar material,
with parts of old wagons, stacks Of
tin cans, old wire rope and rotten
railroad ties which give our city a
forlorn look that does not do JUS
tice to its natural advantages and
the real habits of it citizens.
Why not get together for "A
LIVE ALEXANDRIA" and appoint
committee with representatives
from each of the different organiza-
tons to take this matter in hand in
a practical definite way. THE way
to resume is to resume" and the
way to clean up is to clean up! Let
the committee devise plan that
will cover the work in general
way and then let the sub commit
tees go at it with rush and it
will be but short time before
wonderful change will be noticed in
our city. The waste paper On the
vacant lots and all over the city is
WORTH good money and the commit
tee could arrange to have it gath
cred in as one Of the least of the
things to be done. Private citizens
will, we feel sure, have their own
premises cleaned up as soon as the
movement is announced. Some of
them have already started on the
suggestion made by your editorial
as it brought it to their minds. They
did not intend to let their pl9ce get
in the condition it was but they had
not thought about how il looked.
Lots of Others will do the same
way. Let the committee go to those
who have Old iron and parts of ma
ch!nery On their property, practi-
cally worthless to them, and ask
them to either sell it and get it out
of sight or give it to the movement
# they will dispose of it for them.
Much of this character of Junk is
there simply because the owners are
too busy to attend to the sale of it.
AS an inducement to clean up these
things let it be known that the COM
mittee will remove this junk and
with the money received from its
sale clean up other parts of the
city.
Take, for instance, Union Street,
which recent visitors to Alexandria
during the inauguration said, Cooked
like it had not been cleaned since the
last Inauguration" The writer feels
safe in saying that there is enough
old machinery and scrap iron on the
premises of those doing business on