Omaha daily bee., 1917-06-25
CONNELL EXPLAINS
GARBAGE QUESTION
Health Commissioner Tells Sit.
uation to Bee Readers; Will
Appear Before Council
Monday.

During the Maloney hearing before
the city council many references were
made to garbage and the recent tenn,
porary arrangement made by Health
Commissioner Connell. The doctor
will appear before the city council
committee OF the whole this morning
10 explain the situation. He has ex-
planned the matter for Bee readers in
the following manner:
Il am glad ~ give an interview per-
tanning to the garbage question, mas.
much as there has been some little
controversy over it in the Maloney
trial during the past week. In all
cities there are two questions involved
pertaining to garbage--hrst, the gath
cring and second, the disposal.
Pertaining to the first, the gather
ing and hauling of garbage, it is not
debatable question any longer, as
all cities and sanitary experts are
agreed that there is but one system
for hauling garbage, and that is by
the city, to do it free of expense to
the individual citizen. Whether they
do this with city owned teams or hire
teams and drivers, the city must con-
troll the hauling and be responsible
TO the citizens to see there is no ac-
cumulation of garbage and unsanitary
conditions maintained.
Cost of Hauling.
During the past few years the city
has been gathering garbage it has
taken from sixteen to twenty-eight
teams per day to collect it at cost
of $4.25 per team day. During 1916
the total cost for the hauling of gar
bage was $34,500. This. amount was
not sufficient, as the last six or eight
weeks of the year the garbage in the
residence portions of the city was not
collected as it should have been, ow-
ing to lack OF funds, as the city ap-
preparation of $35,000 was not sufh-
cient. In order to cut down the large
expense to the city for the removal of
garbage l have given great deal of
thought and study and finally con-
cluded the best and only feasible way
was to divide the city into districts
and pay the owners of teams with
garbage instead of $425 in cash day.
This arrangement could not be made
before the present time, for the rea-
son some thirty or forty people were
hauling from restaurants, hotels,
boarding houses. etc, sporadically |
and claimed the city did not have the
exclusive right to remove the garbage.
Suit was instituted. taken through the
supreme court and every court held
the city had the right, and that it was
Just and reasonable for the city to
gather all the garbage.
Has No Contract.
"As the city has been districted |
have been able to secure up to date
nine teams to remove garbage in cer-
tain districts and am in hopes |
can secure at least three more to take
districts without paying any cash, but
giving them the garbage which they
gather for their pay. No contracts
have been given, the city only hiring
the teams without pay to do the work
as long as it is done thoroughly. 1t
would not be good policy to make a
contract with anyone to haul garbage
as it would then get out of the con-
troll of the city.
"Thc arrangements we have been
able to make to date in different dis
hicts will save the city more than
$4,000, provided haulers secure
enough garbage to justify them con-
tinuing to haul the whole, year. If
we can get the other three districts
hauled the same way, the city would
save $4,000 more, a total of from
$4,000 to $4,000. May |, 1916, the
city advertised for bids for the dis
posal of all the garbage collected by
the city, to be delivered at points des-
ignated in the bids. The owners of the
hog ranch i'll East Omaha bid $1,000
and the contract was awarded to them.
If $4,000 to $4,000 is saved in haul
ing the garbage this year, it is not
hard to see as business proposition
its advantage over again advertising
for bids for the disposal of city
hauled garbage.
Is Debatable Question.
"As to the second proposition, dis
posal OF garbage in cities is debata-
bic question and it is impossible to
fix any plan for its disposal that will !
apply to any and all cities, as there +
are SO many conditions to be talNn {
into consideration, such as population /
location, climate, etc.
THE question of the necessity of 1
the conservation OF the country's re- c
sources is becoming moro apparent all r
the time and that the waste and de- [
struction of things in this country
must stop. This being the case, any v
one can see that the garbage, contain t
ing so much of value, should not be S
destroyed by dumping into the river {
(even If the government would allow Il
the city to do SOY, put in a hole and e
cover up with dirt or to burn it, pro-
vided the hauling and disposal did not v
cost more than the revenue derived Il
from utilizing its value.
"Theo-etical' a crematory or re- a
duction plant is an ideal way of dis t
posing of garbage, both from a sani- +
tary and financial standpoint. Prac- t
tically, it - all righ. from sanitary
standpoint, but the installation and
of crematory or reduc-
ton plant in a city the size of Oma-
ha, with no more garbage than we
have here, would be a very expensive T
proposition for the city. =
Best Practical Method.
"'The most plausible and practical a
method of disposing OF garbage in v
Omaha is feeding it TO hogs Especial r
ly is this true at the present time, r
when the price OF hogs is so high. 1t
would be crime to destroy Omaha's I
garbage when several thousand hogs &
can be raised on if a wear, Until the 8