Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-10-08
STREET OFFICIALS
Continued from page |


During the prevailing epidemic. in
spite of the charge, we have made more
strenuous efforts to nc complish this pur-
pose, and have run what equipment we
could man night as well as day, in order
to accomplish it. Our big power tlushcr
has been out of service as we have had
two men drafted from it, and to this time
have been unable to replace them.
There is no shortage of water supply
as stated, but what would il avail to wash
down the streets unless YOU had a man
to shovel up the refuse and cart To draw
il away What good would fire hose
be to wash the dirt from street on a
= grade to the bottom and there let II lie,
AS il would necessarily have to do unless
labor could he procured to'fcmovc IT.
The question has been asked When
did we have an efficient street cleaning
organization? We will truthfully say
never, but if the people who are now so
awakened through this dreadful calamity
which is upon us, will exercise a little of
their energy AT the time that city budg-
cts are being framed, and assist the
City of Wilmington in seeing that enough
is being appropriated TO properly care
for the streets, then someone would be
Justly chargcable for non-accornplish-
ment.
THE suggestion has been made that
We take all the men on the rolls of the
Department and place them exclusively
on street cleaning We do not think the
person who made that suggestion gave
the slightest thought to the occupations
of the men on the roll other than the
street cleaning crew.
I'VE have, all told, approximately
one hundred men on our payroll, OF
that number, thirty are engaged In street
cleaning, twenty-one engaged IN removing
ashes, five in removing accumulation
from the sewers, thirty-onc laying sewers.
We know OF no class above cited from
which II would be safe to draw for the
benefit Of street cleaning, but the critics
NAV be able to info; II us We are always
open to suggestions and advice, and
court il, but we would like little justice
and little investigation before criticisms
are thrown TO the public press, and state
ments made which the writer would find
upon investigation could not be verified
THE cleaning of streets is almost
exclusively matter of labor, and the
aggregate cost Is IN accordance to the
prevailing wage scales From July |,
1917 to july |. 1918, our department
expended for street cleaning S5372 S3
more than the appropriation covering
that item Our appropriation for the
current year is less than for the one cited,
so that in the absence of monetary relief,
even though II becomes possible to Sc
cure labor should the current rate pre-
vail. the City of Wilmington is spending
all that Il has to spend for the item Of
cleaning the streets. and this Department
in order TO keep as nearly as possible
within its appropriation, has suspended
all operations under the current appro-
prlation with the exception of street light
ing. street and sewer cleaning, and the
removing of ashes, and even with that
reduction, our accrued deficit for the
months Of July and August iSeptember
balance sheet having not vet been COM
plcted) amount TO $4,000
I'VE would appreciate advice. sug
gest ions or information as TO how We can
make enc dollar buy one dollar and a
half worth of labor We freely con
lcSs that we do not know hut maintain
that we are utilizing that which is avail
able to the utmost OF our ability. We
arc cleaning all streets in their turn
and trying TO keep the naturally dirty
streets in as good a condition as posi- IDLE.
"If the inhabitants Of Wilmington.
and particularl, the merchants OF the
business streets would refrain from
throwing and sweeping rubbish particu-
larly paper into the streets. II would as
sist the oity of Wilmington very ma
tcrlally in the cleanliness Of the streets
There are many people who pay no at
tcntion TO this, and deliberately throw
any kind OF waste material that may
come into their hands INTO the public
streets
There would be no less unjust criti-
Cisrn. if people who write such articles
would get the facts which are always
available before writing In this IN
stance the Street and Sewer Department
could have furnished facts that would
have explained or disproved sll OF he
statements made in the criticism OF It's
work