Evening star., 1918-02-07
DEPENDS UPON SUN
TO CLEAN STREETS
'EWe Are Praying for Con-
tinued Warm Weather." AS
serts Col. J. J. Loving.
OPPOSES USING sCRkPERs

I'VE are praying for a continuance of
Loving, assistant engineer Commission
er. when asked this afternoon what
steps the District government was TAX
ing to rid the streets of the National
Capital of the melting snow, which
threatened a miniature flood in the
downtown district.
Four hundred regular members of the
street cleaning force Of the city were
engaged. in the meanwhile, in keeping
the cutters Of the city clear, and care
fully spreading snow "thin," SO that it
might easily melt away into the Poto-
mac.
Despite protests from those who in
sisted that the street cleaning depart
ment should take advantage of the
psychological moment" and use scrap.
ers to clear the streets in one grand
drive on the remaining forces of the
snow, the District did not put the
scrapers on the streets
Opposes Use of Hydrants.
Use Of fire hydrants. too, was frowned
on by Col. Loving, who declared en-
phatically that the fire marshal does
not approve of the use of the hydrants
Tor such purposes. In the recent snow
hauling operations. whereby thousands
of tons of snow were hauled in the
downtown sections and dumped down
sewers. the fire hydrants were opened
in order to flush the sewers.
The sewers need no flushing today"
-
OF the scrapers. 1 do not think they
ought to be put on the asphalt streets,
even If we could get the teams which
we cannot. The scrapers are used for
cutting through dirt. and would damage
our streets
Recently we had a force of 100 men
engaged in hauling the big piles of
snow, but these men and the wagons
have been put to hauling coal for the
District. and 1 think that work is the
most important at this time.
I'VE can scarcely augment the street
cleaning department at this time" the
clared. THE only way we could pos
sibly do that would be to increase
wages tremendously, and l doubt yery
much if the result desired would be OBJ
tanned, even then"
Hopes Pinned on Sun.
Col. Loving made it plain that the
hopes of all concerned are pinned on
the sun, today. He admitted that con-
ditions would be serious if there should
come hard freeze tonight.
Criticism of those engaged in dealing
with the city's slush was manifested
throughout the downtown section to-
day.
The condition of the streets is blamed
by many business men for the freight
congestion. Lack of labor and lev.
snowy streets, and today streets al
most impossible on account of water
inches deep, held in place by borders of
not-yet-melted snow, render the haul
ing problem acute.
The District government is penny
wise and pound-fooliSh in its methods
of dealing with our Streets" declared
John L. Newbold, president of the Mer-
chants Transfer and Storage Company,
Sets Bad Example.
when the District falls down in any
particular, the government falls down."
he said. "Our streets, constantly COW
cred with snow or ice for a month, are
setting bad example to other cities of
the country"
Mr.. Newbold advocated the use of the
scrapers today. in order to rid the
streets of the melted snow by night
fall. so that there might be no posSi-
bility of sudden freeze tonight coat-
Capital with an icy covering again
The health of the city is endangered
by the present sloppy" condition of ,
the streets. it is declared.
Merchants, in their attempts to re-
lieve the freight congestion. have been
forced, on account of the conditions of
the streets to resort to moving half
loads, and the running time of these
lightened loads is way below normal
what it should be for full loads.