Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-20
SEWER DIRECTORS
RAISE OBJECTIONS
TO HOUSING PLAN
Trouble Over Sewer Lines May
Result in Government
Action.
LAW is LAW" THEY SAY

"We'rc n stifT-necked people here
When we make laws we stick To them.
We cont let one do what we wont let
another
This was the dictum of Acting Chair
man Rudolph. at the Street and Sewer
Department directors meeting today, To
representatives of the government ana
the contractors working on the blg unioh
Park Gardens housing operation ior SNIP
workers, going on now at 'FRONT.' anu
Union streets, for the Emergency Fleet
Cornoration. when these SAID representa-
tives wanted the directors TO let them
nut certain pipe IN the operation sewer
system not IN accord with the cItys
code of regulations
The matter was thrcshed and mulicd
over for upwards of an hour, before
Directors Rudolph and Johnson tfresi-
dent Sparks being absent ON ms vacation,
hut they refused TO hudge an lnch from
the strict letter of the law as laid down IN
the code And they gave their reason ior
il in a few words They had no nght To
grant permission to anybody or any
thing (which included the United States
government IN wartime, TO break law
At tho same time they said they didn I
wish 10 hold up. set back or interfere with
government work, nor did they wish such
an impression to get abroad. heir posi-
ton was that the law was the law, but
that if the government IN It's supreme
authority decided 30 90 ahead with It's
,,lsn rs Land out, the situation was up
10 tho government and not TO them.
The ,mpassc arose over the matter OF a
few feet of sewer pipe running from
certain point underground 10 certain
MONT inside of each house IN the Union
Park Gardens operation. The city rcgu-
latlons Of the code (which Is law say
that what is known as extra heavy
my, must he used at a certain particular
po,nt underground and into house.
The government wants to put IN what Is
known as medium, which IS 1s OF an
inch thinner than medium.
BaIhngcr and Perrot the Philadelphia
architects who did the Iob--knew OF the
citv's requirements in designing the
houses Of the local operation and specified
extra heavy pipe, but the government
engineers at Washington altered II TO
medium" to conserve material, me
dunn acting just as efficiently rs extra
heavy The material is now ON the
way here. and extra heavy Is SAID TO
be hard 10 get.
When the Lynch Construction Co,
which is building the houses. found out
what the situation was, II decided on an
appcal to the Street and Sewer Depart
mcnt directors 10 permit the Use OF
medium.
Today A. i. Hartman, one OF its
engineers. Owen F. Langan, the govern
ment : project superintendent on the Job,
and Christian Benner, representing the
plumbing contractors, made the appeal
Mr.. Langan said the government had
ordered medium and medium had
therefore to be put in. Uncle Sam wanted
to conserve extra heavy for'other bigger
building Jobs
The directors listened and then read
over the code That law 'of the Medes
and Persians" said extra heavy and
there the directors stood. They told
Mr. Langan he was asking them to give
permission for 8 violation Of the law
He said he didn't see II that way 1T
was rather an elastic reading he thought,
because this was wartime and the job
government one behind which were
patriotic ones,
Mr.. Hartman said medium answered
all the purposes of extra heavy for
this particular work, but suggested an
extra coating, which, with heavier pipe
construction in other ways than is re-
ouired by the local code, would give
lob better than the code contemplates
But the directors stuck TO the law.
They were told the government wanted
the work expedited, that the medium
material was on the way; that TO change
10 extra heavy, if 1t could be gotten,
would delay the work, which is now being
speeded TO the utmost. But the directors
were adamant.
And there it ended so far as they were
concerned, although they said that if
the government put in medium" in
stead of extra heavy" it was up TO the
government 10 do so