South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-06-11
JUNE II. 1919.
MAYOR AND COUNCIL SHOULD LOOK
INTO GARBAGE QUESTION.

No one doubts the responsibility of the local gem
tIeneu who are courting garbage contract with
the city bs which they take over az So cents
per ton what the city could have sold sold
Is months ago at 81 a ton. Their responsibility is
not in issue In the first place the proposed contract
doesn't call for any particular responsibility on the
part Of the buyers The city gather the garbage.
deliver il to them somewhere and that is prac
ticaIly the end OF H. What south Bend taxpayers
we employ the term "tax-payers' because IL is
such a pet one with the administration, organ
would like to know is how much more % cents
Is than ST. this the better contract" that
the present board Of works and their press sup
port mind when they seeking the over
throw. and final notification Of the Melleu contract
made Keller administration.
We were told then that OH dear $1OO wasn't
enough. II was limited that there must haye been
graft in it somewhere We were told that the city
shouldn't think selling its garbage for less than
all the way from S175 to $3.50 per ton. There
were local people then. claimed who
looking into the proposition though they didn't
come across with any until after is months
waiting, maybe for the public to forget Is this the
contract that the board Of works and admins
tration organ had in mind-a 62-cent contract
when they talking TO as in such big figures.
The present issue isn't the responsibility of the
garbage buyers but the reliability of the board Of
works; their mathematical reliability their prophe
tic reliability if your please: their susceptibity
being humbugged. or something else. either is
months ago. or now or possibly both. Were they
deliberately seeking 10 defraud the people of South
Bend out of IS cents per ton on their garbage
the difference between 60 cents and Sin which
they succeeded by shaking it impossible for Melett
TO furnish a satisfactory" bond; they mis-
informed. uniformed. or simply ignorant, in what
they were doing? Have any assurance that they
are any wiser or better mentioned now?
Get straight We are saying 81 cents
not enough to pay for city garbage Possibly is.
IT was as much as most cities were getting at the
time the Keller administration made its 81 contract
with Mayor Mellett of Anderson The Keller admin
istration in fact made one the best garbage
contracts known IN the country up TO that time.
MelIett was flushed with the prospects of long.
continued war and further by the 10 year term,
OF the arrangement now in contemplation. would
have meant S4O.O6o more the city than the local
gentlemen viii have to pay.
Who has the board of works been serving. the
taxpayers Of south Bend or Just themselves and
their ignorance possibly the successors to Melctt
in local garbage arranEcuentse why all the bluff
and buster and big figures Of Is months ago and
the compIacent Willingness % dispose of this bi-
product now at any price, Fact of the matter is,
the mayor the council or someone. ought 10 take
this garbage question IN hand and investigate it
thoroughly before any contract is made. We have
pointed 20 enough evidence I'm this comment alone.
that The board of works is incompetent and UNFIT
deal with it. They have proven that 10y their own
-misjudgments.