Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-03
DO OWN WORK,
BUREAU URGES
Contract System for Street
Cleaning Long Discarded
by Other Cities
USE OLD METHOD HERE
Bulletin Points Out Revised
Charter Proposed Enforces
Modern Ideas
USE OLD METHOD HERE

In its most recent bulletin, entitled
Tending to Our Own Business, the
Bureau of Municipal Research points
out the advantages that would accrue
II the city was permitted to do its own
street cleaning, as provided for In the
charter revision bill. 1t also emphasizes
other activities that could we'll be bene-
fitted by the legislation. H.
In discussing these phases OF the char-
ter revision bill the bureau says;
EVERYWHERE the tendency has been
TO .rnunicjpalize' all activities which d.
rectly and vitality affect the satety ana
health of all the citizens
philadelphia is not laggard in this
rosnect. Our city has kept abreast OF
others In taking over functions "h'e''
vitality affect the people.
"In one thing, however, Phlladeiphia
80 far behind the rest. The city stanos
cut conspicuously as almost the only
large city in the country that does nov
clean It's own streets or remove >ts own
ashes. rubbish and garbage. we u,
Phila delphia still cling to the old methoo
Of having this work done by CONTRACT
a method discarded by most or tne o,nel
large cities of the country, including
%aw york Chicago, Boston, Cleveland
baltimore, Detroit and washington
WHY Contract System Was Aoahdoneo
.There Is a reason why these cl'ies
have abandoned the contract system.
lies in the fact which Is coming 10 DC
realized more and more, that the c,ean-
illness of a city bears a most vital re.
lation to the health of its citizens-that
clean streets are just as important as
pure water People everywhere are COM
ing to feel that the city's cleanliness
4
that Il should not be left to private
business undertakings whose primary
care is. naturally, to make all the money
they can out of their work.
"Rut even IL street cleaning did not
60 vitality affect the citizens, there is
st,Il ample reason for its being done
hv the city rather than by contract
street cleaning and kindred work differ
from other kinds of public operations
in that they must be done over and
over again, for the effect of a single job
disappears very quickly. The streets
may be perfectly clean today and to-
morrow be as dirty as ever. The very
nature of street cleaning makes 1t diff
flcult properly to inspect the work of
the contractors. The only way the city
,Han hope to do SO is to have a city
inspector with every street cleaning
gang. Under this plan the city is en-
tirely dependent upon the honesty and
capacity of the inspectors. for. because
OF the ephemeral nature of the results
of street cleaning, there is no way of
checking up the inspectors work adc-
quately.
Inspectors Temptations
1.-The result. as almost eveny city in
the country has found. is that the in
spectors. being human and often poorly
paid, time and again yield to tho in
nuence of the contractors and permit
them to slight their work and to in
crease their profits at the city's expense.
1.-The query naturally arises: What
has all this to do with charter re-
vision? The answer is that Philadelphia
under existing laws does not have the
power to do its own street cleaning even
though it may want to do SO. The char
ter revision bill gives 1t that power
and, in addition, requires it to do street
cleaning and kindred work unless three
fourths of Council. with the approval of
the Mayor, authorize the contract sys-
tenn. The city should certainly have
the right TO decide for itself this i'm
,portant matter"