The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1919-04-07
GARBAGE WAITS AS
TRIMMERS' ARGUE
Contractors Wrangle Over
Terms for Disposing Of
Scow Cargoes.
HOLD MANY MEETINGS
One Wants to Pay City for
Privilege, Others Think They
Should Be Paid.

II the city's refuse scows are not be-
ing trimmed II doesn't mean that the
transitive verb trim" cannot be used
with other things than scows as the OBJ
jeot. Nor, II the various contractors.
sub-contractors, foremon. paper pickers,
bottle sorters, bone choosers and the rest
OF the hierarchy OF garbage and waste
are not active in the normal functionins
OF their ministry, does II follow that they
suspended their trimming activity and
sat about yesterday In the warm spring
sunshine that burned UP the river mists
by noon.
The contractors. sub-contractors and
others whose usual vocation Is trim
ming-scows-had their coats OF yester-
day, all right. But they were engaged
in the Russian national pastime-hold-
ing meetings. And they held more meet
ings between Thursday, when Commits
sioner McStay Of the Street Cleaning De-
partment threw out the bids for trim
ming scowa last night, than were
held in Petrograd during all the regime
OF the late and sincerely lamented
kerensky,
The meetings. too. bore another resem-
blance to those that have been held east
Of the soon to be determined eastern
frontier of western civilization. Nobody
could tell at any given moment whose
meetings they were.
For instance, on Friday night there
was a meeting in the hall owned by
Michael Santangelo at So Oak street. He
loaned the hall. without cost and most
generously, for a gathering Of the men
who had been his sub-contractors, when.
during February. he had held a contract
for trimming scows. Palpably such a
meeting should have belonged to Mr..
Santangelo. Yet there arose on that
night from the ranks one Nicholas r
Long. himself merely a sub-contractor.
and during the absence from the room OF
Mr.. Santangelo, q full nedged contractor,
Mr.. Long ran away with the meeting.
He has offered to pay the city for the
privilege OF trimming the scows. as used
to be done In the more or less good old
days. And he induced a group of his
fellow sub-contractors there and then to
contribute $25,000 In order that he might
convince the city authorities that he was
reliable business man and entitled to
contractual credence.
This. 1t must be remembered, right in
the Santangelo hall, and at time when
Mr.. Santangelo bad convinced the per-
sons and personases present that no
one could afford to pay tho city for the
~ "bthihB pniNhoSo, Dut tnat tne city
should pay Its .trimmers for trimmi.l Fl
the scows-as much as $1.44s.'s a week.
Even the most partisan Of the ring
siders. concentrating their judgment on
pure technique, had to admit that 1t was
faSt work. But wait a minute,
Mr.. Long proved himself not only a
brave but a prudent strategist Having
scored a material advantage he re-
treated TO his own positions previously
prepared In the rear and began to con-
solidate his gaina He hired his own
hall at 22s East Forty-seventh street
and there on Saturday night he organ
lied his own meeting. Fatal term! As
even the euphonistic Gen. Byng found
out, strategy once used becomes pub
lie property. and Mr.. Long forgot the
lessons OF the greater war.
Mr.. Santangelo did not. Organizing
himself as penetration patrol he went
10 the Long meeting. He said yester-
day that when he left II was no longer
Long but pretty close to being Santan-
gelo. s...
For I asked them" said he. az they
wanted to turn against him who had
donated his own han for Friday nights
meeting, who had always treated them
fairly, who knew tho business OF trim
ming from solitaires to potato peels. and
who was willing to-day. II the city
agreed to his terms. TO treat them right
once more.
For asked them" said he, IF they
Grated, III they were willing TO entrust
their money to a mere beginner.
Long on Friday night had decided to
organize them into a chartered union
and that the contract was 10 60 in the
name of the union and not OF Long.
And then I showed them that Long had
asked for the contract in his own name
and that they were to turn In their
thousand or two thousand dollars each
not to the union. but to Long
It is Mr.. Santangelo's contention, out
Of his long knowledge and experience,
that Long cannot possibly make good
on his plan TO pay the city for the
privilege OF trimming-the scows. He
points out that in the days when con-
tractors paid for the privilege their
men worked for less than 20 cents an
hour. Now they get 50. so, 20 and so
cents, and Mr.. Santangelo denies Wig
orously that there has been or will be
any jockeying of the mems wages &C
cording to who holds the contract He
says that Long is sure TO fail and his
hackers to lose their money.
He explains that the business has be-
come much less profitable for the con-
tractor since the rise in wages because
bottles. paper and tin cans. salvaged al
so, go. 20 and so cents an hour cannot
be sold at the market price. Only the
bones and fat are saleabie and the
bones and fat in the city's Hooverized
waste OF these piping times. he says,
will not pay the shot OF anybody, con-
tractor, subcontractor or mere handler
OF the raw. not to say excessively raw
product.
So while the hierarchy hierarchs and
the meetings come and go. the city has
no contract for trimming its scows
They have to be carefully trimmed OF
the slips where they are loaded will he
filed up. And such Of them as go to
sea to be dumped are loaded with more
or less precious areosies of bottles, pa
pers, tins and bones that have lived and
outlived only the nrst of their possible
many incarnations in this involved and
Intricate world.
And Commissioner McStay' His eyes
are sinking into his cheeks, his belt
shows many holes that now pass easily
by the once familiar tongue Of his belt
buckle, and the convolutions OF his brain
are being faithfully and externally re-
Elected upon his forehead In a pattern
as confusing as Is the problem of who's
to trim and who's to pay.