Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-10-15
LET COUNCIL LOOK AT THE
KIND OF FOLK WHO PAY TAXES
Then II viii Decide That II ls a Crime
to Be Careless With the Money
lntrusted to IL

- ouuset lor next year It's members should
visit the office of the receiver of taxes and
look at the people who call there to pay out
of their pockets the money which is to be
spent for the support of the government.
They will find old women with gnarled
hands distorted by hard work. They will
find working men in rough clothes. They
will see young men just starting out in life
with the hope of raising family.
And these people will count out the dollars
they have been saving for many months in
order to pay the taxes on the little houses in
which they live. They have denied them
selves pleasures and sometimes what seem
to others necessities in order to get their tax
money.
No public official with any sense Of re-
sponsibility can bok upon this scene without
determining that he will exert himself to
the utmost to prevent the waste of money
which comes from such sources Every
dollar unnecessarily expended increases the
burden of these people. whether it is Cx-
pended through unbusinesslike methods in
any department or through Indifference to
economy.
The estimates submitted to the Council
call for nearly S65, 200, 900. II this amount
is appropriated the tax rate will have to be
raised twenty FIVE cents. and when the extra
ten cents which the Board of Public Educa-
tion needs is added to it the increase will
be thirty five cents, bringing the total rate
to $500 and increasing the tax on a house
assessed at $4,000 from $3.50 to 500 1t
will add 5000 to the tax bill Of such a small
householder.
According to the controller, the tax rate
can be maintained at the present figure II
the estimates are reduced to $50. 600, 900.
thn ,1t,. I,
induced his heads of departments to reduce
their departmental estimates so as to get
the total down to $50 900 900. Their pre-
lminary figures called for S75 900. 900. The
Council will serve the public if it reduces the
estimates still further until they come within
the sum which the controller says can be
raised without an increase in the tax rate.
The business of the city can be done on
this sum, and done efficiently, If the men who
are to spend the money use the same eco
nomical discretion which they would show
II the money were their own.
When Morris L. Cooke was director of
public works under Mayor Bankenburg he
showed what could BE- done. Under the con
tract system he saved 81 900 900 year over
previous costs in cleaning the streets and
collecting waste. He made great economies
in the conduct Of the water bureau. He had
coal unoaded at a cost Of ten cents n ton
for which his predecessors had paid forty
cents. He conserved the water supply by
urging the people to CO. operate with him.
and in score Of other ways he eliminated
waste. One of the most notable was by re
duCing the force in his department and ar
ranging the work so that the smaller number
Of people did more work than had been done
by the old force.
When he went out Of Office many Of his
economics were abandoned by the Smith
administration and affairs slipped back into
their old condition. Those economies must
be restored not only in the Department of
Public Works, but they must be practiced
in every other department. And the un.
businesslike and wasteful methods Of doing
public work must be abandoned
That wasteful methods prevail is notorious.
A single illustration will show how public
business is done. A year or so ago the Blu
reau of Surveys decided to lay sewer in
York road. 1t tore up the street and blocked
it without getting the Bureau of Highways
to provide a proper substitute road for the
heavy traffic in advance, and travel In that
part Of the city was made dangerous for
months. Then this spring the Bureau Of
Highways began to pave North Broad street
from Olney avenue to the city line, which il
il had been paved before York road was torn
up for the sewer would have provided an
outlet for those who had been using York
road.
The newly paved extension of North Broad
street was opened to the public in July. Then
some time later the Bureau of Surveys de-
cded 10 lay a sewer in the street and the
Electrical Bureau concluded to place the
lamp posts in the center to continue the
plan Of lighting of the older part of the
street 1t tore up the pavement to make
holes for the posts and the Bureau Of Sur
veys cluttered the thoroughfare with sewer
laying machinery until there was only room
at some points for automobiles to move in
single file
Now the proper, economical and efficient
way to have improved the extension of
North Broad street was to have laid the
sewers and placed the lamp posts before the
paving was laid. Then the work would have
been finished when it was finished. It is In
this way that the Ford automobile Is built
Each process is made to fit into the succeed
ing process so that when the car leaves the
continuous belt on which the work Is done
it is ready to move under its own power.
But Henry Ford Is not the only man who
does work in this way. 1t is done in essen =
TALLY the same manner in every large manu- =
featuring plant and in some cities the sys-
tenn has been adopted. If street is TO be
opened the sewers, water and gas pipes are
laid first Owners of the abutting property
are notified that they must make the neces =
sary connection between the sewers and
water and gas pipes while the street is still
unpavcd Then the pavement is laid and
an order is issued that it is not to be dis
turbed for five years save in the case of an
accident to the pipes beneath.
But we do not do this here, for the reason