Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-12
HIGH COST OF POLITICS
IN STREET CLEANING
Chief Hepburn's Disclosures Put the
Issue of Cleanliness and Economy
Right Up to Director Winston

city is not getting full value for the
money spent on street cleaning are def
mite and specific. He says that the city
is paying at least twice as much for the
work done as it costs the contractors.
He is not content with generalzations,
but goes into detail.
For example, Senator Ware has con-
tracts for keeping clean the streets in
two districts. He receives at the rate of
| S41S2 day. On January 90 he had 367
men at work, paid at the rate of $3.50
day for most of them. The foremen get
| more. But at the rate of $3.50 his pay
roll for January 90 was $12S4.50. AL
lowing for the higher pay for the fore
men, IL could not have reached a total of
more than $500. Allowing $500 for the
maintenance of the wagons and horses at
work, we have $4,000 outlay against
| S41S2 income on the two contracts.
Similar conditions, he declared, prevail
| in the other districts where other con-
tractors are employed. 1t is because of
! these conditions that Mr.. Hepburn feels
warranted in saying that he could clean
the streets of the city for $1,000,000 a
| year less than is now paid.
| INlS SldJeHlSII HlSHI De uloCOulIeu
were it not for the fact that Mr.. Hep
burn is an engineer of wide experience
and high achievement in handling large
undertakings. He has merely taken into
the Street Cleaning Bureau the methods
that he has employed in conducting bust
ness for his previous employers. That
is, he has applied ordinary business
standards to public work.
| The result is a severe indictment of
the kind of business administration we
have had for the last four years at least,
| the years during which the bids for street
cleaning have been raised every year on
/ the excuse of the higher cost of labor
until the contracts now in force call for
the expenditure of more than twice as
much money as before the war.
And politics, Mr. Hepburn points out,
is at the bottom of the trouble. The
specifications, which he believes were
drafted with political intent, provide that
the contractor shall employ sufficient
| force to clean the streets "in a manner
satisfactory to the chief" There is no
| standard of cleanliness save that which
| the chief wishes to enforce upon the con-
tractor who secured his appointment to
office at a time when contractors con-
trolled appointments in the City Hall.
But this is not all. Mr. Hepburn says
that "every man, from the contractor
down to the laborer who cleans out a
sewer inlet, tries to have political pull"
Under these circumstances the clear
and definite provisions of the specifica-
tions-and there are such-could have
,JoI El,o
the chief were Satisfied with a per-
functory performance Of the work.
One has only to look at the condition
of the streets at the present time to un-
derstand Mr.. Hepburn's charges. The
contracts require the cleaning of the
snow from all cross walks for width
of eight feet and for keeping all fire
hydrants, sewer inlets and cutters clear
of snow But this has not been done.
The men necessary to do it were not
employed. Still worse, the capacity of
the trucks used to cart away the snow
has been misrepresented in many in
stances, so that the city would be charged
for ten cubic yards of snow carted away
on truck with capacity for six and a
half cubic yards. If one wishes to be
charitable one might say that this mis-
representation of the capacity of truck
was due to the ignorance of the inspector
Those who wish to do so may make this
explanation
Mr.. Hepburn has ordered the con-
tractors to put men enough on the streets
to clean them and to keep them clean
Under the provisions of the specifica,
tions that the chief must be satisfied
provision inserted for political reasons
he fortunately has complete power in the
premises.
But Mr.. Hepburn will not remain al
the head of the Street Cleaning Bureau
after March /. On that date he takes
charge of the construction work on the
state highways, because Director Wins
ton. of the Department of Public Works
did not Immediately consolidate the high
way bureaus and put him at the head Of
the whole work of street repair anC
cleaning at an adequate salary. Mr.
Hepburn could have been retained in the
service of the city if there had beer
immediate appreciation of the impor
tance of putting a frst-class engineer II
charge of the streets and allowing him tc
apply business principles to the work.
The disclosures of wasteful use of pub
lie funds, however, ought to lead D
rector Winston to repair the mistake
which he made at the beginning. This
can be done by creating single bureau
of streets and by putting at its head thu
most capable engineer whom he can find
1t would be cheaper for the city to pay
! such a man $4,000 or $4,000 than t.
allow the old conditions to continue.
In fact, they cannot be allowed to con
! tinue without discrediting the new ad
ministration.
! But this will not be enough. Mr.
! Hepburn has discovered that there ar
,, persons in the Department of Publi
, Works who make it their business to in