New-York tribune., 1920-12-28
Many Got Call,
But Few Chose
To Fight Snow
Out of Thousands Listed by
City Only 2,047 Report TO
Clear Streets, Despite
Tales of Unemployment
Cost Of Removal $4,000
Sleet on Rails Delays Traf-
fic on Il Lines; Depart
ment Lacks Machinery

Despite the reports from the De-
partment Of Public Welfare that the
Municipal Lodging House is entertain
ing four times as many guests as last
winter, the response of labor yester-
day to tho call OF the Street Cleaning
Commissioner for sno1 removal work
wac disappointing. The departmen ent
wanted 5000 men and got only 2.047.
While the full quota of 5000 men
were not needed TO clean up the light
snowfall, reduced to slush by the rain,
the small number of volunteers for
the work was surprise to the de-
partment officials. 1t indicated that
the reports Of large numbers of men
out of employment were either greatly
exaggerated or the jobless ones were
,ot disposed to work.
The result of the call for snow
fighters was all the more surprising
because the State Department of
Labor had eased the anxiety of the
Street Cleaning Commissioner by re-
ports that there would be no difficulty
in obtaining thousands Of the unem-
ployed for the storm work. One Of the
department officials said that it was
always more difficult to get men to
work on the streets in the rain. The
department is paying 65 cents an hour
for the snow removers, as compared
with 35 or 40 cents year or two ago.
Weather Prevents Tie-up
4 temperature Of SO yesterday saved
the Street Cleaning Department a diff
Aeult Job. A mixed storm, with light
snow and rain, like that OF yesterday,
often makes the hardest kind of work
FOR the street cleaners. The depart
ment WAS able to flush most of the
snow from the streets into the sewers.
Two hundred and fifteen hose gangs
started work at o'clock yesterday
morning
Oficials of the bureau Of snow re-
noval said that practically all the slush
and snow would be off the streets by
midnight. The slush. however, made
the work of Inopplng UP more difncult
than a clean bed of snow. Twelve of
the new big tractors recently purchased
bv the Street Cleaning Department
we're used to push the heavy slush piles
TO the sewer holes, III lieu of sufficient
men to do the work.
There are 1000 miles of sixty-foot
streets-from house line to house line
TO be gone over by the street cleaners.
no matter how light or how heavy the
storm. In some places, where it was
not possible to use the tractors or mo-
tor truck plows, or to apply the flush
ing process, the snow and slush was
department trucks. No contractors were
section of the city north of Seventy
could not be used to flush the streets
until o'clock in the afternoon. other
wise consumers in that district would
have been without water during the
day because Of the low pressure.
Heavy Shortage of Labor
The shortage OF labor yesterday was
shown at every turn made by the
Street Cleaning Department. OF the
$500 men formally registered at the
various department stations for snow
removal work Jess than 20 per cent
answered the call. In the district west
OF Broadway, between Fourteenth
Street and Canal, only fifty-one men
responded, where several hundred have
district from Broome to Twelfth Street,
east to the East River, 270 men ap-
pesred for vor =, where it is not un-
usual to get 800 or 900. From Twelfth
Street to Forty second Street, east of