Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-08
THE NEW BROOM MAY
BE USED ON THE STREETS
Be to Do Something Where Every
body Can See the Result

WHEN Director Winston, of the De-
w partHent of Public Works, an
nounced that the Mayor wished to make
tour of street inspection with him, it
became evident that we were on the eve
of a new day.
One of the greatest shortcomings of
the old administration lay in it's failure
to keep the streets in proper condition.
The failure was manifest to every one,
for every one is on the street more or less
every week. Those who walked had their
eyes filled with dust in dry weather and
had filth splashed on their clothes by
passing vehicles in wet weather, and
those who rode were bumped over holes
in the pavements and cursed the highway
department when they broke the springs
on their automobiles or tore off tire in
trying to get out of a rut.s
Travellers in the country can pick out
the successful and efficient farmers by
the condition of the buildings and fences.
When the house is painted and the lawn
moved; when the barns stand up four
square and do not sag on their founda-
tions; when the gates are not off their
hinges and the farming tools are safely
housed under cover, the inevitable con-
clusion is that the farmer is prosperous
and that he has proper respect for him
self and his surroundings.
On the other hand, the shabby house
with the blinds Tapping in the wind,
the barn with the doors broken and the
barnyard filled with tools in bad repair,
the fences falling down and the corners
of the fields filled with rubbish, all indi-
cate the presence of shiftless man liv-
ing from hand to mouth.
Philadelphia in recent years has re-
sembled the farm of the unsuccessful
farmer. Or, to put it in another way:
Philadelphia, with great wealth and end
less resources, has been like a farm
leased to tenant interested only in skin
ming the property while he had possession
of it and Indifferent to its state when his
lease expired.
There is more truth than fancy in
this description. 1t is because the city
was dissatisfied with the conduct of the
men in charge of its affairs that they
have been dismissed and new men put in
office.
The evident purpose of the Mayor to
give his first attention to the outward
aspects of the city indicates that he has
proper appreciation of the psychology
of politics. If he can clean the streets
and repair the holes in the pavements so
that it is safe to go about, he can make
it clear even to the least observant that
real change has happened.
The task will not be easy, for the
amount of money available is limited
The test of economy and efficiency will
come when he sets about spending the
money that has been set aside in the
budget for the care of the highways.
The public funds have not been spent
economically in the past. A private COR
poration could have accomplished much
more with the same sum, for it would not
have awarded contracts to politicians in
terested primarily in big profits and con-
trolling the inspectors who passed on
their work.
There is no doubt whatever that under
a proper administration of the public
funds this year much more can be accom-
plished than those who made UP the
budget last year anticipated. 1t may not
be possible to do as much as ought to be
done, but enough can be done to convince
the public that the new Mayor is honestly
seeking to make the outward aspect of
the city, by which we judge the efficiency
of its government, resemble the outward
aspect of the plant of any well-conducted
and prosperous private enterprise.
1t will not be enough to confine atten-
tion to the main thoroughfares like Broad
| and Market streets. Conditions there
| must be improved. But the humble folk
who live il the modest streets are entitled
to consideration. 1t is in those streets
that disease starts to spread to the more
prosperous sections. 1t is there, too,
| that voters live who have come to think
! that their part of the town is neglected
because they have no political pull They
see the ill-paved alleyways filled with
rubbish and neglected by the street clean
ers. They see the ashes strewn on the
sidewalk on collection days and they see
the papers from the waste boxes blown
about by the wind littering the walks
! and the roadways. They accept the con-
dition as one of the hardships involved in
modest means and in life in big city.
But there is no reason why these dis
trcts should not be kept as clean as the
districts where the well-to-do have their
homes. Indeed, Doctor Furbush, of the
Department of Health, knows that it is
safer from a sanitary point of view to
neglect the streets in the more prosper.
Gus sections than to allow filth to gather
in the streets where lack of money forces
the crowding of families into small quar-
ters and compels children to use the gut.
ters for playground.
The political wisdom of the Mayors
plan needs only to be mentioned to be-
come apparent to the least thoughtful.
its wisdom from a sanitary and com.
mercial point of view is as great if les:
obvious.
We all wish to make this greater city
greater in business and greater in its
interest in artistic and intellectual mat
ters. but if the eye is offended every time
one goes into the street because of the