Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-02-11

| looked by them. For example, they are
| required to sprinkle, at their own ex-
pense, with bar sand or cinders, all foot
ways and steps of city bridges when
hey are dangerous to travel"
"Does the number Of men employed
In each street cleaning district, which
YOU have already quoted, represent the
minimum number employedf'
Once more Mr.. Hepburn dug into his
pile of reports and memoranda aud, ex-
tracing sheet of paper, said:
"On January 81 l requested every
street cleaning contractor to appear at
my Office. I had abundance of written
reports, but I wanted to get some verbal
information on the subject. had been
making private investigations and |
was desirous of seeing how my conf =
Dental reports Tailed with the verbal
reports of the contractors themselves.
"All the gentlemen notified were
present, and in the course Of the meeting
/ put the question directly to each one
as to just how many men he had in his
employ that day in street cleaning.
While the answers all agreed, approx
mately, with my own information on the
subject, it was nevertheless a surprise.
Every contractor with the exception
Of two confessed that he had about
twenty men in his district as total
street cleaning force. Twenty men al
the average wage Of $3.50 per mar
would represent total outlay OF S75
and yet one of these cotractors is col
, lecting $685. per day from the city fol
that work. The city pays another $685.
; pei day for this service, and so on down
the list.
You can now understand, perhaps
why | am demanding that the stree
, cleaning force in every district in th'
city shall be maintained in suficien
, number to keep the streets in condition
and give the city fair return for it
money"
Two Answer Promptly
Two contractors, one in the cente
OF the city and another on the out
skirts, answered promptly when l asket
as to their forces They made the bes
showing, but even they did not come VI
to what | consider a fulfillment of th
specification
THE removal of snow from tn
streets in the removal area in the hear
or the CITY is emergency work in whic
thousands of dollars daily can be waste
and no one be the wiser, unless constan
and honest supervision is maintained
we are endeavoring to eliminate ever
: I u lO
, intentional or unintentioual errors.
it Is possible by altering chec
9 mark to add eight or ten dollars da
to the legitimate amount earned by
big motortruck or team. We have
diagram which by n series of measure
nentS shows the capacity of any WACO
t or truck. The load capacity is indi
Gated by punch mark in a card ths
= is daily furnished every driver. Mis-
takes are frequent. but regret to sa
4 that the majority of them are agains
n the city, by crediting the truck or WACO
with larger capacity than it is en-
t titled to-
= Again did Chief Hepburn make
: sortie upon his reports and drew fort
a compact table marked Snow Remov
al Vehicles He patiently singled OF
;, from u long column instances whel
q q greater capacity had been given vehicle
> than was their due. For it should |
4 understood that in hauling snow Il
i city pays by the cubic yard. and a dii
p ference of cubic yard or so too muC
means dollar in the pocket of Il
4 truck or wagon owner.
d The first two vehicles on the list
those engaged in removing snow Shove
that they had capacity of two and
half cubic yards. but the inspector ha
d credited them with three and half.
y one instance truck carrying five cub
= yards had been credited with eight, ar
= other of six had been given eight. TT