Evening star., 1925-01-05
HIT
STREET CONDITIONS
Members of Both Houses
Score Failure to Remove
Snow Promptly.

Members Of both Houses of Con-
gress joined today in deplorlng the
conditions of Washington's streets
since the New Year snowstorm-
Sona.or Capper of Kansas char
act erized the streets a s "a disgrace
and expressed the opinion that Con-
gress and the Commissioners both
were to blame-Congress for not ap-
propriating sufficient money for
| street cleaning and the Commission
ers for not getting tne;r snow-clean-
/ ing forces into action earlier.
The Senator said he is going to in
vestigate the snow-remoVal systems
| used in other cities, particularly to
| find out how much money cities Of
| size comparable to Washington usu-
| ally spend in this work. When he
obtains these figures, ne added. he
will present them to Congress.
Senator Ball of the Senate District
| committee, who protested Saturday
! about the slow removal OF snow
! here, said today he would confer in
| this connection with the District En-
| gi1eer Commissioner
| Defends Commissioners.
| Representative Ernest ". Gibson
! OF Vermont, who comes from a terri
| tory that gets its full share of snow
each Winter, has the utmost sympath
| for the District officials and says that
| it is physically impossible for them
| to clean the streets here in such an
| emergency because the streets are so
| wide and there are so many of them.
! He contrasted the 400 engaged on
snow removal here with many thou
/ sands similarly engaged in j New
! York.
Representative Charles /. Under
/ of
! Der Of the House District committee,
said that the District officials should
not be severely criticized, because it
| is so seldom that they have such con-
ditions to meet that they are not pre-
| pared to meet with a big job of snow
removal He believes that they are
| doing the best they can under the
circums stances and that any delay in
the work can well be attributed to
| lack of experience.
Urges Cooperation.
Representative Underhill said that
| he does not know where the blame
| lies, but that there should be the best
| cooperation between the city officials
| and the District residents and Con-
| gress He emphasized that Congress
| has passed a law requiring citizens to
remove snow from their walks ad-
/
| law is not enforced as it is in his own
! locality, where those failing to re-
move the snow are hailed into court
| and fined or the city removes the
! snow and assesses the cost against
the property owner.
Representative Stalker of New
| York drove into Washington from
! Eimira, n. Y, after the snowstorm
and said that he found no congestion
until he was this side of Rockville.
| Then he found the roads in a de-
/ plorable condition. Representative
! Stalker believes that the Commits
| sioners should have an adequate APP
| preparation to clean the streets and
| that Congress should provide this
appropriation. He believes that there
is something wrong in the District
and censored the citizens for not
| cleaning the sidewalks, declaring that
| the law should be enforced COM
pelling them to do so. He expressed
| the opinion that the District Commits
sioners should clean away the snow
with the money on hand and if more
! is needed Congress should provide it
! Representative Stalker said that the
| principal streets in the District are
| worse than any of the highways in
motoring to Washington and that the
National Capital is more remiss in
failing to clean sidewalks than any
city he has passed through.