MODERN METHODS OF STREET CLEANING 



street cleaning at the instance of Mayor Hugh A. Grant. 

 In 1891 a second investigation was made by a committee 

 appointed by the state legislature. The latest inquiry 

 into the affairs of the Street Cleaning Department was 

 completed on December 31, 1907, by a commission of 

 eminent engineers* appointed by the present Mayor, 

 George B. McClellan. It was partly to assist this com- 

 mission in studying the problem of cleaning the city 

 and disposing of the collected wastes that the author 

 visited a large number of European cities and had 

 the pleasure of meeting many foreign street cleaning 

 officials in the summer of 1907. 



From the mass of information collected by various 

 investigating bodies, many of the general principles 

 upon which the Street Cleaning Department of New 

 York should be conducted appear to be fairly well 

 established. The difficulty is to put these principles 

 into force. The magnitude of the problem and the 

 peculiar political conditions under which municipal work 

 is performed in American cities are serious obstacles 

 in the way of conducting the department in a strictly 

 businesslike manner. The refuse collected in the whole 

 city amounted in 1906 to 8,359,648 cubic yards or 

 3,159,182 tons. If this refuse was piled in Madison 

 Square Park it would rise to the height of the Flatiron 

 Building. 



It was clearly stated in 1891 by Mayor Grant's inves- 

 tigating commission that the problem of street cleaning 

 in New York was largely a problem of organization and 

 executive management. " It requires," they said, "the 



* The members of this commission were Messrs. H. de B. Parsons, 

 Rudolph Hering, and Samuel Whinery, all members of the American 

 Society of Civil Engineers. 



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