Evening Star Newspaper, December 26, 1926, Page 69

ILLUSTRATED FEATURES MAGAZINE SECTION The Sunty Staf Part 5—8 Pages WASHINGTON D. C, SUNDAY MORNING DECEMBER 26 1926 FICTION AND HUMOR District White Wings Are Guardians of World’s Cleanest City BY GEORGE H. DACY. HE Dutrict of Columbia $1,350,000 annually that Washington may sustain its reputation as the world's cleanest city. It would be hard to find another of. ficial who has as difficult a job on his hands as that handled each vear by Morris Hacker, superintendent of Washington's street cleaning depart- ment and supervisor of the Distric army of “white wings" and refuse collectors This stupendous maintaining our several hund miles of streets, avenues and b vards sightly and attractive, and the | service to the householder of garbage and trash removal is one which does not appear spectacular to the gener public until Mr. Average Citiz browses through the neer's annual sreport quainted with the ever tivities of Supt. Hacker's department It is a nightand-day proposition, | this enterprise of maintaining our streets clear and clean of refuse, trash —and snow. Much of the clean-up work which cannot be performed dur- | ing business hours. because of the | vehicular traffic which congests the main traveled roads, is done in the dead of night. About the same hour that the dairy trucks and wagons start on their rounds of delivering the morning’s milk supply. the 10 motar ized flushers of the street cleank. service swing into action in the busi ness district. Each night more than 6,500,000 square yards of pavement surface are washed free of dirt, dust and debris by these gas-powered “scrubwomen.” When the thermometer registers about freezing or colder, the street flushing has to be suspended until the mercury rises again. Normally, there | are only about 65 nights in the vear | when the District flushers are unable to work on account of low tempera- tures. Seven hundred thousand gal- lons of water are consumed in show ering and flushing the business high- ‘ways each night during the balance of the year, a total of 225,000.000 gal- lons of water being used for this pur- posed during the 12 months. The business district, whose streets and avenues are drenched regularly in this way, extends from K street south to B street and from North Capitol street west to Eighteenth street, while adjoining traffic ways are also cleansed. Previous to the advent of motorized equipment, the District used horse- drawn flushers and squeegees in gi ing Washington pavements . their | nightly bath. The squeegee was a motor-driven broom adapted from somewhat similar equipment used in Berlin. Its use had to be abandoned with the rising popularity of the mo- tor car and the city-wide custom of parking automobiles along the curbs, both by night and day. * Kk ¥ 'HE 10 District dumping grounds where trash, refuse and similar debris collected by the “white wings" from Washington streets are depos- ited have been the scenes of hectic and frepzied hunting at various times during recent years. A certaln Wash- ington doctor, for example, mislaid a considerable amount of very valuable radium. By hook or crook, the mate- rial, which was worth enough to ran- som the king's daughter, was tossed into the trash can. Eventually it was discarded in one of the District dump ing grounds. When the physician finally discov ered his loss he organized a patient and persistent searching party, which ransacked the dumping grounds from one end to the other. The containe: of radium was never found. A minia- ture fortuhe awaits some scrap-pile picker who chances to come across this missing material, recognizes its valué and returns it to the owner, who will pay a large reward for such recovery. A Washington society matron some time ago assembled $15,000 worth of jewels in a compagt little package and then carelessly tossed the package into the waste-paper basket. The con- tents of the basket were tossed into a pile of refuse, which subsequently was removed to the dumping grounds by one of the District trash wagons. When the lady ultimately missed sher jewels she notified the police. The case was ferreted down to conclusive evidencé which indicated that the val uablés were reposing amidst some pile of refuse in one of the deposi- tories of discarded debris.. It was a long search and a stern chase, that pur- suit of the missing gems. With a large reward offered for the return of the diamonds, hundreds combed and scratched over the dumping grounds. Some may still be continuing the hunt, for the jewelry has never been found. . ‘These are typical illustrations of the hue and cry about missi ables which are raised every so often. The District dumping grounds, in addition to being the burial place of many lost hopes, mod- els of inventions which went to seed, manuscripts of prose and poetry which never found a market, is also the final resting place of lost dia- monds, lustrous pearls, beautiful rings and costly necklaces, which, through sheer carelessness, found their way to the trash box instead of being returned to their regular quar- ters, jewelry cases or strong boxes, where they were kept when not in use. A conspicuous sign on a telephone in one of the offices of the District Street Cleaning Department bears the telephone number of the United States Weather Bureau. There is a very close relationship existent between these Federal and District depart ments. The predictions of the weather man concerning blizzards and snow storms which are speeding toward Washington are of vital interest Supt. Hacker and his subordinates. Those few hours of warning enable ex assignment of 10| in them to assemble their battle lines and prepare for organized wa against the avalanches of frozen r i drops launched from drear and dismal | ekies. Its annual onslaughts against King Snowdrift Jack _Frost; which seek to paralyze traffic cripple commerce in our Capital City, rank among the most difficult tasks which the Street Cleaning De| has to engage. ‘The District now has 20 motor ve- hicles, including the flushers available to push the straight-bladed snowplows when Boreas tries to block Washing. ton’s streets with masses of snow and Arcticlike drifts. The snow-fighting campalign is carried on without sus. pending such other important activi- ties as ash, trash and garbage re- moval. (nly during the most severe blizzards that ever demoralize Wash ington business does the District ehunt this motor equipment from its regular work to the imperative and emergency activity of battling the drifts. In addition to the 20 snow- plows which are operated by regula- tion street cleaning equipment, other plows function during the stormy season, operated by special contractors who obey Mr. Hacker's and 12| two District Spends $1.350.000 Annually in Street Cleaning, Ash, Trash and Garbage Removal — 100,000 Cubic Yards of Snow Removed After Average Storm—10 Motorized Flushers Shower Business District Streets at Night—$80,000 in Paper and $250.000 in Greas: Salvaged From Trash and Garbage—170 Miles of Alleys Cleaned on Schedule and 140 Miles of Streets and Car Lines Plowed in Snow-Removal Strife—Stories of Lost Valuables Are Told. District owns 15 cars used in handling garbage to Chervy il Grease plant e otorize Flushers it s T 000 of reclaimec paper. Sweeping and cleaning 250.miles of.streets and alfeyd, L e special routes for snow-fighting pur poses. The first charges of the snow plows are along the car lines. It is imperative that the right of way of these common carriers be kept open. The secondary attacks are directed against the snow blockades which im. pede vehicular traffic over our leading arterial highways. h snow-fight- ing crew speeds to its route or station when the storm begins to shroud the terrain in a mantle of white. then until the abatement of the snow- fall and the clearing of the regular paths of travel the organized army of snow-shovelers works as do the Fed- eral forces who regularly fight forest res The average snowfall in Washing- ton aggregates 20 inches during the ordinary Winter. Usually there are three or four storms each Winter which, respectively, deposit 2 inches or more of congealed moisture in snowflake form the maximum number of such snow- storms in any cold-weather period has been seven. That particular season the District snow battlers had to do as much shovel and drift-removal work as they ordinarily perform in vears. It would be a very costly and ex- travagant expenditure of District funds to attempt to remove the snow apders, 30 ‘Ths subdivided into | trom all the streets and avenues the District authoi have -~ Hence During recent years selected the most important lanes of traffic and routes which are auxiliary to the car lines, and upon these paved pathways they concentrate their snow-removal operations. The cur- rent Winter, 140 miles of pavement and car-line trackage are plowed dur- ing and after each snowstorm. Dur- ing the mill run of storms the Dis- trict removes approximately 100,000 cubic yards of snow from the through streets and car lines. This snow is deposited in piles by the snow plows as they shovel clear the course ahead. Batteries of, motor trucks and wagons are employed to haul the snow to the nearest manholes and sewers, into which the aftermath of the storm is dumped. To clear Washington’s main streets of snow after a 6-inch fall would cost about $70,000. It would require a crew of 1,000 men to accomplish this feat in five or six days. Usually, it is very difficult to recruit emerg- ency snow fighters when they are most needed. Often the storm begins at night. Modern “Paul Reveres” of snowflake warfare have to spread the news of potential battle to the homes of the District’s regular employes. Others have to mobilize temporary forces to assist in the campaign. Snow fighting is hard, laborious work, which tests the strength and stamina of its soldiery. A man has to be in fit y cal trim to stand up under' ing in ovder to clean the strain of eight hours of snow shoveling daily. The 120,000 motor cars licensed in the District as well as many thou- sands from Maryland and Virginia greatly increase the difficulties of snow removal. This endless caval- cade of automobiles, traveling the streets during and immediately after the snowfall, compact the flakes and convert the blanket into a coating of ice. If the District snow-fighting force could remove the snow before it was thus compacted and solidified, the labors would be decreased re- markably. Automobile trafic more than trebles the cost of snow removal. This could be accomplished only by prohibiting motor traffic until the snow was removed from the street— a preposterous proposition. During horse-vehicle days the matter was simple. Ordinarily, horses had to be roughshod after ' the snowstorm. This roughening of Dobbin's footwear usually consumed enough time to fa- cilitate snow removal before heavy vehicular traffic again crowded the business thoroughfares. * k¥ % NE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY “white wings” patrol and police ‘Washington streets at present. This force is assigned to regular routes and beats. Some of the men begin work daily at 6 o'clock in the morn ets which are congested with traffic later in the day. One of the street cleaners first goes over his route and picks up all the papers, unsightly trash and broken glass which he can find and places these materials in large gunny sacks. The second trip, fhe ‘“white wing" trundles his refuse cart and cleans the street as he advances. In addition to this hand-cleaning system, four of the motorized flushers ald in cleaning the streets in the resi- dential and outlying sections during the day. Each flusher is equipped with a special pump so that an air pressure of 45 pounds is developed, adequate to shower a cleansing stream of water over the streets, washing dirt and debris into the sew- ers. One of these flushers costs $8,000, its normal service life being seven years. In the less thickly populated sec- tions of the city, three large horse- drawn brooms are still used in battery formation in cleaning the streets. A motorized sprinkler always works in front of the mechanical sweepers. This battery cleans 230,000 square yards of outlying pavement dalily. ‘Washington has more trees than any other American city of compar- able size. The last tree census showed a total of 106,000 vigorous, healthy, shade trees under District supervision. There are thousands of other trees which have been set out | by property vwaers and which also clutter the streets with leaves during the Autumn. This leaf-removal prob- lem is another herculean job which the Street Cleaning Department con- summates. The leaves, after collec- tion, are hauled to the dumping grounds. Truck farmers and market gardeners from the contiguous coun- tryside, with District permission, re- move the decayed leaves as fertilizer from the scrap heaps after the follage has compacted and decomposed. Thus the leaves of oaks, Lombardy poplars, elms, Norway maples and gingko trees eventually aid in growing the vegetables which Washington con- sumes the following Summer. There are ten District dumpi grounds in current use, eight of whi€ are on privately owned property. In this way gullies and ravines are filled in. New land is being made from dis- carded and waste material. The Dis- trict hauls more than 500,000 cubic yards of refuse yearly to the dump- ing grounds, grease and trash plants. All the material that can be salvaged is reclaimed and sold. Vast amounts of ashes are used as temporary sur- facing for new streets and alleys. The District removes garbage from the 100,000 or more District homes, apartments, hotels and restaurants without any expense to the owners and ashes.and trash only from private homes. Congrgss now appropriates gar tor cleaning the District are made into soap. $450.- | ing plant in Rosslyn, Va., where streets and avenues. An additional $900,000 annually is awarded to the District for the removal of ashes, trash, dead animals, garbage and sim- ilar refuse. The District now oper- ates a fleet of 50 mammoth motor trucks in its ash, trash and garbage collection as well as from 60 to 80 horse-drawn vehicles. All of this equipment and animals are owned and maintained by the city refuse division of the District Government. It costs $135,000 a year to remove Washing- ton's ashes. * Kk ok % ‘HE matter of caring for dead ani- mals in fitself is a huge task. Last year, for example, 43,609 dogs, cats, rodents, horses, mules, cows, sheep, goats, poultry and miscellan- eous pets were disposed of. The householder telephones the Street Cleaning Departmient that such and such a dead animal is on his premires awaiting disposition. ~ Shortly after such notice is received at the District Building, an official truck appears to remove the carcass. Thirty thousand cats and 12,000 dogs were picked up and disposed of in this manner dur- ing the last 12 months. Policemen and street cleaners report all dead animals which they find, so that they can be removed. The dead animals are delivered to a render- they The District sells all the horse and cow hi.es and mule skins which are salvaged from dead animals, realizing a_revenue of about $3,000 from these by-products. Generally about 500 miscellaneous animals are removed from pet stores and express company headquarters. These include animals whi¢h die from accidents or diseases. Eight reindeer from Alaska were lately conveyed from a certain express office to the soap factory. They had perished in transit to Washington, where they were to be used in Chris isplays and later placed in the ) logical Gardens. Canaries, parrots, guinea pigs, trained mice and rats, | and a great variety of othr pets are | delivered to the rendering establish- | ment. Maryland residents avail them | selves of the District’s efficient serv- |ice in dead-animal removal. They haul carcasses over the District line and leave them by the roadside, know ing the District authorities will re move such material promptly. Every resident of the District could |aid the streetcleaning department | materially if he or she would refrain from mutilating newspapers, second- class mail and similar scrap material | and tossing them about the streets. This waste paper which is spread on the wings of the wind is the most | annoying and one of the most costly | classes of refuse which the District | annually handles. It costs the Dis trict more than $100,000 annually to | remove the waste paper which the carelessness of the general public has | spread about the streets. It each of | the 500,000 Washingtonians would aid | by placing paper in the public recep- | tacles for such material, this expen | stve nuisance would be abated | markedly. Occasionally you may hear com | plaints _about the unsightliness of | some of Washington's alleys. These | personal objections invariably are un just, for the District street-cleaning department follows a regular and sys- tematized schedule in cleaning alleys. No city in the country renders better service in this respect. The arrango- ment {s such that each alley is clean ed every four or five days when the weather is good. Rainy weather, snowstorms and bliz- zards temporarily tie up the opera tions and slow up the schedule, as laborers cannot be asked to work out- doors in weather which is precarious to their health. One hundred and sev- enty miles of alleys are cleaned in Washington every five days during fair weather. Ashes are collected on specified days in all sections of the city, and alleys are cleaned as nearly as_possible according to schedule. The alley-cleaning equipment works independently of all other “white wing” activities. It consists of carts, wagons, horse sweepers and sprinkiers manned by four crews of experienced men. One of the particular concerns of these workers is to remove all the broken glass which can be found. Broken milk bottles lead in this cate- gory. The public is being educated to exercise greater care in handling glassware of all kinds, for much lese broken glass than formerly is now found on District streets and alleys. * kK AT Cherry Hill, Va., about 31 miles from “the National Capital, the District owns and operates a grease plant. Séventy-five thousand tons of District garbage are delivered annu- ally to this grease extraction plant. From this garbage supply 3,629.875 pounds of grease were .manufactured last year, with receipts of $250,050. The expenses of operating the reduc- tion plant and of shipping the raw garbage to Cherry HIill aggregated $180,127, so that the District garbage disposal system showed a clear profit of $69,923. A trash disposal plant is also run by the District government. It is at the corner of Montello avenue and Mount Olivet road. In excess of 225,000 cubic yards of trash are haul- ed each year from Capital City streets and alleys to this salvage station, where approximately $80,000 worth of paper is rescued from ruin and sold. Tin cans, bottles and rags are also salvaged at this District establishment. The tin cans are sold to a Baltimore manufacturer, who meits and converts them into window-sash weights. The bottles are also segregated and sold to commercial agencies. All the milk bottles are separated from the trash and are returned to the Washington milk-bottle exchange. Two carloads. or 60 tons, of paper, worth about $50 a ton, are salvaged daily at this effi- clent reclamation station. Visitors from every State in the Union and every city in the land are delighted with the immaculatencss of ‘Washington's channels of vehicular travel. The next morning after an inaugural ceremony or a monster parade Pennsylvania avenue, its trib- utaries and all the other highways of the' District are as sightly and invit- ing as customary. It i{s a stupendous job, cleaning up after one of these national demonstrations, but Supt. Hacker and his white-uniformed army turn the trick as if it were routine work. Foreign visitors and travelers who stop at Washington during their globe-trotting excursions never neg- lect to pay due tribute to' the cleanli- ness of the world’'s most beautiful city. Romance of Rubber. ISTOPHER COLUMBUS, on his second voyage, found the na- tives of the island of Haiti playing with rubber balls and reported the discovery of the elastic and resilient substance, which since then has been adapted to many uses. But it was not tll the last century that rubber was utilized. extensively, when Goodyear, after long years of patient and costly experiment, found a way to overcome its stickiness when subjected to heat. Since the demand for it has in- creased steadily and greatly, and at the present time the supply is so far short, of the demand that companies are organized to cultivate rubber trees in all parts of the world, and specu- lation in the shares of the companies has frequently been a sort of craze. More than one-half of the rubber production of the world is used for automobile tires. As the supply is in- adequate, the price has continually increased. Even rubber of a poor quality sells for a good price. The Amazon dsitrict of Brazil is the great rubber-producing country of the world, for more than half of the total supply comes from there. The Federated Malay States, the Congo region, Portuguese West Africa, the East Coast of tropical Africa, Ran- goon, Penang, Borneo and Mexico, the ‘West Indies and Central America are the other rubber-producing districts. ‘About one-tenth of the total yleld | comes: from the Congo. The rapidly increasing cost of the article has aroused experimenters, who have produced substances that have some of the qualities of rubber. It not improbable that they may ultimately succeed, as the chemis did in preducing artificial indigo, making real rubber by !ymheeu‘