Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 9.djvu/850

 820 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

ment and the twelve district superintendents are salaried muni- cipal employees ; the workmen 467 regularly employed in 1901 are paid by the day. The wages for a ten-hour day are 3.20 marks to 4.50 marks. In other cities conditions are similar. Berlin employs, for the most part, youths under twenty-one years of age large, strong fellows, ready for work especially for the day work in "flying columns." They work for less than men's wages, but with efficiency. In Hamburg military disci- pline is maintained in the street-cleaning department. For superintendents ex-sergeant? are chosen, and for the men, only those who have had the military training which the German com- pulsory military service assures.

Because of technical and financial advantage to be derived therefrom, there is a tendency toward unification, under a cen- tralized direction of all the branches of city cleaning. Thus the street-cleaning department of Hamburg takes charge of the cleaning of all streets within the city limits, of street-sprinkling, of removal of snow and ice from the streets, of cleaning public lavatories ; oversees the collection of garbage (by private con- tractors), and operates a garbage crematory ; further, it cares for the removal of rubbish from the ships, docks, and harbors, and for the cleaning of such cesspools as still exist, with the removal of the material. Dresden's department cleans and sprinkles the streets and squares, removes snow and ice from streets and squares and sidewalks, removes the sludge from the sewer catch-basins under gutters and street-car rails. In Frankfurt a. M. the street-cleaning department and the municipal stables are organized under one department chief. This gives a centralized organization which has full control of the following work : maintenance of macadam streets and walks ; cleaning and sprinkling of, including removal of snow and ice from, all paved streets and squares within the city limits; the cleaning of all drainage and boundary ditches (e. g., on municipal land); the cleaning of street gullies and removal of the sludge ; the clean- ing and maintenance of public lavatories ; the removal of street sweepings ; the cleaning of the municipal market-halls and removal of the rubbish ; the removal of garbage and ashes.