Ray Stannard Baker

Outlook/August 17, 1895

Following the example of Miss Jane Addams, of Hull House, who has a Garbage Inspector’s genius for originating practical reforms and putting them into operation without any preliminary fuss and feathers, three Chicago clergymen have been recently appointed garbage inspectors. As is well known, Miss Addams applied last spring for the position of garbage contractor in the Nineteenth Ward, where Hull House is located. When she was unsuccessful she immediately sought and secured the appointment of garbage inspector. Following closely in her footsteps, the Rev. Herman F. Hegner, who is at the head of another social settlement, was given the corresponding office in the Seventeenth Ward, one of the worst in the city. Then the Rev. D. S. Kennedy, also engaged in settlement work, received the appointment of inspector in the Thirty-Fourth Ward, and the Rev. C. W. Barnes, pastor of the Sedgwick Street Congregational Church and formerly connected with Hull House, was given the place in the Thirty-Second Ward. They have taken hold of the work with so much energy that the wards under their care are now among the cleanest in the city. In their positions as inspectors they have general supervision of the cleaning work in their territory, and if it is not thoroughly done by the contractor they have the power of calling in additional men and teams and charging the expense to the contractors’ accounts. They make daily reports to the city superintendent of streets and alleys, and investigate all cases of complaint. This involves continual watchfulness and a thorough acquaintance with every nook and every alley of the ward. The contractors have been held so closely to their agreements that most of them are losing money where formerly, under a lax administration, their income was large. The new inspectors have not only been doing the routine work, but, with the full sympathy of the superintendent of streets and alleys, they are advocating the cleaning of alleys every day instead of three times a week, the substitution of metallic garbage boxes for the present filth-soaked wooden ones, and other needful improvements. This new departure not only testifies to the increasing disposition of clergymen to do the drudgery necessary to secure better municipal conditions, but also to the strength of the reform sentiment in the Chicago city government. The position of garbage inspector carries with it a salary of $1,000, which under former conditions would have been used to pay for political services past and future.