Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1915 — SEEMS POOR ECONOMY [ARTICLE]

SEEMS POOR ECONOMY

ROUNDABOUT WAY OF KEEPING FIRE HOUBEB CLEAN. Story Told by Writer In The Public, Whether the Real Thing or Not, May feasibly Illustrate a Sad Truth. About two months ago I happened to sit down beside a pleasant-faced old fellow in the' smoking oar of a train pulling out of Philadelphia. I wanted to smoke, and dh discovering that I had no matches, I turned to my seatmate and asked if he could spare mo one. “Certainly,” said he, “that is one thing I can get all I want for nothing.” Seeing that he was inclined to talk, I humored him by asking: “How’s that?** “Why, you see,” ho replied, "I work for the city, in the fire department, and we can get all we want of anything like that. Just turn in a requisition for them and along they come. But there is one thing we can’t all we want of, though.” “What’s that?” * “Brooms. We can’t get a broom. We requisition as much as we like, but we can’t secure a sing’s broom.” “How’s that?” “Don’t know, but we can’t get one.” "How do you keep the place clean, then? I always thought they were very particular in the fire department to have everything spick and span.” “That’s it,” said he, nudging me in the ribs, "that’s it! How do we keep it clean? Must be clean for inspection. Know what we do? I’ll tell you! We use blankets. Yes, we take blankets, tear 'em up into strips and make mops out of ’em and keep the place as neat as you please! You see we can get all the blankets we want, but we can’t get a broom. So we take turns, requisitioning blankets.” “But the blankets must cost a lot more than brooms would.” “Sure. Blankets must stand the city at least a dollar and a quarter each, while the best brooms bought in large quantities would not cost over twen-ty-five cents apiece. And one broom would last longer than half a blankets. But we can’t help it. Must keep the fire house clean for inspection or would all get fired. No matter how often we requisition brooms there isn’t «ne forthcoming, while we can get all tjie blankets we want, and no question's jjsked.” “Seems funny. How is it, do you suppose?” . “Only reason I can give is that tne new administration is short of funds. Possibly somebody in a former administration got some graft for laying in a large stock of blankets and got no brooms. But it costs somebody something in the long run. Fierce, isnt. it?” —W. P., Jr., in The Public.