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Melrose Public Library Melrose, Massachusetts
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https://archive.org/details/cityofmelroseann1919melr
CITY OF MELROSE MASSACHUSETTS
Annual Reports 1919
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Mayor's Inaugural Address Delivered January 7th, 1920
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PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE CITY CLERK AND SPECIAL COMMITTEE
MELROSE FREE PRESS, INC.
1920
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MELROSE PUBLIC LIBRARY MET
CHARLES H. ADAMS MAYOR
INAUGURAL ADDRESS HON. CHARLES H. ADAMS MAYOR OF MELROSE DELIVERED JANUARY 7th, 1919
Before beginning his address the Mayor announced the death of former President Roosevelt.
He said:
I make the announcement with great respect and sincere sorrow, of the death of former President Theodore Roosevelt, who died this morning at four o'clock.
He was President of the United States for seven and one-half years from the death of President McKinley, Sept. 14, 1902.
He was a great President, a great leader, and a great American, and our people will desire to do him honor in his death. In his honor the flags of the city are placed at half-staff.
I recommend that the City Government take suitable action and arrange for an appropriate ceremony in his honor.
To the Members of the Board of Aldermen :-
The past year has been one of unusual activity throughout. No one could go through the past year in this city without pride in the men and women and all that has been accomplished.
The year has been given up to the War, but the ordinary departments of the municipality have kept up their work with excellent results under trying conditions.
One thousand men have been absent in the War and the City Depart- ments have had to contend with War conditions. In spite of this our schools have been kept up to the usual high standard, our streets have been maintained and the regular services of all the city departments kept up.
The tax rate has not increased, although wages and salaries in every department of the city were advanced, material and supplies of every kind doubled in price and were difficult to obtain. And yet we were able to get through 1918 with the same Tax Rate as in the previous year.
A vast number of War ctivities have been carried on. Our people have taken three million dollars in Liberty Bonds, 6,000 citizens have sub- scribed for War Savings Stamps, more than 6,000 have joined the Red Cross organization, and about $150,000 has been given to the War Chest.
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CITY OF MELROSE
The work for the Red Cross has extended into every family, club and church, and all civic and fraternal organizations have carried on some phase of war work. We celebrated Armistice Day.
Civic and National patriotism has advanced and we enter upon the year 1919 with the highest hopes and best spirit of service, and ambition for a better city, and with more opportunities for progress than ever before.
Now the boys are returning home with their wonderful experience and larger minds, having seen foreign countries, various peoples, and wonderful cities and towns, they will not be satisfied with old-fashioned, narrow views and the small things.
We must give them here a finer city and better social life and oppor- tunity, stronger and better local institutions and a city that will be worthy to welcome them and hold them.
Although we have 1,000 names of the boys who have served in this war, there is as yet no official list. We have gathered these names in all sorts of ways and traced them out as best we could. But it is a very imperfect list, not yet complete, not to be considered for a complete Honor Roll in Marble or Bronze.
I recommend the immediate temporary Honor Roll put up on the grounds of City Hall to give to the world this great list of names of Melrose boys, a feature of our welcome home, that all our people may study it, note the errors and omissions, and make it the foundation for the marble or bronze tablets which, when finally put up, cannot be corrected or changed. We can put upon this temporary list, and thus honor many whose names, for some technical reason, would be excluded from the bronze or marble. Boys who have driven ambulances under the French or English Ambulance Service, and never mustered into the American Service, Red Cross nurses, clergymen and Y. M. C. A., Knights of Columbus, women in the Canteen Service, boys not technically Melrose citizens, and Melrose boys who enlisted elsewhere, or Melrose boys who served under other flags.
We do not yet know what uniform policy will be followed by other cities, or recommended by National Government, or by our own State, in relation to our permanent Honor Lists, but in these temporary lists, we include them all, and it will be worth all it costs in the few years it will stand, as a tribute to our own patriotism.
The Board of Aldermen of 1918, at its last meeting, adopted a vote, that the city should appropriate in this year 1919, $5,000 for bronze tablets to be placed in this building. While this has no legal standing as an appropriation of money, it is surely a sincere expression of the City Government of 1918 to pay this tribute to the boys who served and I most cordially recommend the appropriation.
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MAYOR'S ADDRESS
I shall include the amount in the Annual Budget, but I recommend a modification of the plan. The Order as passed, is for men who served in the "Military and Naval Forces of the United States." This would exclude any Melrose boys who enlisted in the Canadian Army, British Service, or other armies of the Allies. One Melrose boy, serving in the Australian Army was killed in action, one boy in the British Flying Corps, and one has been killed in the Canadian Army, one Y. M. C. A. man has been taken prisoner.
I urge that further consideration be given to this phase of the subject before any permanent plan is adopted.
The Return
We look forward to the return of the soldiers. The 1,000 men who have gone out from Melrose in the great War and whose service and lives have been a great inspiration for all the patriotic work that has been here performed in the past two years.
Of these men many have won commissions, about 200 have been wounded, many have been cited for bravery and decorated with crosses of honor. Twenty-seven have given their lives.
Many are on the way home. We must give them a splendid welcome home. A great committee of citizens was appointed by Governor McCall to promote suitable exercises. We must do here that which will be expres- sive of the love and appreciation of our people for the boys who have so honored our city.
Already our Board of Aldermen has appointed a committee of seven members to arrange and take charge of this Welcome Home, but I do not regard this as sufficiently representative of what our people desire to do. I recommend that the Committee be enlarged by adding private citizens, representatives of the Red Cross, the Grand Army of the Republic, Knights of Columbus, the Y. M. C. A., the members of the Exemption Board for this District, and all organizations of men and women, who will make up a committee that shall include every class and group who have had to do with service and sacrifice in giving these boys to the Colors.
This will mean a comprehensive welcome that shall stand for the whole community.
And we must look forward to a suitable, permanent memorial in honor of these men. Fortunately we already have this Memorial Building erected in honor of the soldiers and sailors of the Civil War. This is their memorial and they are well worthy of it. It was erected to men who fought to save the Union, destroy slavery, and to preserve the constitution We shall not duplicate this.
The 1,000 men who gave themselves to the flag in this great world war are well worthy of a distinct memorial which shall express the freedom of the world and world-wide democracy for which they fought. These men are to have a great, permanent, splendid memorial.
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CITY OF MELROSE
We do not know what form it should take, but out of the study which will be given to it by our Nation and our Allies, will come some appro- priate suggestions and leadership.
In all the history of this old world, and there has never yet been found a memorial more impressive and lasting, with so great an influence upon human activities, as a great monument in stone or metal.
Wherever men and women travel in either continent, are found monuments expressive of service and sacrifice and great forward move- ments in government and civilization. A great monument has a soul and life and morale. No one can look upon the great monument at Bunker Hill without being inspired with the courage and sacrifice and devotion of the men who offered their lives to establish a free government.
The foreigner who comes to our shores, and who cannot read or speak our language, observes here a monument and knows that it stands for something splendid and heroic in the life of the people.
I would like to see the finest site selected in this city, no matter what its cost may be, perhaps at Ell Pond, or whether a building must be be removed to make it available, and put upon it a shaft of granite which shall stand forever as a memorial to the men and what they have accom- plished in the War now ended with victory and peace.
Various suggestions have been made by thoughtful men and women; an athletic field, a building for some public purpose, a wonderful set of chimes, a wing to a hospital, an endowment of some charity; but to me they seem temporary and inadequate compared with a splendid monument of granite which shall be visited and observed by all who come to this city for many generations. Already the Government of France has put up a shaft in honor of the first American boys to fall in France.
Now, here at home, we are returning to normal things.
I spoke of the excellent conditions of our streets, which is not excelled by any community of our size.
A number of streets recently rebuilt by our own department of men, like Pleasant Street, Malvern Street, Natalie Avenue, Foster Street, Lincoln Street, Stratford Road, Lebanon Street, Henry Avenue, and Richardson Road, are as well built as any streets anywhere. I mention them as speciments of the kind of road building done by our own street department at moderate cost and as proof that we need no outside talent or contractors or supervision in this work.
The past year it has been impossible to obtain either oil tar for sprinkling or dust laying work. This will be overcome the present season.
Street sprinkling or oiling costs about 11 cents per front foot and five cents of this is assessed upon the abuttors. Important as this is to comfort and health, we shall need to increase the assessment if we are to make any pretense that it is self-supporting.
The construction of Upper Main Street from Porter Street to the Wakefield line, is the next big undertaking of the department, which will
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cost from $30,000 to $40,000. The money should be provided so that the Department may take up the work whenever the material and labor are available.
A large amount of money has already been spent for work on this street, the sewer system completed, sidewalks and curb put in, water pipes relaid and all houses and vacant lots connected, underground drainage put in, electric lights and telephone wires put under ground. Already $50,000 has been expended here.
The street railway tracks must be relaid and the Company in bank- ruptcy is unable to perform the work. The space between the tracks, formerly kept in order by the Company, is likely to fall upon the city.
Unless some financial plan is arranged for by the Bay State Company by the present legislature, it is probable that the city will be obliged to assume the expense of rebuilding the entire width, and this will add many thousand dollars to the cost.
The failure of transportation lines makes more important the main- tenance of fine highways between the Center and the Highlands. I regard it a great misfortune that the proposed Boulevard or Parkway connecting Melrose Street and Franklin Street, failed of adoption three years ago, and I recommend a more friendly consideration of it again.
The Metropolitan Boulevard to the Lynn Woods along with all similar enterprises, was put aside during the War, and we hope that the present legislature will take up the question of building all necessary links in the boulevard system, of which this one is the most important to us.
We ought to take up the question of accepting as public ways a con- siderable number of private streets whose good care and construction is necessary to the development of the city.
Many of these small, private ways, without sidewalks and other improvements, disfigure the city and decline into alleyways with poor tenements.
Since the year 1900 no streets have been accepted unless 40 feet wide. We have many narrow streets which were constructed and built up pre- vious to 1900 and I recommend that, as far as consistent with the public good, that these be accepted without any betterment assessment.
For the first time in many years the Water Department failed to pay expenses. The terribly cold weather of last winter, when nearly 500 water pipes were frozen, cost the city about $20,000. This would naturally have fallen upon individuals, but the danger to health, the helplessness of families, children and aged, the danger of a great fire, and indeed the destruction of the water system itself, made it necessary for the department to assume the responsibility and the work.
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CITY OF MELROSE
Very important is our Street Lighting.
I recommend that the White Way Lights on Main Street be extended from Porter Street to Franklin Square, giving more attractive communica- tion between the Highlands and the Center.
We should develop a more ornamental lighting system for our public buildings and fine residential streets.
Closely with streets is allied our system of Street Railways and Transportation.
The franchises are in the hands of a bankrupt corporation who are unable to supply reasonable service, let alone the question of rates of fares. Although the cars are crowded, the fares have been increased, financial conditions not improved, and we have been forced to submit to very un- reasonable charges in order to hold the service, bad as it is.
The threat on the part of the Receiver of the Company to shut down the East Side system kept our officials and citizens busy at hearings, and conference, and resulted only in a temporary arrangement to continue cars through the winter months.
The Howard Street line has been posted for discontinuance, but by conferences and protests and submission to high fares, the service has been temporarily continued.
We have, in and around Boston, the highest rates of fare in the United States and the service is said to be among the poorest. I urge readiness for the establishment of either trackless trolley, the bus or jitney service, or local ownership of local lines, whenever the present Company shall retire from the field.
It will be necessary to closely watch the Street Railway Legislature the present winter that we may not find our city completely in the hands of a company that now controls the streets, shuts out competition, and may discontinue its own service whenever it sees fit to do so.
The Department of our Puplic Schools continues to enlarge. Within the past three years it has developed a fine system of physical education, established sewing, extended the department of manual training, and generally increased in efficiency and standing.
The past year has added a new department, that of Americanization, maintaining an evening school for adults of foreign birth, teaching our language and bringing them into harmony with American institutions. The Boston Rubber Shoe Company has generously aided in this field. They furnish a room for the school at the Fells and they go so far as to pay wages to the men and women during their hours in the evening school.
During the War this phase of patriotic work has been supported in this way in many places.
The cost of the schools has increased in five years from $1000,000 to . $135,000 the past year and must further increase the present year to about $150,000. This is about one-third of our city expenses.
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MAYOR'S ADDRESS
The pay of the teachers has been slightly increased the past two years and a still further increase must be made the present year if the excellent present organization is to be maintained, and we are to compete with other cities in the high standard of public schools.
The proposed necessary increase in compensation for the coming year as recommended by the school authorities is nearly $15,000 and I expect to approve of this amount and to recommend it in the Annual Budget.
To the Departments which now make up the school activities should be added the supervision of children's gardens and of home gardens. During the War the teachers have been leaders in promoting the production of food, and the cultivation of gardens, both home and school, and a vast amount of work has been rendered by teaching gardening, canning and conserving foods.
In many places the School Department takes charge of this field. It has come to be a part of the life of schools and colleges.
The cost of a supervisor is a small item in the great budget that is prepared for the public school system. Communities all around us have entered upon this work and I cannot believe that our city should remain an isolated case where children go uninstructed in this great field of work. If the schools do not take on this work it will pass to some other Board.
In the past, clubs and individuals have assumed this work, but to make it universal and continuous, it must be assumed by the city.
We need a general development of school athletics and play under competent supervision and instruction.
We have established the branches of the Public Library in all sections where needed. We have built up circulation and distribution. We should now increase its field of service. A section of music has been suggested, where students and lovers of music may find great operas, dramas, and songs in score for study and pleasure. With our many organizations in music, the Amphion Club, the Chaminade, the Melrose Orchestral Asso- ciation, such a department promises to be of much service.
During the War Miss Alice Worthen was appointed to collect books and magazines for Camps and Hospitals. Four thousand, two hundred volumes were collected, and case after case of magazines were sent. Miss Worthen says that our people are especially thanked for the quality of books contributed. Many seemed to desire to give their best, like a personal gift to a personal firend.
We have much work to do in the development of the parks and plat- grounds, not for ornament wholly, but for use. We now have ample territory finely distributed and located. Pine Banks is not excelled any- where; on the East Side the Common is suited for all purposes of a park, playground, and field of sports; the Highlands has Messenger's Meadows; and Wyoming West has the great field at the Lincoln School. Ell Pond
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CITY OF MELROSE
Park, in connection with the Pond itself, is one of the great valuable assets of the city.
We need a large amount of money expended in preparing these places places for use. The present condition is not creditable. We have reached the point where a large sum of money must be expended in improvements if we are to maintain our city with attractions for young people, outdoor life and recreation.
It has been treated as a small, incidental part of our civic affairs. It has now become one of the more substantial problems to be dealt with in a broad way and fine ideals. We must begin at the foundation and build up a civic spirit in play, athletics and outdoor life. I regret this spirit- does not now seem to exist. The finest and best suited pond in any city is too little used for ice sports in winter, and almost without boats and canoes in summer. Here we need a suitable winter house.
I would like to see appointed under the authority of the city an athletic or recreation board made up of citizens who would develop interest in athletics, take charge of the fields, develop interest in the games, formulate ways for improvements, and take some advantage of the splendid opportunities here presented for building up our young people physically,. mentally, and giving to them a morale invaluable in the emergencies of life.
I recommend a substantial appropriation for improvements at Ell Pond where the old ice houses once stood,a reasonable appropriation for making an appropriate playground at the Lincoln School Playground and such a sum as may be necessary for Messenger's Meadows, as will show the appreciation of the city for the gift of this great property, which came to the city two years ago. At Messenger's Meadows should be established an enclosed field.
The supervision of playgrounds should be assumed by the city itself instead of being left to a kind charity or organizations of citizens who have in the past maintained it and proved its need and demonstrated its worth.
Then comes the problem of Health. While the War is the great event in the affairs of 1918, the Influenza Epidemic is the great factor in Health affairs, since its victims in the United States outnumber the deaths from all causes in the Armies of the United States since America entered the War.
Its victims in Boston for one week numbered over 1,200; in our own city there was in that same week 17 deaths and up to December 31st, 66 deaths from Influenza and its attending pneumonia.
No one disputes the intense contagiousness of the disease. Because of it our schools and churches were closed. It is the opinion of our own local Board of Health, that the most important factor in the control of influenza is a better conscience and intelligence on the part of every man
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and woman in the community and a willingness to consider that every case having any symptoms of influenza, which in the early stages may be only the symptoms of a cold, shall be regarded as influenza and treated accordingly until proven otherwise; this means that every mild case shall be isolated at its very onset.
This disease has impressed upon us the importance of support for our Department of Health. The ice problem has been solved, the inspection of milk, the public health nurse, school physicians, and the arrangements for the care of consumptive patients in hospitals, the great service of the Melrose Hospital, the arrangement with the Malden Contagious Hospital for the care of contagious cases gives to the city a very complete organization.
The ambulance service contributed by the Police Department is free to every sick person.
A larger expenditure of money is required if we are to advance the Department of Health to its proper place in City and State. I would like to see a City Physician giving all his time and talents to the poor of the city, and a sufficient appropriation for the health department to employ nurses and housekeepers in time of emergency.
I would like to see our health officials better paid.
I would like to see in the coming year a comprehensive plan of public health instruction and health exhibits to teach people how to keep well.
We should complete our system of sewers. We have solved the problem of Spot Pond Brook.
Ell Pond Brook flowing through the center, should be walled and covered.
We have eight important brooks covering the whole city, and thou- sands of dollars are needed to properly care for them, and to make them useful and valuable is a part of our drainage system.
The type of a city is seen by its administration of poor relief.
We have about 100 families who, from time to time, fall into distress and need aid in one form or another. Many are aided in the homes, some in institutions for the sick, insane, feebleminded, correctional institutions and homes for children.
The insane and feebleminded are cared for in State Institutions, and children are boarded out in families at the expense of the city, but under the supervision of the State.
Mothers' Aid is given to widows with children. The Toothaker Fund furnishes a small income for temporary aid, the Currier Fund will this year amount to $1,500 to be expended for warm clothing for children and Christmas dinners.
The number of inmates at the City Farm was reduced to three, one of whom has since passed away, and on account of the difficulty in obtaining fuel and the high cost of supplies, it was found more economical to secure
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CITY OF MELROSE
board outside. This has been done and the Institution closed for the winter.
The purpose of public charity is to help to normal lives in the homes, to keep the family intact and restore them to conditions of self-support.
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