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THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF THE CITY OF SOMERVILLE
SOMERVILLE
MASSACHUSETTS
Gift of
Cat.
352 565
Brat
CITY OF SOMERVILLE MASSACHUSETTS
ANNUAL REPORTS
1947
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A CITY 1872 STRENGT
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352 569 1947 Res C 402
HON. G. EDWARD BRADLEY Mayor of Somerville
MAR 1 4 '49
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from Boston Public Library
https://archive.org/details/annualreportofci1947some
INAUGURAL ADDRESS MAYOR G. EDWARD BRADLEY OF SOMERVILLE
8:30 P.M .- January 5, 1948
Mr. President, Rt. Rev. and Rev. Clergy, Members of the Judiciary, Members of the Board of Aldermen, Members of the School Committee, City Officials, Distinguished Guests and Fellow Citizens :
Tonight, as I accept this obligation to be the Mayor of Somerville for a third term, I do so fully cognizant of the re- sponsibility encumbent upon me to give to our community the leadership which it will require during the coming two years in order that our citizens may obtain the services which they need ; also, with an eye toward the increasing cost of municipal gov- ernment which is happening not only in Somerville but through- out the United States.
This country of ours was founded on community life. Our pilgrim fathers, when they landed at Plymouth Rock set the future pattern for community life and for helping each other, while recognizing at the same time the rights of their neigh- bors.
The United States of America has come a long way since that time at Plymouth Rock. Today, our country is on the verge of expending billions of dollars to help maintain a free way of life for the peoples of the world. This money which we have spent and are going to spend is a necessary expenditure, for it will give comfort and warmth to the free spirit of men and women in a war-torn Europe who need leadership to help them maintain that spark which free men and women have, and it is the only tool, other than the Sword, capable of defeating the spectre of Communism which is invading our Democratic western world.
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ANNUAL REPORTS
Those of us in the United States who have enjoyed and are enjoying the highest standard of living in the world to- day do not take time out often enough to reflect upon the many gifts which are bestowed upon us which no other peoples in the world enjoy. We do not turn our hearts to God often enough in prayerful thanks for the bountiful things which He has be- stowed upon us. Of course, we all have our trials and tribula- tions, but we have so many blessings too, that I think it en- cumbent upon us to thank God for these bountiful gifts.
One of the major problems facing this country of ours, and, therefore, facing community life is inflation,-inflation that causes that insecurity, which devaluates the life savings peo- ple have accumulated; inflation which has driven the cost of food up to where butter sells for over a dollar a pound; steak, from 90c to $1.25 a pound ; bread from 15 to 16c a loaf. Yes,- inflation is the one thing which has tended to give the citizens of our community a restlessness which comes from insecurity. It is a problem much greater than any Mayor or Board of Al- dermen can cope with for it is a problem which is nationwide and beyond the control of any community or city. It will take teamwork on the part of all the people of the United States to beat inflation, and it will take non-political leadership from our United States Senators and Congressmen and from the President of the United States to lead us out of this inflation- ary spiral which threatens to destroy our economy.
Today, there is an obligation upon men in public life to set aside their political party's interests and to work for a financially sound America and to work in behalf of defeating inflation.
As inflation has increased your food bills and your cost of living, so too has it increased the cost of municipal govern- ment. The cost of living has gone up for municipal employees during these past several years and wage increases have had to be awarded to them to offset these increased costs. As the national formula for shorter hours and more pay has taken effect in private industry, so has our municipal government had to keep in step with the times. We have had to put in ef- fect a forty hour week for municipal employees. We have had to reduce the hours of firemen to a fifty-six hour week. We have had to establish the Police Department on a one day off in six basis.
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MAYOR'S INAUGURAL
All of these things cost money. There is only one source from which this money can be raised and that is through taxa- tion. The sources of taxation for a city are limited : The Tax Base is very narrow. The principal burden falls upon real es- tate, and that source is heavily over-taxed today, not only in Somerville but in every community throughout our nation. New sources of revenue must be found by our state legislature which will equitably spread the burden of taxation among all of our citizens who benefit from the services of city govern- ment.
What are these services from which our citizens benefit?
Schools,-schools where the youth of today trains to be the citizen of tomorrow. The problems of our school system are many. We have just completed a school reconstruction pro- gram which cost our city well near a million dollars. Our school teachers have obtained several increases in pay in order to meet the standards which competent and qualified teachers should be paid, -- and this has compelled a substantial increase in the cost of operating our school system. This cost to our tax payers in 1927 was $1,014,000; in 1937, $1,360,000; in the year just past, 1947, was $1,712,000 ; and in the last month our School Committee has increased salaries in the Budget Recom- mendation in the amount of $150,000.00, bringing the cost this year, exclusive of heat, light, janitors salaries and repairs to almost two million dollars, or practically double what it cost 20 years ago. This represents almost $17.00 of your tax rate.
In a city like Somerville where three and four children families are the rule and not the exception, and many of us have six and seven children, our school system must be an ef- ficient, well-run, cohesive unit in order to give proper train- ing to these children. In communities like Belmont, Brookline, and Wellesley, where families with one and two and no child- ren are the rule, with expensive homes to be assessed, where there are not so many mouths to feed, with higher bracket in- comes, the problem of financing a school system is not nearly so great as it is in the City of Somerville, the City of Cam- bridge, and our neighboring cities that are so densely popu- lated.
The problem of financing education in my opinion is a state problem, for as our children grow up and move to other
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ANNUAL REPORTS
communities, they leave behind no method by which to pay back to their home city the cost of their education. This prob- lem of financing education is one which has been met courage- ously in other states without sacrificing one whit the "home rule" of the school system. This problem of financing educa- tion in order that our school teachers may be adequately paid, in order that the standards of our school system be maintained at a high level, not only in Somerville, but in every community in Massachusetts is of its very essence one of the most impor- tant obligations of the incoming state legislature of the Com- monwealth of Massachusetts, and one which we, our School Committee, our Board of Aldermen, or your Mayor, are power- less to do anything about, except to speak out in favor of state financial aid to cities and towns for education, as a means of relieving the terrific burden on local real estate.
Police-Our police department is now more adequately staffed than ever before in the history of Somerville. We have modern equipment. Our police department is coping today with many problems which it did not have to contend with twenty and thirty years ago. In 1917 our Police Department cost $124,000 to operate; in 1937, $351,000, and in the year just past $489,000. This year it will run well over the half- million dollar mark to efficiently conduct this vital service or more than four times as much as it cost thirty years ago.
Thirty years ago automobiles were a novelty. The modern gunman and hold-up man was an unknown feature. The police- man walking his daily beat was one who was known to all of us and he knew all of us more or less intimately. Today, much has been changed. With the telephone, with high-powered auto- mobiles, the crimes of today must be met with the same type of modern action and equipment which those who break the law utilize. In a community such as ours, a police department is an important segment of our community life for it is the arm which protects our lives and properties.
In some large cities, a centralized police force has been or- ganized for community areas, doing away with the duplicating investigating agencies, with the cost apportioned to each com- munity. The Massachusetts Legislature might well look into the problem of consolidating the police departments of greater Boston so that the expense to our respective communities can be lowered, at the same time giving full civil service protection to those who are now employed, but also giving to our citizens
9
MAYOR'S INAUGURAL
greater protection through the ability of having a wider oper- ating greater Boston Police Department at less cost to our citizens.
Because of Somerville's physical makeup as the most dense- ly populated city in the United States, if not the world, our Fire Department must receive special consideration. The cost of operation of our Fire Department has increased greatly, and as the buildings of our community grow older, the more efficient our fire department has to be. Here, too, is one place where a greater Boston Fire Department might well be the answer, with the cost apportioned to each community, for as shorter hours prevail, our fire department is going to become more expensive, and the burden of the cost is such that it will stagger the tax rate if some method of increased efficiency, not through more work on the part of each fireman, not through more alertness on the part of the men, for Somerville firemen are among Mass- achusetts' finest,-but by coordination and utilization of equip- ment by the various communities, and the disregard for bound- ary lines between cities and the use of that equipment and men on a much more competent basis. This can be done without sac- rificing one iota the identity of the community of Somerville or our neighboring communities. Such a program undoubtedly would have the effect of lowering the insurance rates in the whole of the greater Boston area.
Board of Health-The Board of Health is one of the most important arms of our Government. With our new free tuber- culosis x-ray clinics, with clinics established for shots for dipth- theria, scarlet fever and other diseases so that our children can be immunized against contagious diseases, an important step has been taken, for it changes our health system to one of pre- ventative medicine rather than that of curative medicine. Our Board of Health has taken great strides in the past few years, and here is one place where money must be spent and supplied by our city government in order that our citizens may be free from epidemics of diseases.
Old age benefits, aid to dependent children and welfare have increased greatly in cost. In the year 1947 the cost of these benefits to our aged and indigent citizens cost more than it did in 1938, notwithstanding the high employment level that is existing today. The reasons for this are obvious. As infla- tion has set in for those of us who are employed, so has it set in for those who are on benefits and who receive limited pay- ments from our city in order that they may live in some degree
10
ANNUAL REPORTS
of comfort. The taking care of our aged, of our dependent (children is an obligation which we cannot forsake, and the money must be adequately supplied in order that we may con- tinue to meet this obligation.
However, these costs are mounting, and if real estate tax- ation is to be the only method by which this money is to be raised, the cost of these services accumulated with the other costs will rapidly cause confiscatory taxes to be placed upon real estate.
When it becomes a liability, rather than an asset, to own a home a danger point is being reached in our community life, and for that reason I am calling attention to you, my fellow citizens, the dangers which inflation is bringing to our com- munity, - inflation in the cost of government which no Mayor, no Board of Aldermen can hope to control.
There are many other services, with which you are all ac- quainted, which our community supplies-in our Sanitary De- partment, the cost of labor has increased tremendously. New equipment, which has been purchased and which is being pur- chased, can help reduce these costs,-but the fact remains when all is said and done,-the cost will be more in the future than it has been in the past. So it is with every other city depart- ment.
As your Mayor for the past four years I have demanded efficient garbage removal, efficient ash and rubbish collections. We have made every effort to meet the challenge of snow- storms, to have our city streets cleared of snow, but nature in the past two weeks has even defeated these attempts. All we could do was our best with our limited means,-but our best costs money which must be paid for out of the revenue of our community.
Our city's mortgage is lower now than it has been for many years, but we cannot expand this mortgage except for long term planning which means more benefits to our citizens at the time that the mortgage is being paid off. We cannot trans- fer the cost of every-day services to this mortgage. We can only mortgage our city's future for long-range planning and long term projects which the citizens of tomorrow will benefit from while paying for them.
11
MAYOR'S INAUGURAL
One of these long term projects which must be faced in the near future is the question of a sewerage system. For many years, the underground sewerage system of Somerville has been inadequate to meet the challenge of disposal. Plumb- ing facilities are backing up in homes. Catch basins are flood- ing, causing destruction to the foundations on much of the property of our community. A survey which has been made for our building department and the city engineer by the Con- sulting Engineering firm of Gibbs & Hill of New York has shown that our sewerage system is wholly inadequate and that in order to put a proper sewerage disposal system in our city it would cost the tremendous price of $11,000,000. Such a pro- gram is beyond our reach ; such a program cannot be financed by our city without seriously hampering our city's future, but what we can do and what we must do, before we spend one cent on such a sewerage system is to plan a long range pro- gram to be paid partly out of current income each year and a number of years in the future, and at the same time have a long term program to be financed through our funded debt which will take care of the most necessary sections of replac- ing this inadequate sewerage system.
In addition to , this, there is much cry in our community from the youngsters, and adults, for a stadium for athletic activities. The dream of the largest, most modern athletic plant in Greater Boston is nearest to my heart. My belief is that it could be self-supporting. I made application for this stadium to the Federal Government almost 4 years ago, but there were no Federal Funds available. It is imprudent at the present time to finance such a project. From the vital view- point of health and sanitation the sewerage system is of far greater importance than the stadium. However, if Federal Funds ever become available again, the citizens of our com- munity can rest assured that our city government will make claim to such funds so that they can be utilized to give our children the proper athletic facilities for their school sports.
Housing-Housing is probably the No. 1 problem facing America next to inflation. Here we have a problem which is nationwide, a problem which we have attacked in Somerville through the construction of homes on Linden Avenue, and the awarding of the contract for the building of more homes on Powder House Boulevard and North Streets. But what we have done is simply a drop in the bucket, for it is not an an- swer to the housing problem. The answer to the housing prob- lem is more homes being built by private enterprise and re-
12
ANNUAL REPORTS
ducing the cost of building these homes. Our building com- missioner has been requested by me to go over the building code which he has just revised to determine if there is anything in that code which impedes the building of new homes and the utilization of modern materials in the building of these homes, but even this is not enough,-for building trades labor, and building trades employers, must reach a meeting of the minds, and the sub-contractor who has been the evil of high housing costs must be eliminated, and a way found to utilize the skills and modern equipment which are available in the housing field but which have been prohibited in order to make work for more men and greater profit for employers.
This is a problem which cannot be cured by the Mayor of Somerville or the Mayor of any community but is one which must be attacked realistically by those in the U. S. Senate and the U. S. House of Representatives through devising ways and means by which the housing industry can be again put on its feet and the building trades employers and building trades workmen can be made to give full service to the peoples of the United States. For a home which costs a young man of 26 or 27 years of age twelve or fourteen thousand dollars cannot be maintained by him on the salary which a man of that age com- mands. When you strike at the root of home ownership, you strike at the very heart and foundation of American life. It is imperative that our President and our Congress lead the way for low-cost housing,-not necessarily through subsidy, but through lower building costs, which can be done if the sub- contractor is eliminated and if prefabricated materials are uti- lized and building codes revised to permit their use.
As your Mayor, it is my duty to warn you of the dangers facing our city government.
There is much ado today about the Plan E type of gov- ernment. There is a petition in which I have joined with Rep- resentative Bailey, urging the State Legislature to permit you, the citizens, to vote upon this year, so that you may determine for yourselves what type of city government you desire.
I am opposed to proportional representation, but I be- lieve that you, the citizens, should be given the right to vote whether or not you want it. Simply because a group of men in handling the preparation of this petition did not make them- selves acquainted with the law is hardly reason enough that
13
MAYOR'S INAUGURAL
the signees of this petition should not have the opportunity to have this question placed before the electorate.
However, I would like to point out to you that whether you have the Plan E type of government with its proportional representation, or Plan D, or any other Plan, or whether you have your present charter, the answer to Somerville's future is not in a different plan. The answer is the man and not the plan in local government.
Some years ago the hue and cry of others, like those who now advocate Plan E, was for non-partisan government. We have had four Mayors under non-partisan government-two were defeated after one term. Two others were given three terms respectively. I say to you, the citizens, that the way to get good government is to be alert and to know what is going on in your city government, and that as Mayor of your com- munity I can only pledge to do the best I can in giving to you good government. But, and I have said this many times, good government just doesn't happen-it comes by working for it, and there are problems, as I have outlined in this inaugural address to you, over which I, as your Mayor, or any City Man- ager who might run our community has absolutely no control.
There are several ways in which a low tax rate can be brought about and still cost the citizens more money. One of these is to follow the pattern of our neighboring city of Cam- bridge, which is, to assess the personal property of all of its citizens. This brings in additional revenue and lowers the real estate levy. The other is to raise the valuations on homes, thereby obtaining the same amount of money by making the tax rate lower. Another system is to do nothing, to make minor visible improvements, but to allow the foundations and the municipal system of government from within, to decay. These three alternatives I do not believe in. I believe that the proper responsibility for supplying additional revenue for communi- ties must be established by the Massachusetts Legislature, and an alternative method of raising money for our school system, which is the major expenditure of any community, must be found by the Massachusetts Legislature if we are to avoid con- fiscatory taxes on real estate.
During the coming term, my fellow citizens, I will report to you from time to time and I pledge to continue to give you constructive, forward-looking, progressive good government.
.
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ANNUAL REPORTS
I want to thank each of you for the interest in your City which brings you here tonight and for the honor and warm sense of pride your presence affords me.
I ask in closing, that each of you join with me now in of- fering a silent but fervent prayer that God, in His generosity, will continue to shower His Blessings on the homes and people of our fair city of Somerville and will further direct His In- finite Wisdom to the minds of those delegates of the United Nations who are charged with the destiny of the World, to the end that this year 1948 will bring the establishment of a per- manent World Peace with true Happiness to all the peoples of the Earth.
G. EDWARD BRADLEY,. Mayor
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CITY AUDITOR
REPORT OF THE CITY AUDITOR
Office of the City Auditor, January 31, 1948
To the Honorable, the Mayor, and the Board of Aldermen of the City of Somerville.
Gentlemen :-
In accordance with the requirements of Chapter 7, Section 3 of the Revised Ordinances of 1929, I herewith submit a report of the expenditures and receipts during the year 1947, as shown by the records in this office, giving in detail the appropriations, expenditures and the receipts from each source of income. Also a statement of the funded debt and temporary loans, table relative to maturities and interest, a balance sheet showing the assets and liabilities at the close of the fiscal year and a state- ment of the treasurer's cash.
Respectively submitted,
FRANCIS MACDONALD,
City Auditor.
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ANNUAL REPORTS
I hereby Certify that I have verified the Treasurer's cash as of December 31, 1947, by actual count, and have verified by reconciliation of the bank accounts the amounts on deposit in the banks as of the same date.
The total cash balance December 31, 1947 was $343,337.83 as follows :
Somerville National Bank
$78,604.85
Somerville National Bank-Welfare
5,991.90
First National Bank
64,880.70
Second National Bank
20,147.91
Day Trust Company
10,000.00
Merchants National Bank
31,845.50
Webster and Atlas National Bank
60,905.72
National Shawmut Bank
12,806.43
Somerville Trust Company (Benefits)
7,977.66
Somerville Trust Company (Teachers)
49,677.16
Cash in Office
500.00
$343,337.83
I further Certify that I have examined the Trust Fund Securities in the hands of the City Treasurer and find them to be correct, as follows :
Charles M. Berry Fund, Contagious Hospital ..
$1,000.00
S. Newton Cutler Fund, School
5,322.22
Sarah Winslow Fox Fund, School
401.38
Caroline G. Baker Fund, School
300.00
J. Frank Wellington Fund, School
2,000.00
Arthur A. Smith Fund, School
2,500.00
Isaac Pitman Art Fund, Library
4,689.10
Isaac Pitman Poetry Fund, Library
1,172.28
Francis A. Wilder Children's Fund, Library
100.00
Martha R. Hunt Book, Fund, Library
14,105.25
Martha R. Hunt Art Fund, Library
1,299.77
S. Newton Cutler Fund, Library
1,070.98
Sarah Lorane Graves Fund, Library
400.00
Buffum Memorial Book Fund, Library
1,000.00
Thomas J. Buffum Fund, Library
1,515.00
Eunice M. Gilmore Fund, Library
2,000.00
J. Frank Wellington Fund, Library
4,000.00
Edward C. Booth Fund, Library
3,000.00
Arthur A. Smith Fund, Library
5,059.53
Olive C. Cummings Fund, Welfare
1,751.45
Mary A. Haley Fund, Recreation
3,645.76
$56,332.72
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CITY AUDITOR
And the following Invested Funds :
Municipal Buildings Insurance Fund $3,429.98
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