Winter Board Walks Require Crew of 25 Men Over a Week To Place Them--Maintenance Staff Keeps 300 Men Busy

Another year passes, and again the maintenance department begins to lay down the board walks. However, "the old order changeth," and a new menace threatens the continuance of the time-honored usage of winter-walks. For, since 1912, when science first attacked the University Maintenance Department in the form of a numbering system to facilitate the annual construction of the walks machinistic materialism has not ceased from encroaching upon this territory. For several years now, asphalt has been replacing wood for these purposes. This year, in spite of the depression, no little progress has been made along these lines. But three years ago, when the length of the wooden walks were last measured, there were almost seven miles of them. Now there are baroly over five miles.

As with every question of such vital import to members of the University, many reasons, pro and con, have been advanced. The gentle-minded say that pity has been taken upon the school children, presumably, who lose their finest marbles through treacherous cracks. The hard-headed say that no longer is there an abundance of hard wood. The practical-minded point to the costs of labor. The average-minded jingles elusive coins in his pockets, and decides it is for the general good. The foreman of the present crew of workers recalls one of his men having found as much as $1.73 a day, when picking up the walks in the spring.

The expense of the passing system has been, on the whole, heavy. Two trucks a tractor, and a crew of from 20 to 25 men take over a week to complete this job. So twice a year a sizable sum is drawn from the maintenance coffers. As difficult as it may be fore many of the men in the University to overcome the pleasure of thumping along of a cold, wintry day, resoundingly smacking the boards with their thick leather heels, it seems that this will soon be necessary.

The Maintenance Department is one of the busiest in the University. Often they have crews of workmen of different types at work about the buildings, which reach, as a whole, at their peak, to over 300. This includes 90 to 110 men on the grounds crew, 70 to 100 painters, and 50 to 100 carpenters, as well as many other specialists, such as window washers and chimney cleaners.