Way out in the middle of Boston Harbor is an island piled high with garbage and rubbish. Spectacle Island has long been the dump for central Boston, at great cost to everyone. In 1951 the Coleman Disposal Company will charge $530,000 to truck rubbish to two Atlantic Avenue piers, load it onto scows, and tow it out to the island. Because no new company wants to invest the large sums necessary for scows and other equipment on the mere chance of getting a contract, the Coleman Company has a virtual monopoly. It has held its job for the last 30 years. In 1947, when the Coleman Company was charging $414,000, the Financial Commission claimed that Boston could do the same job for half as much.

For the last five years, responsible city officials have advocated a large city-owned incinerator to break this monopoly. When disposal facilities are owned by the city, any company can muster enough money to invest in necessary equipment, and can therefore afford to bid. An incinerator would also cut off the $75,000 expense of dragging the refuse out to Spectacle Island. In 1945, $30,000 was appropriated to plan an incinerator, and an engineer engaged to do it. But when the design was submitted, the Public Works Commissioner rejected it on two relatively minor points. Nothing has happened since, and all but $5,000 of the appropriation is gone. Meanwhile, the Coleman Company has raised its price.

This is the situation all over Boston. Before 1948, the city did all the collecting and dumping, but the cost was high and city employees, protected by Civil Service, were too old for the work. In many cases, private companies charged one third what it had cost Boston. But the contractors soon won the advantage by gaining control of the available dumps. Competitive bidding became impossible because only one contractor in each district had any way to get rid of the refuse he collected. With the war, labor and equipment shortages entrenched the old companies even more. No new company could be sure enough of men and trucks to make an offer. Boston had to stop inviting bids, and started to negotiate contracts, which meant higher prices.

Even though the supply of men and equipment quickly increased after V-J Day, Boston mayors continued the negotiations system. In 1945 and 1946 there was no bidding at all. In 1947, twelve out of fourteen contracts by-passed low bidders. When a city councillor threatened to make a scandal out of this, Mayor Curley promised to start a citywide incinerator system. But instead, the Public Works Commissioner allowed an 18 percent increase in costs.

The city gave the contractors another advantage by delaying invitations for bids until mid-December. All contracts must be signed by January 1st or refuse will lie in the streets. No company can afford to buy the necessary equipment before they win a contract, and, under the system of late bidding, no company has time enough to buy the equipment after winning a contract. Therefore, no new company bids. If the Boston Public Works Department officials felt that the old contractors were being unreasonable, it couldn't even threaten to take over the work because there never was time before January 1st to make adequate preparations. Under these conditions, the old contractors charged whatever they felt like.

There has been some improvement during the last five years. The city has now taken over half the available dumps, which removed the basic cause for monopoly. But it was not until this year that any Public Works Commissioner used this to enforce competitive bidding. Mayor Hynes' Commissioner, George G. Hyland, has granted 1951 contracts to two new companies at a saving of over $10,000. The displaced companies lobbied with the state Department of Public Utilities, which must license all refuse contractors. The D.P.U. at first refused permits to the new companies, but later granted them with limitations. To prevent any more action of this sort, Hyland has placed a bill before the State Legislature to exempt Boston refuse contractors from D.P.U. control.

Hyland opened bidding in the middle of November, and there were two or more bidders for all but three contracts. Because of this, the city will save $141,000 over last year's costs. In negotiations with the Coleman Company, Hyland also saved another $50,000.

All these improvements have not solved the long-range problem. In a decade or two, Boston will have no dumping space. The present dumps are nearly filled, and residents in and around Boston have refused to let the Public Works Department open new ones. Boston has long planned incinerators as a post-war project of first importance, but for some reason nothing has been done. By constructing city owned disposal facilities, Boston could eliminate the persistent contract monopoly. Moreover, a large incinerator in central Boston would not only get rid of the costly Spectacle Island run, but could supply heat and power to the Boston City Hospital.

At present, Hyland is waiting for a M.D.C. survey on this problem, but he believes that incineration is inevitable. But inevitable or not, it is obvious that a move of this sort will be fought all the way by contractors.