The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-06-18
BALTIMORE.
FRIDAY, JUNE Is, 1858.

The Nine Commissioners to whom the CITY
Council has turned over the responsible duty G.
recognizing the Fire Department, have been ap-
pointed. They are CHARLES NJ. KEYsER, and VIM
II. STEWART, appointed by the Mayor, JOHN DUKE.
HART, l.. r. BANDED, GEORGE w HERPISG and
SAMUEL KIRK, chosen by the Council, and HENRY
SPHMAY, VIM. G. GoRsUCH, and WILLIAM II. STRAN
appointed by the President ofthe Fire Department
These are wel-known and respectable citizens, and
the majority of them, old and experienced fremen
We do not question, therefore, in the slightest de-
gree their qualifications for the delicate task which
has been assigned to them. Yet we do take leave
to doubt whether the labors of this Joint Commits
sion will lead to any useful or practical result
Should our doubts prove unfounded, however, we
shall be most agreeably disappointed, but our pres
ent impression is precisely what we state Some
of the Commissioners, it is said, have already, in
advance, declared their opposition to any change
whatever in the present system and others, for va
rious reasons and partly because of their long and
intimate connection with different Companies. may
naturally be supposed to be not over-fvoraby dis
posed towards so radical and sweeping a measure
of reform rs the entire breaking up of their Com
panes, and the substitution of paid Fire Depart
ment for the present voluntary system Nothing
short of that, however, will answer either the ne
cessities of the case, or the expectations of the
public. Many of the Companies have charters
granted to them by the Legislature, and some OF
them own stocks and other property With
these vested rights, il is, of course incompe-
tent for the City Council to intermeddle nor is it
necessary that they should be disturbed. 1t is suf
ticlent that the annual appropriations now given to
the Companies, should be withheld, and that the
use OF the public hydrants should be forbidden
them by ordinance. The City need then only take
possession OF such engine-houses and apparatus as
belong to the Corporation, and the work would be
accomplished so far as the abrogation of the pres
ent system is concerned. With respect to the
organization of a new system in its stead a sum
hardly greater than that expended last year. in
annual and special appropriations to the present De-
partment, would suffice for the establishment of n
paid system, and less considerably than the
amount now regularly appropriated from the CITY
Treasury to the same purpose would meet all current
expenses. -Four steam fire-engines, with horses to
draw them, and a sufficient supply of hose could
be procured for a sum certainly not exceeding
~"'I'Op-
engine there should be assigned an engineer, who
should have charge of it. driver, who might act
as fireman or assistant engineer, and three pine
men. A hook and ladder carriage likewise TO be
drawn by horses, with its driver. and two or three
axemen, might be added as a useful auxiliary.
The whole force should then be placed under the
control of Superintendent, who could in addi-
ton perform the duties of a Fire Warden, which
are now so satisfactorily discharged by Fire In
spector BOYD, and who should have one or two
competent assistants. To these should be maid
suifcient salarles-and to the men, the wages of
pollccmen this, with the keeping of the horses.
and the necessary outlay for the wear and tear of
apparatus, would constitute the whole annual cost
of the Department, and would probably fall inside
OF 100000. Certainly it would not 90 beyond
$4,000. Such force, comprising in the aeere-
gale, not more than twenty-five or thirty men.
and organized in the manner we have suggested.
would answer all the wants of this great CITY. and
prove live times as effective as the present Depart
ment. Paid for their services, and havino no
other employment, the men could be constantly
depended upon ut any and every hour, by day or
night. Always on duty and ready for service, no
time would be lost by them in conveying the en-
gines from the engine-houses to the fire. while
their attention being wholly directed to the single
business of putting out fires, their operations would
soon acquire degree of precision and method
which would altogether put to shame the best d.
rected efforts of amateur fremen. To persons
unacquainted with the subject, and whose opin-
ions are formed from seeing the number and variety
of engines suctions and reels and the vast throno
of men and boys, whom IN alarm of fire at mid
day, or during the earlier hours of the NIGHT brnos
INTO the streets-the force which we propose may
appear ridiculously small, and wholly Inadequate
10 the protection of the city. Every fireman, how
ever, knows that even under the present system
with its twenty odd engine, hose, and hook and
ladder companies, some three or four, or at best.
half dozen companies do all the work. of the de-
partment. There are companies receiving REGULAR
appropriations from the City Treasury, whose ap-
paratus is never seen in the streets after twelve
O'Clock at night, and whose alarm-belIs rupo b,r
the police. though they may rouse the rest of tbe
Department to action, and the city from its sIum-
pers never meet with response on the part of
their own membership. In the depth of winter
nights, and in the height of winter storms many
OF the most alarming CONGREGATIONS with which onr
city has been threatened, have been STAYED and
subdued by the exertions of not more than threo
companies, and some forty or fifty men. who were
all that could be reused from their beds. When
therefore, we take into consideration, that it is de-
signed to substitute Steam-Engines for hand-en-
gines In our proposed Fire Brigade it will be seen
that the force we have recommended is quite Iaroe
enough. Admitting then, as everybody must ad
NIT, the superior efficiency of such Department
as we suggest, let any body compare the cost as
we have figured it out with that of the nrcsent
organization. We have now twenty-five Com
panles, drawing annual appropriations of $500
EACH Every year there ale special anpro-
priations asked for and granted, varying in
amount from $500 to $4,000 These swell
the sum total to over 800, ZOO n year.
Then, in addition to this direct tax upon the CITY,
there Is the indirect taxation levied upon citizens
and propery-hoders, in the shape of contributions
to the different Companies Every Companv has
from tity to two hundred and fifty contributing
members, who are taxed five dollars head. Some
pay TINS amount willingly as a gratuity to the
Company, others upon compusion for the sake of
avoiding the illwill Of the firemen, and of sovno
their property from the torch of the incendiarv
Add to all this, the losses occasoned by the incen
diary fires the origin of which can be clearly traced
to the runners and hangers-on of the different
Companies, and the increase in the rates of insu-
rance which has resulted therefrom, and some ap-
rroXimate idea may be formed of the annual cost
III dollars and cents of the present Fire Department
OF baltimore, and of the probable saving that
would result from the substitution of such system
as we propose. With a paid Fire Brigade, the
burden on the City Treasury would be greatly
lessened' and the contributions levied upon
property-holders would be altogether abolished =
The number of incendiary fires would bo ;ncolcu-
laby diminished, and the rates of insuro ,,o,,1d