The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-08-21

Department, had nearly completed its labors
and would probably be ready with rel ort early
in September we thought proper to mention,
although in advance of any official information
upon the subject, some of the changes, which it
is rumored, the Commission will recommend. OF
these, the most important it is said, will be the
substitution of Steam Fire Engines for the old
fashioned hand-engines in use. We hope
that this may be So and that the recommendation
of the Commission will meet with the sanction
of the MAYOR and City Council. We have been
in favor of this step from the first and from its
adoption alone, though unaccompanied by any
further or other REFORM we should be disposed to
augur the most salutary and beneficial results.
We should confidently anticipate from this single
change both increased security against fires, and
an eventual cessation Of those scenes of disorder
and riot by which the occurrence of fires is at
present so often attended At the same time, we
sincerely trust that the Commission will not stop
here, with its work but half done. We want
thorough and radical reformation in this i'm
portant department of municipal police
We want such a reformation as will give us not
only cheaper and more efficient system for the
extinguishment of fires, but will relieve us from
those moral and social evils which, we believe,
the present voluntary organization has greatly
tended to promote and foster To that end we
want not only Steam Fire Engines, but a paid Fire
Brigade. The recent action of the Fire Depart
ment has not been of character either to COM
mand the respect, to conciliate the goodwill Of
the community, and has therefore paved the way
for aaSy ahp1i ,ulf 10 Ia o1Nol,,l ol
both root and branch. The Legislature alone can
take away its charter but the City can make its
franchises practically worthless, by denying to the
several companies composing the Department. the
use of the public pumps and hydrants, and with,
drawing from them its annual appropriations
This power the MAYOR and Council hold in theil
hands, and should not hesitate to use in view O.
the recent conduct of the Department 10 which We
refer, and of its present diSrespectul and contuma
ciouS attitude towards the corporate authorities
of which the proceedings of the Standing Com
mittee on Thursday evening, afforded an addition
al illustration. The mixed Commission. of whicl
we have been speaking, was created as the publ,
will doubtless remember, by resolution of the
City Council, and its members were nominated
two by the MAYOR, two from each Branch of thu
Council, and three by the President of the Fire De
pArtment. At the next general meeting of the las
named body, however, resolutions were passed
censuring the President for making any appoint
ment under the resolution of the City Council anG
| in open contempt of the action of the Corporat,
| authorities another and separate Commission wa:
organized, to whom the duty of preparing 8
plan for the reorganization Of the Department
was committed Three of the COMPANIES
the Mechanical, Vigilant and First Baltimore
| who very properly declined to participate in
this action of the Department to be represented
in the Commission, were fined for their con
tumacy-while to cap the climax of absurdity,
on Thursday evening, the proceedings of tn,
Standing Committee were brought to an abrun
and somewhat gnominious close, by the refusal O
the majority of that body to recognize, Mr.. JAMES
l.. MCPHAIL, who is a member of the First Bati
more, and the regularly elected Chairman of thu
Committee, as their presiding officer and the equal
| ly decided refusal of that gentleman to Weld thu
chair to any body else These proceedings of thu
Department, Of course are wholly unimportant il
themselves, and would not even merit the limited
space they have occupied in our columns, much les
the editorial notice which we have thought proper tc
take of them, it not for the apt illustration
they afford of the necessity for q complete re-or
ganization of the body, which could thus far for
get its state of utter dependence upon the bounty
OF the City, as to seek to array itself in apparent
opposition to the will of the City authorities, and
lnterpose itself as astumbling-block in the way OF
great and salutary reform.