New-York tribune., 1871-08-04
DO STEAMBOAT INSPECTORS DO THEIR
DUTYy


DUTY
1t is clear, from the elaborate statement pHb-
lished elsewhere, that the Government Inspect
ora of Steamboats, do not perform their duties
"a faithfully as the interests and safety OF the
public demand. Numerous boats plying our
waters are uninspected. Others a generation
old, and worn out by long service in still
waters as ferry-boats, are now permit
ted to go outside the bar in rough
water and weather as pleasure boats with
large excursion parties on board. Old boilers,
worn and patched, arc permitted by oblislng
Inspectors to use salt water and to carry, as
appears from the testimony OF one Ferry
Superintendent before the Board of Inquiry
into the Westfeld disaster, as much steam as
the owners or captains ask the Inspectors to
allow. Certificates are made out to suit the
owners, not in accordance with any fixed sys-
TEN of inspection by honest and competent
officers. Ferry-bOats conveying daily tens OF
thousands of passengers are permitted to carry
in the hold, only few yards from the boilers
and furnaces, immense gasOmeters, secured
only by gutta-percha tops worn with constant
friction and rotten with long use. The require
ments of the law az to life-boats and life
preservers are violated in every particular with
impunity.
Are the Government local inspectors compe-
tent9 There is q strong suspicion that this
important duty is intrusted to men without
knowledge of scientific or practical engineer
ing. They are appointed, through political in
fuence, more for their skill in managing pri-
mary elections than in running steam engines.
It appears that Mr.. Andrew Craft, one of the
local inspectors !Of this city, was originally
educated as q truckman, and obtained his ap-
pointment as Inspector of Hulls for his service
as Thirteenth Ward politician. response
BILE man and practical engineer very plainly
intimates, in letter which we publish else
where, that Mr.. Matthews endeavOred in his
testimony to conceal rather than bring out
the facts of the explosion of the boiler which
he is supposed to have inspected month ago.
And it appears from the testimony of the
superintendent of the ferry line to which the
Westfield belonged, that Inspector Matthews
was in the habit of allowing as much steam
as the superintendent or engineers Of the
boats of that line chose to ask.
Under this state of affairs it seems necessary
that the Government Inspectors should them
selves be very speedily and thoroughly in-
spected. If the other local inspectors have no
more ability than Messrs. Craft and Matthews
appear to possess, the Secretary of the Treas
ury will have to order thorough reOrganiza-
ton of this Bureau. What claims have these
men to the profits and perquisites they receive
for imperiling the lives of the peoplef If
politicians must be rewarded with Office, for
heavens sake give them places where they
can only take money for uEfGrformed work,
al;a a. u En0t endanger life by their ignorance Let
US have an examination at once; let 1T be
searching and complete, and by men interested
in the public welfare and safety-not by mere
officials seeking only to shield delnquents for
partisan reasons. The Examining Board should
not be appointed by the same power which
gave places to the incompetent inspectors, but
should be above suspicion
And what a picture of mismanagcment is
revealed in the testimony before the Board Of
Inquiry of Superintendent Braisted of the
Staten Island Ferry! Engineers who cannot
read their own certificates trusted with
crowded passenger boats, crews whose theft
of Intoxicating liquors carried as freight
has been repeatedly condemned but never
punished, and a Superintendent whose orders
seem 10 nave Decn ReneIaly uloIcSaIueu as VI
no consequence. Under such management it
is only strange that disasters have not been
more frequent, and it will be still more
singular if Others do not follow. What pro-
vision has Government or the local authori-
ties for inquiry into snch mismanagement
as is here revealed by the testimony of the
Superintendent himssIff Mr. Smith, the Presi-
dent of the Union Ferry Company, is quoted
by one of the Inspectors as saying that he
would have no inspection of his boats if it
were not "for the eye of the public" There
is a strong suspicion that the certificates OF
these inspectors ale intended only to satisfy
the public, and are without meaning or value.
Who has authority 20 inquire into manage
ment which accepts, and to examine inspectors
Who grant, certificates "fOr the public eyes'
There may be no authority for such super
vision, but there ought to be, and that
quickly. Meantime, let us have the inspectors
ex smned.