Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-05-05
FOLLY AS TO FIREM EN-.
WOfully Misguided Notions as to
the City's Rig hit Course.
Efficiency is Not in Great Numbe RS,
but In Wen Disciplined Few---The
Only Correct Way.

The Union continues to evince its miss
guided notion as to the essential features
OF reliable and efficient fire department
1t continues to bewail the fact that
in supplanting the volunteer system by
a paid service. the working numbers
would have to be diminished land it says
| that even with the three or four compa,
MES that remain loyal to the city, they
contain three or four times as many men
as the city could afford to hire under the
PAID department system, and in the same
breath it confesses that "the one weak
ness OF the volunteer arrangement has
been want OF discipline" which it at
temp,s 10 attribute to the election of the
chief aud assistant chief by the volunteer
firemen The real facts are that it is in
the great numbers that lies to large ex-
tent the lack of discipline. One of the
chief beauties of paid department is its
compac mess snd small numbers. Eight to
twelve thoroughly disciplined men, over
whom The chief has absolute control,
and whom they must obey, will accom-
plish more work iu a few minutesat fire
than $50 men unorganiZed and without
discipline can in hours. Reason sustains
this assertion. The city does not
want great number of men. 1t wants
q few n en- whom it can control; whom
it hires, the same as it does policemen,
who are paid for their work, AMI who
must do it or forfeit their positions.
What control has the city or its chief
over volunteer fireman. And how
would it better the relations of the chief
to his men if The city would be guided by
the Union. and take from the volunteer
hremen the privilege Of electing their
chief from among their number? How
many men of the Rock Island volunteer
department would submit to such
move? Is there any means at the city's
demand to enforce obedience on the part
of the volunteers to q chief the city may
put over them? The idea is absurd. The
city can gain nothing by attempting
course with volunteers that would be
rightly applicable to paid men. The city
NANTES is sufficient cheek in expecting
the service it does of the volunteers gra
tuitousl UT would be much more cheeky
to ask those volunteers to submit them
selves to the dictations and orders of
chief with whose appointment they had
nothing to do. The principle thus ap-
piled worked well enough in the days of
the cOuutry's peril when the volunteer
soldier saved his country from dis
solution, but there was something
at stake then. The nation was
in peril What would not a loyal citizen
endure or do in such an hOurY But the
case is vastly different now. The volun-
teer fireman gains nothing by his self.sacri-
tice his exposure and his bravery. He is
simply rebuked because he does not do
what he cannot do, because he has neither
the experience or the discipline. The
Unions suggestion therefore is simply an
other fort to stave off the inevitable
the paid epartment-and cannot be con-
sidered in the light of fairness and wis
dom. The city surely cannot expect to
gain Roadway with. the volunteers 10y
showing its lack of confidence in them.
1t would be doing this by taking out of
their hands the right to elect their own
chief, The city should not attempt any
such half way measures. 1t should either
treat the volunteer fremen fairly or dis
pense with them altogether.
The best policy is to provide a
dozen paid men and a chief which
would equip three companies, and
let the volunteers 90. Let US be
grateful to the volunteers for what
they have done and are willing to do, hut
we should not insult them at the last
moment as the Union suggests. The city
has simply outlived the day of their USE
fulnes5.