Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1890-05-15

LANCASTER, PA, May IS, 1890.
Necillessly Troubled.

n The Netc Era il disturbed that Mayor
Clark recommended to councils uniforms
and increased pay for the firemen. Inc
10bjection Is that such expenditure VIII
0utrun the appropriation. III 50, II
tought not TO be made until the appro-
priation Is big enough to cover It, That
3 q clear enough to anybody. The IL
nance committee we believe recommends
the appropriations aud councils make
them. If there is no money hkely
70 be In the treasury to cover further
appropriation for the fire department,
: then It cannot he made unless some
3other appropriation Is cut down. That
4 q clear again. The city expenditure
must be kept within the appropriations
and it must live within its means, like
y an Individual. Its coat must be cut ac-
cording to its cloth but it can change
\ the cut of the coat as much as 1t pleases
70 that the cloth holds out.
The mayor recommend to councils s'ich
expenditures and appropriations as he
thinks should be made which councils
make il they think them advisable
and can find the money for them. The
degree of the need of u uniformed and
better paid fire department Is matter
i for the consideration of councils, to
whom the mayor has referred it. We
understand that the uniformlng Is to
enable the force to be better distin-
euished at fires by their chief and each
other, which seems to be advisable. We
X also understand that the house firemen
are not as well paid as the policemen,
and there docs not seem to he any sufti-
Cient reason why they should not be, IA
8 they are steadily on duty day and night.
II there is no money or no appropria-
ton, they cannot get 1t; but the New Era
Il off its base in assailing the mayor for
q recommending judicious expenditure,
| In advance of the report of the finance
Z committee making the appropriations
and in ignorance of it. And, further
more, what inspires this new born zeal
s Of our contemporary to hold up the state
IN Of the appropriations to defeat what II
4 deems wise expenditure ? Does it not
4 know that Mayor Clark found all the
g appropriations overdrawn and the treas
8 ury bare? And does it know that the
to be made have to bear
4 the burthen Of expenditures already
made that the hose house on Duke
B street, for instance, was bought months
ago for 5000, and that the money
now has to be appropriated for II This
Z money would have paid the proposed
3 salary increase four times over and II
was useless expenditure at this time
4 since the city has not the money to equiv
\. the house with fire apparatus.
II 1t is good thing for the firemen t.
Y be uniformed, as our fathers and grand
Il fathers were, whose caps and capes hang
s yet In old houses AS pleasant reminders
r Of the ancestors public service, il viii
hardly trouble the city to find tho
small sum needed for the expenditure
II may come ont of the sum appropriated
Tor the general expenses of the fire de
partment.
We have undertaken to look into thi
y matter ut the instigation of our con
3 temporary and to give il our opinion
81 upon 1t. But it will note that tn
i editors of the INTELLIGENcER do no
dictate Mayor Clark's action, and hav
& no responsibility for it further than q
be Il the mayor elected by the party TO
u which it speaks.