The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1891-08-25
The Fire Escape CriminaIity.

The Fire Escape Criminality.
A good deal of respect is felt in this
community for Alderman Max Salin-
ger. He is beyond question. honest,
and he is full Of intelligent ideas re-
garding the public needs. But he has
a habit Of incorporate utterance
which greatly impairs his usefulness.
He is undeniably right in the position
that the city is urgently in need of
legislation to lessen the danger
Of confiagrations, and to pre-
vent loss OF life in cas- OF
their occurrence. In the main point,
that he is urging the passage OF lire
escape and fire limit ordinances in the
Board Of Aldermen while others are
opposing them, he stands head and
shoulders above his colleagues.
Whether his ordinances are the best
possible ones or not is wholly a side
issue. They are tentative efforts to
deal with a matter of the greatest
moment, and the man who starts such
a movement is deserving of high cred
it. II the plan he proposes is not the
best possible one. it is the duty of his
colleagues to alter and amend it into
proper shape and then pass it. So
long as they simply obstruct. they
have no standing before the people.
The moment they begin to act they
are entitled to discuss details on equal
terms with Mr.. Salinger Dr. anyone
else.
On the other hand, MI. Sal
niger only weakens his position
by the extravaganza of de-
ANNEXATION which he INDUCES in.
When he accuses the Democratic
members of the Board of refusing to
pass his ordinance, because there
is nothing In it," he only ex-
cites a smile. Bribery does not
go by negatives, and unless he
could show that there was a com
bination of property owners to defeat
the ordinance with Doodle, Mr.. Sal
niger could not get any sensible man
to regard his charges seriously. Again
when he says the Democrats have not
brains enough to draft an ordinance,
he is plainly talking-as one might
say in vulgar parlance-through hs
hat. He is talking in the
air, simply talking for the
sake of sound. In his
cooler moments he will hardly be able
to persuade even himself that the
Democratic party in this city could
not muster legal lore enough to draft
a fire escape ordinance. If Mr.. Sal
niger confined himself more strictly
to rational argument and launched
less into reckless abusz. perhaps his
ordinances would make more progress.
His present course entities his adj
yersaries to ask whether his fight is
actuated by politics or a sincere de-
sire to benefit the public. Is he really
trying to have fire ordin ances enacted
or is he trying to goad the Democratic
Aldermen into a refusal to pass them,
so that campaign capital may be
made out OF that refusal?
THE way the Democrats can com
pletely battle him is this Introduce
and pass speedily some fair but
stringent ordinances which will pre-
vent the erection of any more finder
boxes in the lower part Of the city, and
which will compel the erection of fire
escapes on all factories. office build
ings and apartment houses. There
is no hardship involved in
such a regulation. 1t is called
for by common sense and the com
nionest feelings of humanity. Only
the reckless greed of property owners
who want to save a few hundred dol
lars Of expense could cavil or COM
plain at its enactment.
As matters stand now, If a fire
should occur in half the factories or
almost any OF the office buildings in
the city, a horrible slaughter would
be the result. A very large number
Of fat and tenement houses are in the
same situation.
Why wait until the lessons of ordi-
nary observation are enforced by some
fearful calamity like those so frequent
in New York and Brooklyn. Our turn
may not have come yet, but. if we
tempt fate long enough, the result IS
certain.
WE are amused at the way the
good folk of Trinity Church talk
about the marriage Of Mr.. Sterling
and Miss johnson. Would it not oc-
cur to them that both parties are ole