St. Paul daily globe., 1895-11-30
CHIEF JACKSON REPuDIATEs AN
EXPRESSION USED ABOUT
FIREMEN. }s X
THEY'RE SLAVES TO DUTY.
INSURANCE COMPANIES DO NOT
WANT THEIR RISMS-HAVE
NO TIME THEMSELVES.
KEEP UP THE DEPARTMENT
And, the Chief Says, Easily Earn
All They Cost the Depart
ment.

Chief jackson, of the fire department,
does not believe that any one Is JUS
titled in the statement frequently made
at the Parker investigating committee
that the firemen have soft jobs.
"A fireman. said the chief yester-
day. lis like a soldier. He rs entitled
to certain privileges in view of the eX
treme risk of his occupation. A.fire-
man, like a soldier, must not ofny be
ready to lose life and limb in the per-
formance Of his duty. but only too
often he actually does lose one or the
other. Indeed, the duty of a fireman
in any large city is much more dam
gerous than that of soldier at the or
binary frontier fort. The fireman is
expc,zed to serious danger every few
months, the soldier only at very long
intervals. Yet the fireman does a great
deal more work, great deal more
disagreeable duty than the soldier.
1.-THE insurance companies have new
er believed that fireman's life is one
to be envied. Many accident COM
panies refuse to insure fireman un-
der any circumstances. The COM
panies that will insure him class him
as a hazardous risk, and charge him
about twice what they ask the Or
binary business man. The records OF
our department show that the COM
panies are justified. 1t would be about
fair to say that every one of the lS6
firemen in active service loses, on an
average, one week in every year as
the result of accidents received while
on duty.
People don't stop to think that a
fireman is deprived of the liberty OF
passing his time as he pleases when
his days work is over. He must be
always on duty, day and night. He
cannot go home to his family. He
cannot engage in any other business,
or in any social enjoyments. He can
not go 100 feet away from his own en-
gine house without leave, and his leaves
are neither frequent nor lengthy. He
is never sure of a nights rest, being
obliged at any hour to rise, dress and
rush out into any sort of weather and
at a speed that would wreck the nerves
of the ordinary citizen.
Besides, a fireman is physically and
mentally and morally a man above the
average. He must be strong, in the
best of health, intelligent, quick wltted,
of good moral character and of good
habits Every man who joins the de-
partment is put on sixty days proba-
ton. Il he is found deficient in any of
the points mentioned, he is not al
lowed to continue in the service. His
habits are strictly watched. He is not
allowed to enter a saloon while he is
wearing his uniform. If he is ever
known to get drunk he is at once dis
missed.
"The firemen more than make up for
the fact that they are not always
going to fires by the immense amount
of work which, in the aggregate, they
perform by maintaining all the build
ings and apparatus of the department.
Most every fireman is skilled in some
of the principal trades, and We have
as good mechanics of all sorts in the
department as there are in the city.
Now, there are twenty engine houses,
a blacksmith shop, paint shop, etc,
twenty supply wagons, twelve engines
in active service, one engine in re-
serve, twelve hose carts, four extra
hose carts unattached to engines,
eight hook and ladder trucks, six
chemical engines, two extra chemicals,
four buggies for myself and the as
sistant chiefs, besides horses. Every
sort of repair work needed about these
houses and this apparatus, all the care
of the buildings, apparatus and horses
is in the hands of our own men. We
never call on outsiders. The city fur
nishes the material only. Almost
every one Of our mechanics supplies
his own tools. The cost of having such
<Nfy ir> rf1-lY1 RI 1Olla 1I-
outside labor would be no small sum
of money It's all saved to the city
under our present system. If the
thousands of dollars so saved were paid
to outsiders we could never in the
world run the department with our
present appropriations.
Another source from which the city
saves considerable money by means of
the extra laborS of the firemen is the
free use of many patented inventions.
Among our men are several bright In
ventorS, who have devised various ar
ticles used in the service, articles much
superior to what previously cost us
much more money. For instance, a
new style of horse collar to be suspend
ed from the ceiling ready for i'm
mediate use is the invention of one of
our men, A similar collar-the best
that could be obtained-used to cost us
$40 a pair. The new style is much bet
ter than the old, yet the inventor sells
them to the city at actual cost and
charges no royalty whatever. We
thus pay now only $40 a pair for a bet
ter article. Other cities, of course, pay
our inventor a royalty for using his
collars These collars are only one of
many things that have been patented
by men in this department and used in
all our engine houses.
"All in all, it is not hard to see that
the city, which has been kept so free
from large fires for so long time, is
not paying it's fire department an eX-
travagant sum to maintain a lot Of use
less men in idleness."