The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-07-13

The Fire Chief Investigation.
Evidently a, millennium OF purity in pol
tiles has not yet been begun in Savannah.
on the other hand. if the witnesses that
have been before the investigating com
mittee Of city council are TO be believed
and it does not appear why they should
not be-politicaI purity is just now con-
spicuousiy absent in the fire department.
The question of the competency Of the fire
chief as a IRE fighter sinks into insgnif-
canoe when compared with his apparent
competency as an active leader OF a po-
ltical factor. The witnesses before the
Investigating committee were not all will
ing witnesses against the chief. but very
nearly all of them gave damaging test-
mony against him, and incidentally
against some Of the fire commissioners.
While the people Of Savannah were
sleeping soundly, having no fear of fire
because they believed their interests were
being guarded by a large and well-paid
department Of brave fremen provided
with costly apparatus, some Of these
aforesaid well-paid and brave guardians
of the public veal were engaged in cor
railing and guarding slippery negro
voters in barrooms and other Places so
as to make sure the darkies would be on
hand the next day 10 vote early and
often for the political faction to which
the fire chief and the fire commissioners
belong This is the gist of the testimony
taken by the investigating committee. The
fire department, which costs the taxpay-
ers Of Savannah tens of thousands Of
dollars a year, and which seems to be al
ways wanting more, is impaired in use
fulness and the people who pay the bills
are left without the full measure of its
protection against fire, while firemen are
doing the work of political heelers in or
der that they may hold their jobs. 1t
seems that some of those sent to CORA,
and guard the negro voters did not like
that business but they sacrificed their
d.slikes to their bread and butter and
bee-.
NO one who has had anything to do
with public affairs viii gainsay the fact
that politics permeates more or less all
departments of local, state and national
government; but the efforts of those who
are in control should be directed towards
a reduction of the demoralizing evil of
practical partisan politics. When a
man has been honored with an important
office it is his duty to the public to hold
that office upon a high plane. and not
Dervert It to the purposes of the partisan
ward heller. If the witnesses before the
committee of council testified truly, and
there is no reason to think they did not
do so, the fire department of this city has
reached perfection as a political machine,
even if it has not as an organization for
extinguishing fires.
The fire commissioners, it is reported,
will themselves go into an investigation
of the charges against the chief when
the committee of council has concluded
it's work. 1t would have been better had
the commissioners aided the representa-
tives of the people the committee of coun-
Gil, i'm getting at the facts of the matter.
There are good men on the fire commits
sion, and Their fellow citizens will expect
Of them thorough and non-partisan in
vestigaton of the fire department. There
is one thing, however, that is very sure,
which is that those who were parties to
the scheme whereby firemen and others
paid employees of the city were required
to corral and guard gangs of negro voters
who had been or were to be paid to vote
certain tickets, must not be permitted to
remain in Office. The people who pay the
taxes are becoming very tired of seeing
their hard-earned money used for parti-
san political or private ends