The herald., 1898-09-03
CHARTER BUILDERS
THE FREEHOLDERS CONSIDER
, THE FIRE DEPARTMENT
THE new WARD BOUNDARIES
Citizens From the Ninth Ward Object
to Being Submerged With the
Eirst-Other Matters

The board Of freefoiders last night busted
Itself. with the report Of the committee on
the fire department. The members present
were President Lee, Messrs. Hazard,
Stephens, Willard, Newmark, Cohn and
Croft.
The reading of section Of the report pre-
eipitated lively discussion between Messrs.
Hazard and Newmark on the one side. and
Groff and Morgan on the other, the point
at issue being what seemed to the first two
gentlemen an unnecessary redundancy in
the provisions relating to the appointment
and discharge Of members OF the depart
ment, Mr.. Hazard claimed that the whole
matter was covered In the provision for a
civil service commission. but Judge Croft
urged that the fire commission Itself has
tho appointing and discharging power in
stead Of the civil service commission, for
the sake of discipline. The test came on a
motion offered by Mr.. Newmark to strike
out the section on the ground that its pro-
visions were elsewhere covered. 1t was lost
by tie vote. Messrs. Lee, Hazard. Ste
phens and Newmark voting in the affirm
alive and Messrs. Willard, Cohn, Morgan
and Croft in the negative.
Ward BOUNDARIES
At this point the board voted 10 80 into a
committee Of the whole for the purpose of
considering the matter Of ward boundaries
as several citizens from the Ninth ward
were on hand to express their views.
E. r. Threlkeld took the floor and pro-
tested against the proposed division which
sets of the First and Ninth wards to-
gether. Mr.. Threlkeld's argument seemed
to be that the good people in those sections
would feel rather lonely and cut OF from
the Joys Of civilization by such an arrange
ment, and that 1t would be better to make
the proposed ward lines to run east and
west, thus obviaing the proposed hard
ship. He admitted sub rosa that he con-
sidered 1t a scheme to spoil good Demo
cratic wards.
M. T. Collins followed with the argument
that owing to the ungraded and unsettled
cor dition of his section, d councilman from
tho proposed ward would have too much 10
DO. Therefore the people on the east side
the river should be divided into three
wards. Mr.. COLLINS did not considefN nec-
essary, however, to speak Of the very mani
feet political advantages Of such DIVISION
although he expressed some skeptical sen.
t!ments about the practicability Of the
councilman-at-large idea.
I. L. Clark followed in the same strain
as The two former speakers.
Superannuates' Pensions
When the section providing for pensions
to be granted to superannuated employees
was reached, Judge Stephens moved to
strike 1t out, asserting his belief thatit
would be bad policy to launch out in the
granting Of pensions in any department Of
the civic economy to any other than those
who had suffered actual disablement in SER
vice. Mr.. Hazard made a warm plea for
the old firemen, believing that after they
had served faithfully for twenty years and
had come toibe 65 years old they were enti-
tied to enough to keep them out Of the poor
house, as they could not save enough out
of the proposed salaries to DO this them
selves. The motion, however, prevailed.
Some Of the salaries In the report are: I'm
gineers. $1,000 per annum: hosemen, $3.50;
laddermen. $500: drivers, $500.
The sections providing for pensions for
disabled fremen and the widows and chill.
diem Of, those who lose their lives in the
service were carried.
A fire marshal and assistant, to be chosen
and paid by proposed combination of city
insurance men, are new features and the
electrical department is carefully consld-
cred as well.
The Times Corrected
Before adjournment Mr.. Newmark read
some statements from yesterday mornings
Times, to which he took exception, partic-
ularly those referring to the alleged change
In the opinions held by members of the
board in regard to the new plan of electlng
councllmen. Mr.. Newmark read from the
record to show that. contrary to the Times
statements. the feeling among the men,
bers in favor Of the proposed change wa.
growing stronger.
Thursdays Session
The session Of Thursday night was spen,
for the most part in the consideration OF
amendments to the report Of the committee
on legislative department. Some Of the
matters covered were the initiative and
referendum, which were re-adopted, having
been dropped by a committee report after
previous acceptance, and the adoption OF
the present charter provisions on the sub