Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-02-20
SOURCE OF WORRY.
Investigation Into Fire Mar
shars Office Proves Annoying.
STATE OFFICIALS UNEASY.
Criticisms Made on Action of
Ways and Means Committee.
The Examination, However, is to Be Car.
RED Through to the End-Turnpike
or Boulevard?
STATE OFFICIALS UNEASY.

Especial Correspondence, of the spy
q Boston, Feb, 19.-It is a question if
the state fire marshal or any Of the
force in that office, has hitherto ever
: been greatly worried. Until the pres
3 tent year the appropriation for the sal
n aries and expenses connected with the
department has been made by the leg
stature with little or no trouble. 1t is
true that there was fight oe some pro-
portion, last session, for ii reorganiza-
ton of the department and the reduc-
+, ton Of the $4,000 salary which the chief
Of the department receives, but the OPP
position to the department was never in
the game with the fire marshal, The
effort in what was then regarded as a
needed reform, was fruitless, for the
friends of the fire marshal had no trou-
bic at all in defeating all measures that
meant a curtailment of authority, or of
money for the office. There was con-
siderable noise about the matter last
year, but it didn't disturb the fire mar
shall at all and one Of his closest
friends is quoted as saying that the fire
marshal enjoyed the skirmish immense
", He never considered it, at any time,
more than a furry of certain elements
that have been against him and his de-
partment, ever since the latter was
created.
But this year the conditions are
changed The fire marshal and every
one of his assistants are worried, and
for a peculiar reason. There is no in
testigation of the chief of the depart
ment, nor of his bureau. There is moth
ing but a straight inquiry, by the house
committee on ways and means, as to
the way in which the appropriation for
the department is expended, but this is
too much for the chief of the depart
ment and his aids. The ways and means
committee has been prosecuting this in
quiry for month or more. The end is
not in sight yet, for, according to ru-
mors that come from the committee
room, whose doors are always locked,
information and details of expenditures
by the department are hard to get.
The committee has the fine tooth comb
at work, but it requires an immense
amount of work to obtain the smallest
amount Of information. The fire mar
shall and his assistants have been ex-
amined by the committee as to the
work of the Office, and the reasons for
certain expenditures, but the committee
has taken the precaution this year, to
leave the fire marshal in his office when
any of his assistants have been on the
stand, and to keep. the assistants away
when the chief Of the department is be-
fore them.
Enough has been learned already to
convince many of the members of the
committee that the chief of the bureau
knows little about the business meth
DDS or details of his own office The
other day, when the inquiry was going
on, he was called to the committee room
and asked to state which assistant in
the office audited the bills OF the aids
Of Afa.n IL
official but other officials, two in num-
Der, who were called after the marshal
had been dismissed, stated to the COM
mittee that the bills were audited by
another assistant than the one named
by their chief A small matter, in it,
self, but enough to demonstrate, with
others of a similar nature, that the $4,000
chief doesn't have as thorough an ac-
quaintance with the affairs of his $780,
900 office as he ought to have.
That Mr.. Whitcomb is worried seems
to be borne out by singular proceedings
on the part of state officials high in
office. This is their sharp criticism of
the action of the ways and means com
mittee, In instituting such sharp in
quiry into the office of the fire marshal
These officials have passed around the
word, according to one of the members
of the ways and means committee that
the committee has no right or au-
thority to investigate the department
without special authority of the legisla-
ture. Considerable pressure has been
brought to bear on certain members of
the house, to institute an attack on the
? alleged misbehavior of the ways and
means committe, but thus far it has
proven fruitless. The committee has
met all insinuationS of this character by
the assertion that they are making no
investigation, but are simply trying to
fnd out how the money is expended that
is appropriated by the Legislature. AS
the appropriations committee of the
legislature, this is their right and theirs
alone unless specific charges are made.
But the inquiry goes on and the fire
marshal and his assistants worry.
The hearing before the committee on
roads and bridges, Friday, on the Ben
nett Of Saugus bill for an investigation
by the highway commission, as to the
desirability of the states ownership and
care of the Salem and Lynn turnpike,
should open the eyes of the members of
the Legislature to some of the extra
VACANT notions Of the highway commits
.6ioners and others who are alleged to
be in favor of good roads. The Salem and
Lynn turnpike is the great road for
Essex county, eastern and northern sec
tions and Boston. There is more travel
on the road than is generally supposed,
for the market gardeners of ESseX-and
their name is legion-use the pike to
convey their vegetables and truck to the
Boston market The road is not only
extensively travelled, but for the greater
part of the distance is in very poor con-
dition. This is especially true of the
road through Saugus across the So
called Lynl marshes. Saugus and
Revere have petitioned for sections of
state road across these marshes, but the
petitions have yet to fructify. In the
meantime there is a scheme for 10
foot boulevard along the shore of Revere
beach, most attractive scheme, for nu-
nlerous owners of shore property that
has heretofore proved nothing extra in
the way of an investment. The boule-
ward plan has many supporters and the
friends of the pike road say that this
influence has prevented the construction
of the common road.
1t developed at the hearing Friday
that the shore residents are against the
turnpike road, if the boulevard has to
wait. In other words they are for the
boulevard first and the pike road last
The farmers and gardeners of Essex take
the other position. The highway com
mission, by the way, has a plan for the
construction Of the Salem turnpike road
on approved lines This means the ex-
penditure of $1,000 a mile for the road
and includes the construction of two i'm
rnense bridges at different places along
the marshes, at an expense of 100000
per bridge. 1t is also clear that the
representative from Saugus, Mr.. Ben
nett. and the senator from Lynn, Mr..
Bennett also, the latter chairman of the
roads and bridges committee, are at
loggerheads over these matters. The
representative from Saugus is for a
state road by the turnpike, while the
senator from Lynn is in favor of the
shore road. Their differences were