The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-12
CHIEF BYWATER
MUST GET OUT.
Mayor Thompson Announces That
His Place Is Needed for
Workers.
MEN DOWNED
GRAFT ADMITTEDLY PUT AHEAD
OF PUBLIC SAFETY.

Put none but Americans on guards
This is the battle cry Of the present
city administration. It applies to the
head of the highest department in the
city government as well as to the low
est employee drawing a salary. The
word has gone forth that not one mem
Der Of the last administration is to be
left to tell the story.
Even Fire Chief w. H. Bywater is
to be sacrificed in the hope of satiat-
ing the organized appetite that came
into power at the beginning Of the
year. Mayor Ezra Thompson notified
Chief Bywater definitely on Wednes-
day that he must go to make way for
the workers. BY workers" is meant
patriots who boosted for the Amerf-
can cause in the recent campaign.
Insurance Men Make a Fight.
Fire insurance men have made a
hard fight for the retention Of Chief
Bywater. Politics was ignored by
them. They made their fight for the
good Of the city and in the interest
OF fire protection. They took the DO
sition that Bywater was a superior
chief and that the fire department
should not be made the spoils of ward
politicians
Grant r. Brown, a leading local fire
insurance man, called upon Mayor
Thompson week ago and made a plea
for the retention of Chief Bywater. He
urged that the merchants of the city
irrespective Of politics favored the re-
tention of Bywater; that all the in
10
ton; that he had made by all odds
the best chief in the history Of the
city. The mayor did not debate these
propositions. He closed the argument
with the statement that the patronage
of the fire department was needed for
the party workers.
Junius Young. L. r. Rogers and
Grant r. Brown were appointed a spe-
Cial committee by the local insurance
men to call upon the mayor and urge
the retention of Chief Bywater in the
interest of public safety. Rogers and
Young are out of the city, and were
saved the humiliation of being turned
down by the mayor.
Strong pressure was brought to bear
upon Mayor Thompson from many
sources. Letters were filed by a num-
Der of the insurance companies doing
business in Salt Lake. The general
feeling is expressed from the follow
ing sentence from one of these LETT
ters:
IF such valuable men. on political
account, are to be turned down and
out, underwriters will draw the line
more closely and cut their cloth to
meet the misfit."
Three Objections to Bywater.
There are three vital objections TO
Chief BywateT any one OF which is
deemed sufficient 10 justify his re-
movable is a Mormon, ne is a Dem
OCrat and ne is drawing a salary that
is coveted by a patriot. Incidentally,
it is feared that Bywater might OPP
pose transforming the fire department
into a political machine.
The point as to who will be the sue
cessor Of Chief Bywater is not yet
definitely settled. James Devine, who
preceded Bywater, Is making a hard
fight for the place. 1t is limited that
the ex-chief is not on the books of
Mayor Thompson, but that he has q
strong pull with a number of the coun-
cilmen. The fear exists among some
Of his friends that he did not rally
round the flag quite quick enough in
the late campaign.
Charles 7. Vail has possession of the
other end of the teeterboard. He was
in the department for number of
years. He is sufficiently intense in
his patriotism to suit the most exact
ing, and he has Jealous friends who
are leaving no stone unturned to
bring about his appointment. The
present understanding is that the ap-
pOintment of either Devine or Vail,
probably the latter, will be sent to the
council by Mayor Thompson next
Monday night.
Sometime since it was announced
that Chief ByWater and Mrs Annie
Pierce We're to be married. The mar
riage license was issued yesterday.
The wedding viii take place on the
18th. and following that the bride and
groom Will visit California for two
weeks.