The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-11-30

on duty Sundays as well as every other day in the year"
 The letter of Aldsrman-elect Miller follows:
 New Haven, Nov. 20, 1907. Dear Sir:
 "The undersigned appeared before a committee appointed by the honorable board Of aldermen for the purpose of considering the increase in the pay of the chief of the fire department. At that time wide latitude was allowed those who appeared in favor of the in crease and when the writer rose to speak in opposition he was prevented from stating his views on the matter by point of order," which was rals- ed by one of the fire commissioners; and in order that you as a member of the honorable board of aldermen might know his position in the matter he is compelled to take this means of mak- ing them known to you.
 The writer is opposed to the in crease being granted to the chief at this time for the following reasons: Because the members of the depart ment who are the ones who have made it efficient are underpaid and until they are enabled to receive Just com pensation for the service they render no increase should be granted to the heads of departments. The question of the mems salary rests entirely with the board of fire commissioners and they show they are very inconsistent by advocating a raise of 20 per. cent. in the salary of the chief and refusing to grant an increase of less than 10 per cent in the salary of the men.
 The members of the fire depart ment are divided into three grades as follows: First grade, who receive $2,74 per day; second grade, who re- ceive $2,4T per day; third grade, who receive $2.S3 per day.
 This pay as you can readily see yourself, when twenty-four hours con- tinuous service is taken into consider ation and comparison Is made with the pay of the other city employees, Is entirely too small for the service they render in guarding the city against fire.
 "The men by means of petition signed by nine-tenths of the depart ment have asked for an increase to X three dollars per day for the first grade hosemen and this petition has been ignored by the board of fire com missioners as up to the present time no action has been taken upon 1t by them. From these figures 1t appears to the writer that it would be better policy for the city to expend what in- crease they can afford for the purpose of giving to the men who do the work what they ask for rather than give 1t to those who at the present time are ' receiving ample compensation for the /, service they render.
 Another matter, the writer would call your attention to, is this At the hearing, the fire commissioners read { some statistics relating to the depart nent of fire service and gave the im- precision that the chief responded to over 800 alarms during the year. have no way of securing the number of alarms that have occurred up to the | pIescHt Ititte lliiS year. put III 1J9u there were all told 524 alarms, of this number S5s were still alarms and 165 were bell alarms
 fThe chief does not respond on still alarms so you can see he answered not over 165 Another thing the commis- sioners failed to tell your committee was that on Sunday the chief was not on duty only in case of a bell alarm of | fire.
 T trust when you take up the re- port of the committee for action you will bear these things in mind and that when you consider that the chief at the present time is receiving over eight dollars per day and the men who do the work from $2.3S to s2.74 per day you will refuse to vote for the increase in the chiefs salary until such time as the fire commissioners give to the men what they are justly entitled to.
 (Signed)
 Yours very respectfully, | U. EDMUND MILLER, I Alderman -elect."