New-York tribune., 1908-02-08
GOOD COMMISSIONERS"

| The resignation of Fire Commissioner Lantry
was TO be expected. When Scandalous dan
gerous inefficiency is revealed in city depart
ment the head of it invariably retires is
removed and some unusually respectable per-
son is put in his place Then the public feels
that the evils and waste of maladministration
are over for has it not a good commissioner?
Yet, if the report of the Commissioners of Ac-
counts indicated anything 1t was that the trou-
BILE with the Fire Department was not personal.
Commissioner Lantry had made it neither worse
nor better He leaves the department as be re-
ceived it from Commissioner OBren. who left
1t as he received it from Commissioner Hayes.
Three different commissioners in succession did
nothing to keep up the department. Their several
administrations left no impress. The department
apparently ran itself, as it had run itself in
the past and as it probably will itself in
the future unless it is thoroughly overh8uled
from top to bottom and its management is put
upon systenlatized and businesslike basis
that new man of fair executive capacity TAX
ing hold of it can grasp its details and make
himself, not some permanent clerk wrapped in
red tape the real head and master of it
The trouble with the Fire Department is the
trouble with the whole city administration. 1t
is full of incompetent and wasteful subordinates
going over the same ground by dozens because
il has always been 1t lacks system. IN
the Fire Department no comprehensive record
is kept of the supply, the age and the condition
of apparatus. SO in general; expenditures are
provided for in lump sums without any de
tailed knowledge by the financial authorities
of how it is proposed to spend them. There is
no comprehensive plan of city development
Are city congestion and the impoverIshlng
rents of the East Side best relieved by provld-
ing rapid transit, by pallatives like small
parks and feeding hungry school children: The
Board of Estimate does not know and has not
considered. Should Fairgrounds for school
children be provided al the expense OF tearing
down buildings in the tenement districts or
should children i'll such districts be carried
back and forth TO schools in the healthy out
skirts of the city: Both plans are urged. The
Board of Estimate has not time TO consider
their relative merits and adopt definite policy.
l. will probably do a little of both. 1t usually
contents itself with pleasing every variety OF
opinion with the result of having no compre-
hensive programme and Of spending the citys
money in every direction at once and not
wisely In the one direction that promises TO
work out the best results in the end. We
merely mention these things to show how lack
of system is not confined 10 the Fire Depart
ment alone. Whether we like 1t or not, the
city is involved in expenditures Tor munlclpaI
and social improvement on large scale Al
ready there are contracts calling for $780,
100000 in the next TWO years, ana the people
are clamoring and with reason, for a large
outlay 10 relieve the overcrowded transit syS-
TENS Yet the city Is doing these things with
ont any policy plan, but merely attempting
10 please the variety of opinion that happens
to he exerting the most pressure at the moment.
The scandal in the Fire Department affords
the municipal administration an excellent op-
portunity TO get at the root Of the trouble in
that branch of the city government. The Com
missioners of Accounts by going thoroughly into !
II can throw as much light the question
why city government is costly and inefficient /
as they did in their examination Of Ahearns
office and in this case their labors can be put
10 profitable TO cure the evils they may E,
expose The appointment Of a respectable
head Of the department will not do much good. !
Mr. Lantry when appointed was man with |
a satisfactory record administrator. We /
have in this city for several years acted upon (.
the idea that good men at the head OF de- b
partments would accomplish good government
without regard TO the wasteful and inefficient
instruments they had under them. The pres
ent administration has appointed an unusual
number of good commissioners to office, yet
there is great public dissatisfaction with mll-
nicipal extravaganza and with the utterly in
ADEQUATE results of the tremendous city expen- /
ditures