The Washington herald., 1911-01-03
For Efficient Service.

Along many lines of endeavor we, the
public, are striving intelligently to secure
a better quality of service. When some
time ago it was reported that German
municipality had advertised for a COM
petent mayor. the American press hailed
the proposition as an example of a
growing trend of popular opinion toward
a demand for trained and efficient serv-
ice Too long, indeed, have we put up
with the employment Of men in many
positions without any qualifications for
their work other than political friendships.
That the idea of training men for the
work they are paid to do is gaining
ground rapidly is shown by the fact that
yesterday New York inaugurated fire
mans college''-school would have been
the better word, but we still love high
sounding names. This school is to con-
sist of four classes. each of them de-
voted to a particular line of instruction
in the duties of fireman. There are to
be courses and lectures, illustrated, on
general fire fighting: lectures on the use
Of tools and fire apparatus, on boilers
and engines, on the operation of high
pressure water systems, the care of
horses, fire telegraphs, discipline, COM
bustibleS, explosives, chemistry, and
what not; in short, all that d fireman
should know to enable him to render
efficient and honest service. All the men
at present on the New York fire force
will be required TO attend this school,
and hereafter all applicants for positions
on the force must complete its courses
before being employed.
In the details of this fireman's
school We are not half SO much inter-
ested as we are in the principle on which
it is founded, for it is important mainly
as a concrete example of what education
in civics has resulted in. 1t is not that
We are growing better or more moral,
perhaps, SO much as that we are coming to
our senses, and as, bit by bit. we have
come to demand of our candidates for
elective Offices that they shall have some
fitness for the Office which they seek, so
we have come to recognize that it is
the height of folly for US to pay out
good salaries to men in various mu-
nicipal departments without caring much
whether they are competent to fill their
jobs. Undoubtedly the fundamental idea
behind this freman's school of New
York will in due time be adopted by all
wide-awake municipalities. and that city
will be the best governed, and get the
most for the money it expends, that has
not only schools for firemen, but schools
for the police. schools for the street
cleaners, and for many other forms of
municipal activity.
More and more we are coming to real
ize through education that the govern
ment Of city is distinctvely a business,
not a political plaything. The com
mercial firm that would employ a lot of
men for special work just because they
were recommended, not because they
were fit, would soon find itself in bank
ruptcy. What is not safe for a private
money-making business is not safe for a
municipality run on the peoples money
By and by we shall undoubtedly look
back on the old way of appointing mu-
nicipal employees as a device of the Dark
Ages. In the time near at hand efficient
service will be the only criterion of the
worth of a municipal employe