The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1911-08-18

Many people stood aghast at the re
quest of the Everett fire department
for an appropriation of $1,000 for tn,
year of 1912. We have heard so mucl
about financial stringency in connection
with our city departments that the most
of us throw fit at the mention of any
increased expenditures. 1t would be wei
therefore for us to analyze the work o.
the Everett fire department and find out
what we are getting for our money.
The fact is that we have been re-
ceiving fire protection and there are two
reasons: first, we have been extremely
lucky; second, the small number of mer
under command of Chief Taro have done
the work that should have been per.
formed by twice their number. Chief
| Taro has made an ideal fire officer. The
men under him have been well disci-
plined. Taro is man who does not
say go" when there is a fire, but
Come He has had the faculty of ex-
acting obedience from his men without
leaving the feeling that they were be-
ing "bossed." That explains part OF
the efficiency that has marked the fire
department. Everett has been lucky in
that there have been no really wicked
fires since the halocaust of two years
ago which destroyed the court house and
several of our business structures. There
have been numerous small fires but for
the most part they have been quickly
gotten under control by the fire depart
ment. With our present fire fighting
force and our equipment we shudder to
think what would happen if fire should
break out in any of the frame structures
blocks which still grace Tor disgrace)
Hewitt Avenue Why? Because we are
still trying to get along with village
equipment and small force of men.
Why, Boise, Idaho, city of twenty
one thousand population, has force of
thirty y-seven men; Everett with its
thirty thousand people, has twenty y-two
men in its department. Surely we are
flirting with the blind goddess of chance
in the matter of fire fighters.
We are slow to learn also that it is
next to impossible to get efficient men
unless we pay them decent wages. A
man needs to serve an apprenticeship in
the fire department just as he needs to
serve an apprenticeship at the carpen-
ter's bench or the machinist's lathe.
You would not expect to get a skilled
workman in any trade if he had served
three months only at that occupation.
You should not expect that man
could join the fire department and rem
der skillful work Immediately upon en-
tering that vocation. Nor is a man GO
ing to enter that department, with its
dangers and its irksome life, unless there
is a chance for promotion and pay com
mensurate with the chances he takes.
The man who guards your property and
your lie IIOHl tHe llle eicIHehC 10 WoiIHy
of compensation that will induce him
to regard his position as a fixed vocation
rather than temporary makeshift that
will keep him alive until he can strike
something else.
Chief Taro wants wages raised to a
point where it will attract to the service
high standard of men. We pay our
pipemen at present 5000 a month. He
wants to start them in at $500 and at
the end of three years continuous service
raise them to $4,000. Fire lieutenants
receive $500 a month, he wants to raise
them to $S0OO Captains now get $4,000;
gets $s5; he asks 800. The chief asks
for salary of $l,O0 year. There is
lower than that, $500 is the mini
hardly a city in the country that pays
mum paid in almost any American city
that maintains a paid fire department.
Your city clerk, or engineer, or con-
troller you consider worth that figure,
why not your fire department chief,
who is as necessary and vital a part
of your government as any other of
ficerY
Another fire engine to be held in re-
serve is asked for. A fire at Delta calls
out the whole department. What would
happen if a serious fire should break
out in the business district and our
fire fighters were combating blaze
at Delta or out in the north end of the
L lCtont inuod ON rAanro 4 1