Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-09-18

would be forced on cities of the third
class they readily voted against the
bill.
The first vote was 167 in favor to
3 against. and when the bill was re-
called the vote was 9S in favor and 56
against, showing conclusively that un-
fair means had been used in the mat
ter. The member who introduced the
bill acknowledged he did not know
the practical side of a fireman, but
was serving the wish of others.
I'VE as firemen cannot help think
ins that this is a direct outcome of
this bill, as Harrisburg firemen were
foremost, in company with Reading,
York and Allentown firemen, in fight
ing this bill.
This statement is absolutely cor
rect, for when the civil service bill
was before the Legislature last winter
a man very prominent and holding a
high position in the fire department of
Philadelphia was here to engineer this
bill through, and when he was badly
beaten his remarks to the Harrisburg
men were not very complimentary
closing with this declaration: We will
get you in line some way And we
suppose this is the outcome.
Insurance Rates
When the Underwriters Associa-
ton quoted a rate of 90 cents for
commercial purposes, which would
asked the following question: What
rate do YOU quote for the dwellings OF
the citiZens?' This question was
evaded by the following answer: We
have not worked that out yet
Look out, Mr.. Homeowner, that
you do not make up the difference
Where is the increased amount of
money to come from? The taxpayer.
There is no way of finding out how
much insurance is carried in Harris
burgs to make n house-to- house can
Vass would be impracticable; but you
can rest assured that the amount of
increase of taxes will far exceed the
amount saved in insurance. as will be
shown later in figures, which are facts.
"As was said before, the cost of
maintaining our fire department last
year was $4,000 and the cost of
maintaining a paid system would be
S12O,OO0, and that, possibly, would be
coubled on account of the tweIve-hour
law II 1t comes to pass. You can sec
an increase of SS4,000 year. Where
must 1t come from? Only one way
by levying at least q mills additional
tax on our citizens. Taking a prop
erty assessed on $1,000 basis means
an additional tax of S1.75. Take n
policy of 81, 900 with an increase of
16 cents a hundred means S1.6O for
three-year term, or 531a cents per
900 year for insurance. as against
$1.75 year on each $1,000, or a saw
Zig OF S1.21 2-3 per year to the tax
payer. You can readily see it will be
cheaper to raise the insurance. Now
they claim to give a reduction in in
surance, for which you have no guar
antee, If the city makes all these i'm
provements.
If you will examine reports of fire
losses in third class cities with volun-
teer and paid departments you will
md that Harrisburgs fire losses rank
as low as the lowest; and right here
we want to impress the fact that this
Is due to a volunteer department.
1t was said by Philadelphia fire.
men who were in this city during the
Kaufman fire that better work could
not have been done by any organ
lzatlon, not even their own paid de-
partment.
Have Objection
1t seems very strange that during
the big fire on Thursday morning
there was but one man who dis
approved of the work of the firemen.
only one question to the gentleman:
why did he want to use aerial ladders
TO night fire so low to the ground? OIL
course, on a biased opinion. and
very limited knowledge of the sur
roundings. and the work done by fire
men from the rear, it is no wonder
such an ignorant statement was made.
But right here we wish to say, Knock
If you want to; the boys will come
a gain when YOU need them; that Is the
spirit of real fireman.
Harrisburg has been visited lately
by few big fires, but why such a