Norwich bulletin., 1916-08-23
CHIEF STANTON WILL
 ATTEND FIRE CONVENTION
Is Chairman of Important Committee Regarding Fire Sprinkler Systems

Among the 200 or more fire chiefs who will gather at Providence next
 week from all parts of the United
 States and Canada for the forty fourth annual convention of the In
 ternationaI Association of Fire Engi-
 neers will be Chief Howard L. Stan
 ton of the Norwich Fire Department. Chief Stanton is chairman of a com mittee to investigate ways and means whereby automatic sprinkler systems
 may be used to best advantage by fire
 departments as fire defense auxiliaries, and will present a report, which he is preparing now for presentation.
 The other members of the committee
 all fire chiefs-are as follows: Frank G. Reynolds, Augusta, Ga; c. ". Rim
 ger, Minneapolis, Minn.; Aug. Ger
 sey, Elmira, N. J.; J. J. Conway, Gin
 cinnatti, O.; T. G. Toomey, Boston, Mass.
 Years ago the International Asso-
 cia ton of Fire Engineers reached the comfortable position where there is no
 reason to fear that it's conventions
 will be scantiIy attended, says the
 F7ireman's Herald Even when the meeting place is relatively remote from the centers of population the number
 of fire chiefs who avail themselves of this educational opportunity is always considerable. Of course, as will be the case in Providence, the attendance
 is larger when the convention city is
 near the thickly settled parts of the
 country. The Providence attendance
 this year may not break any records,
 but that it will be high is assured.
 This assurance flows from the fact
 that the | A. F. E. has kept abreast of the needs of the fire service. It
 does for fire chiefs all that an asso- citation can dO Therefore it has es-
 fol 1fchn non z1E1T7Fa "
 among the professional societies of this continent, and to it's annual ses-
 sions go the men who take a serious
 interest in the work of conserving life
 and property from fire, or at least as
 many of these men go as can afford
 the time and money. for the fire chiefs
 calling is ill paid and crowded with
 work
 We know that it is the custom for
 amateur takers and writers to blame
 the I. A. F. E. for not being what it is
 not and cannot be. The organization
 is not a legislative body; it is not a laboratory; it is not a political organ izatiOn; and 1t has not and cannot | have any more power than that which comes from forming public opinion through the education of it's own mem l beTship. It is by sticking very close to it's vital work that the ]. A. r. E. has grown so strong in the A years of it's existence that today it is unap- prOaChablV the most important fire man body in the world.
 The L A. F. F. was formed in an swer to a real need-the need for in struCtion, for interchange of ideas, for the inspection of the tools of the call ing, for that freshening of the mind which comes from leaving home and hearing and seeing how One's fellows do the work that we do ourselves. To supply this need was the idea back of the organization of the I. A. F. E. and that idea has continued throughout the years.
 Innovations arranged for this years meeting promise to add appreciably to the interest of the gathering. The 1 papers are few in number, but they are on timely subjects and have been entrusted to able men. Big and little items of apparatus and equipment will 1 be on view in large number and will be tested in the open for the exhibi- tors who desire it.
 Altogether then the approaching con- vention is full of attraction and will generously repay those who attend it.