The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-09-15
Statewide Convention of Fire
Fighters in Session.
Business Conference of Dele
gates Here This Morning.
NO ECONOMY IN HORSES
Motors Needed in Kansas
Towns, Speaker Declares.
"Necessity of Better Equipment
in Every City,"

Economy which is keeping so many
Kansas towns of the second and third
class from motorizing their fire ap-
paratus was classed as impractical this
morning by George T. Mohrbacher.
treasurer and chairman of the Kansas
State Firemen's association COMMITTEES.
in an address before a meeting of the
association in the Commercial club
rooms. Mr.. Mohrbacher is here with
the Marysville delegation. More than
seven hundred firemen. comprising
delegations. authorized representatives
or chiefs, from eighty-six Kansas cities
and towns are here attending the
twenty-ninth annual convention.
More are coming. By tomorrow.
the day of the tournament in the fair
grounds, the attendance may easily
jump to more than thousand
Business Session.
Today's program of the convention
opened this morning with the business
session in the commercial club rooms
Addresses by Mohrbacher. J. II. john
son. engineer in the fire marshals de-
partment; and an address by L. T.
Hussey, state fire marshal, was sched-
uled shortly before noon.
81 presume" said Mr.. Mohrbacher.
| in beginning, that there are chiefs
here who have probably had their
| share of grief in trying to show their
respective administrations the need
and necessity of better equipment in
their departments. The 'bugaboo of
! high taxes is invariably held up to
prominence and the customary watch
! dog of the treasury gets busy. The
old time cry of keeping the taxes
down has been used until it has be-
come a sort of joke and If the party
| who has been elected to any public
/. position on a platform of this nature
has succeeded in cutting down ex-
| penses without a serious handicap to
/ his constituency or depriving the pub
| lie of certain improvements and eff
! cheney which they demand and re-
quire, the case has so far escaped my
notice.
I'VE are living in day of progress
| siveness and the cost of high living
is a nightmare as it were-we buy the
/ best that can be had for our own per-
sonal use-we eat as much bacon at
80 cents a pound we did when it
was three for quarter-we ride in
anything from a Ford to a limosuins
nothing but strictly modern houses
will answer any longer-the day of
the oil grain plow shoe and the split
| leather boot has been forgotten. in
! fact, there's hardly an item or line
! but what we not only ask but absolute.-
! ly demand something better But an.
! sorry to say that in too many instances
! in Kansas the City Dads have not
| equipment and departments are ex-
| pected to get along with what was
! purchased when the town was per-
I haps one-half or one-fourth the size.
And why-all to keep the taxes down"
'At this time when we speak of bet
| ter equipment in a fire department in
! a small town we naturally think of
motor equipment, either combination
truck where waterworks have been
installed or for a motor chemical in
the smaller towns without water
works and why? Because the ex-
perimental stage of motor equipment
has long since passed-the auto has
come to stay and factories and inyen-
tors are vieing with each other 10
reach the stage of perfection as near
as possible. The excuse put up by
those who oppose the motor equipment
on account of impractica bility in mud
dy weather or deep snow is indeed a
lame one. True, there are times when
it might be impossible to reach a fire
on account of exceptional snow or mud
condftions-but in such cases IL would
be just as impossible to get there with
any kind of apparatus. While a motor
truck VIII of course give better serv-
ice on paved streets than on dirt
|. streets, yet a paved street is not abso-
lutely necessary for the successful
operation of it. and there is as much
reason in condemning a motor truck
on these grounds as there would be
not to put up any more buildings in
tile city because some of them had
burned down at some time or other
Brother firemen. these statements are
not made by me simply because favor
| and advocate the motorizing of fire
apparatus. but because I know thew
are true and the citing. of few in
stances viii bear out my statement
In conclusion. / say in all sincerity
that there is no reasonable excuse for
, departments in small towns not hay
ing better equipment. and by better
equipment / mean motor equipment
? hope that in a few years we will be
able to say that Sc or IS per cent OF
! the fire departments will have been
motorized
Then and not TIL then can we ex-
pect cutting down of our Insurance
rates.
Parade This Afternoon
This afternoon the firemen Will
/, stage parade on Kansas avenue. one
Of the features of the convention
Many of the delegat :ons will be in line
in uniform. The Topeka equipment
viii form conspicuous part with
its equipment. There will also be
equipment from other cities and
towns. including much of the euuip-
e -nent to be used tomorrow in the tour
4 nament.
3 Marshalls band will lead the pa
: rade-
Tournament Tomorrow
The tournament in front of the
Z. grandstand in the fair grounds, with
10.