The Crippled Driver: A Plea for Justice in City Hall
Patrol wagon driver J.C. Trosper, permanently injured in a mill fire while serving the city, finds his job on the line as a new administration takes office.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Patrol wagon driver J. C. Trosper of the police department has not been let out yet, and it is likely that he will be retained by the new administration. The officials are not disposed to look at his case from a political standpoint, and a number of requests have been made that he be kept in the department. Trosper was injured in the fire at the St. Paul Tacoma Lumber Company's mill four years ago. At that time he was a member of the fire department. He was standing on a platform with a nozzle, playing a stream on the fire, when the platform gave way. In the fall his right arm was permanently crippled so that he cannot use it freely. The injury does not interfere with his duties as driver and it has been urged that it would be no more than justice to give him employment, regardless of his political affiliations. The fact that he was crippled in the discharge of his duty while in the employ of the city is said to be sufficient reason for retaining him.
“The fact that he was crippled in the discharge of his duty while in the employ of the city is said to be sufficient reason for retaining him.”
This story highlights a century-old tension between political patronage and civic duty. Even then, the community recognized that those injured in the line of public service deserved security, a principle that remains at the heart of debates over workers' compensation and public sector employment protections today.
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