NEGROES DON'T WANT TO MOVE.
Firemen Object to Going to Even
Eighteenth and Vine Streets.
An old row has broken out in the fire department over the color scheme, through the building of a double fire house facing the old baseball grounds on Independence avenue. No. 11, a negro company, has been in this district for many years. Now that a new station with facilities for two companies is being completed, preparations are being made to transfer this negro company to Eighteenth and Vine streets, where No. 10, a white company, now is, and send that company to Independence avenue to share the new station with some other white company.
The negroes do not want to go to the Vine street station and wire pulling has started. Property owners have got into the fight and the alderman, Lapp, is in all sorts of trouble.
"But the change will be made," said an official yesterday. "The chief runs the department and he has the right to change companies about. He knows that the district on Independence avenue has built up, and that there are flats built close to the fire station. He knows that a white and a negro company could not get along as well together in the same headquarters as two white companies, and all of us know that the negro firemen will find more of their people at Eighteenth and Vine streets than they have now in Independence avenue."
