Public administration cases by Richard J. Stillman

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
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(January 03, 2012)
Public Administration
The Blast in Centralia No.5, provided a great insight on the function of public administration; and despite the fact that it occurred many decades ago i.e. March 25, 1947 at 3: 27 pm it still bears significance in the modern day society. The accident caused the death of 111 miners and affected many others such as family and friends and this was linked to poor public administration procedures. This paper is based on the reading of the article "The Blast in Centralia No.5," and justifies the need for and importance of a strong and effective public administrative system in society.
Public safety administrative officials had inspected the mine and found it wanting in its safety standards; however they did nothing to evade the disaster. This was mere ignorance on their part and the disaster came as no surprise as the facts of the conditions in the mines lay bear for everyone to see. The company was more interested in making profits than in the safety of the workers and the conditions were deplorable and hazards were real (Stillman, 2009). There were numerous calls from state and federal officials and agencies and union officials to the government and company to correct the hazard.
Prior to the mine explosion, inspectors from the state of Illinois sent by the then governor John Hamilton oversaw safety and practice regulations in the mines in 1883. This was followed by other inspections in 1899 and 1917 respectively. In 1946 the department of interior from the department of mines wrote a letter so as to enforce safety regulations in the mines as directed by Coal Mines Association (CMA). However, the Centralia Coal Company and the state regulation administration and the union officials never acted on this directive (Stillman, 2009).
The two main hazards in a coal mine are coal dust and gas; coal dust is harmful to humans if they breathe and it is also highly explosive. The dust is developed by cutting and loading machines in the coal mines. Some of the dust stays in suspension while the other settles and subsides on the walls and floor in the tunnels of the mine. This is disastrous since if there is an explosion there will be more dust emitted in the air. The way to stop such as disaster would be rock dusting. The Centralia mine was very dry and dusty and the workers had raised concerns of this condition numerous times.
Woodrow Wilson believed that public administ...