and generally shall have full charge and control of the management, operation, extension, enlargement and betterment of the fire department system of the city, subject to the provisions of this Charter.

Sec. 13. Board Shall Appoint Fire Chief-Term of-Naming Places of Service and Grading Positions.-Said board shall appoint a fire chief to serve during the pleasure of the board. It shall also, from time to time, divide the places of employment and service in the fire department into positions, naming them, grading according to the importance of the duties to be performed by the employes occupying such positions. The chief of the fire department, and all other persons in the employ of the fire department at the date of the taking. effect of this Charter shall, upon the taking effect of this Charter, be deemed to have been appointed to and employed in their present positions and places of employment by said Board of fire and Water Commissioners at the same compensation. without further or additional appointment or employment, except that the said chief of the fire department shall henceforth be known as Fire Chief.

43;

Tenure of office; increase of salary son, 123 Mo. State ex rel. vs during term. (State ex rel. vs John- Longfellow, 95 Mo. App. 660.)

Sec. 14. Fire Department-Persons Taken Into ServiceRules Governing.-Except as provided in the next preceding section of this article, and with the exception of the Fire Chief, no person shall be taken into the service of the fire department otherwise than in accordance with the civil service laws, rules and regulations contained in or provided for by this Charter. All employments in the fire department shall, in the first instance, be for a probationary period of six months, during which time such probationers shall perform such substitute duties in the department and shall receive such per diem compensation for the actual time engaged in the performance of such duties as the board shall prescribe. Such probationers shall be nunbered by the Fire Chief in the order in which, according to merit, they are certified for employment from the eligible list of the civil service commisson, and each probationer who by such actual experience manifests his fitness for duty as a fireman shall be selected for regular employment in the department in the same relative order.

Sec. 15. Companies Shall be Organized-Board Shall Prescribe Duties-Determine Quantity and Character of Equipment. -Said board shall organize fire, hose, ax, chemical, hook and ladder

and other fire fighting companies and employ a suitable number of able and reputable inhabitants of the city as firemen to take the care and management of the engines and apparatus and implements used and provided for the extinguishment of fires, and shall prescribe the duties of firemen, and make rules and regulations for their government, and impose reasonable penalties for violation of the same. Said board shall from time to time, determine and fix the quantity, kind, character and quality of all equipment, appartus and supplies needed by said fire department, including means of giving and receiving fire alarms, and shall purchase and pay for the same as provided in this Charter.

Sec. 16. Fire Chief-Powers and Duties-Responsible for Discipline-Superintendence and Control Over Officers and Men -Control Over Persons at Fires-And ex-Officio Powers of Chief of Police-Subordinates to Have the Same Power as PolicemenOther Powers Enumerated.-The Fire Chief shall be responsible for the discipline, good order and proper conduct of the employes under him in the whole fire department, the enforcement of all laws, ordinances, rules and regulations pertaining thereto, and for the care and condition of the houses, engines, hose, carriages and all property of the department. He shall have the superintendence, control and command of all the officers and men belonging to the department, and full power to remove, discharge and suspend them, or any of them, and shall also have charge of all the engine houses used by the department, and of all the engines and fire apparatus belonging to the city. He shall, likewise, have full control of all persons present at fires, and to that end shall ex-officio have and exercise all the powers of the Chief of Police of the city thereat, and all of his subordi nates shall have the same powers as policemen. He shall have power, if need be, to summon any and all persons present to aid in extinguishing any fire, in removing personal property from any building on fire or in danger thereof, and in guarding the same, and any person refusing to obey such summons shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. He shall also have power to order the cutting down and removing of any building, erection, fence and thing, if he shall deem it necessary for the purpose of checking the progress of any fire. In case of the absence of said Fire Chief from any fire, the assistant in the department of the highest rank then present shall, for the time, have the powers and perform the duties of such Fire Chief. The Fire Chief or the assistant in command at any fire may prescribe limits in the vicinity of such fire within which no person, excepting those who re

side therein, members of the fire department or the police department, and those admitted by order of the officers of the fire department, shall be permitted to come.

Sec. 17. Common Council to Provide For Fund For Pensioning Firemen.-It shall be the duty of the Common Council to appropriate and set apart twenty-five per cent of the total amount received by the city from the tax on foreign insurance companies to aid in the creation of a fund for the purposes set forth in the act of the general assembly of the State of Missouri, entitled, “An act to provide for the creation, maintenance and management of funds for the pensioning of crippled, disabled and retired firemen, and for the relief of widows, minor children and dependents of the deceased firemen; the retirement from service of members of the fire department, and the pensioning of members, their widows, minor children and dependents in all cities in this state which now have or which hereafter acquire a population of more than one hundred thousand inhabitants: Approved March 23rd, 1903. "

Appropriation, When Made.-Such appropriation shall be made as soon as the money has been actually received into the City Treasury from said tax on foreign insurance companies, and the organization of said board of trustees fully completed as provided in said Act of the General Assembly.

Sec. 18. Management and Control of Pension Fund.-The management and control of such fund shall be governed by all the provisions and limitations in said Act of the General Assembly contained.

Sec. 19. Amount of Pension Fund-Limitations.-Whenever the city shall have paid into said fund as aforesaid, the sum of one hundred thousand dollars, no further appropriation shall be made by the city to said fund except by ordinance passed by an affirmative vote of at least two thirds of the members elect of each house of the Common Council.

Sec. 20. Ordinances to Carry Out Objects of This Article.— The Common Council shall have power to pass all such ordinances not in conflict with this Charter or the Constitution and Laws of the State, as it shall deem proper to more fully carry out the objects and purposes of this article.

Section 1. Common Council to Provide For Establishment of Levee District-May Acquire Land-Cost of-Assessment— Bonds. The Common Council shall have power to provide for the establishment of levee districts within the city limits and for the construction of levees, dikes, drains and other works therein, for the protection of the lands within such levee districts from floods or overflow of waters, and for the acquisition of lands rights-of-way, and other rights required therefor by the city, by purchase, condemnation or otherwise, including railroad property. The cost of such land. rights-of-way and other rights, and of the construction of said levees, dikes, drains and other works within any levee district may be paid by assessment of benefits upon all the lands within said levee district, exclusive of improvements thereon, or out of the general fund of the city, or by the issue and sale of the bonds of the city according to law, or partly by assessment and partly out of the general fund, as may be provided by ordinance; or, when two or more of such levee districts may be joined as one benefit district as hereinafter provided. for the acquisition of such lands or rights, and the construction of such improvements, the Common Council shall have power, by ordinance, to provide that the cost of such acquisition and construction may be paid by assessment of benefits upon the lands, exclusive of improvements thereon, in all such districts so joined.

Statutory provisions in regard to levees. (R. S. 1899, Chap. 124. R. S. 1909, Art. X, Chap. 41.)

Authority conferred by this section is exercise of police power, assessment of benefits is not tax, is not governed by constitutional limitations in regard to taxation and is not tak ing private property for public use without due compensation. (Morrison vs Morey, 146 Mo. 543.)

Distinction between drainage laws, sewer laws and levee laws. (Mound

City Land & Stock Co. vs Miller, 170
Mo. 240.)

Assessment must cover all benefited land in district. (State ex rel. vs Wall, 153 Mo. 216.) Assessment not void if land not benefitted is not included in assessment. (State ex rel. vs Lumber Co., 198 Mo. 430; Corrigan VS Kansas City, 211 Mo. 608; State ex rel. vs St. Louis, 211 Mo. 591.)

Power to issue bonds for levee work. (State ex rel. vs City of Neosho, 203 Mo. 40, 1. c. 83.)