Review of The Blast in Centralia No. 5 - Essay Example

As seen in the article by Martin (1948), Driscoll O. Scanlan- thirteen years of age- was among the inspectors of the mine as appointed by the then governor, Dwight H. Green. Martin (1948) continues to argue that Scanlan was committed to his work and effortlessly aimed at ensuring that the mining laws would be enforced; thus, security and high output of the miners' efforts. As contrasted to Scanlan, the other miners were reluctant and passed timing chatting throughout their working time (Martin, 1948).

As the leader, Scanlan raised alarm over the laxity portrayed by the miners, recommending that other miners need to be appointed, and that the mine was the worst in the entire district. Besides the issues on the side of the miners, the mine was faced with other challenges that entailed the general infrastructure of the mine. Martin (1948) says that Scanlan recommended cleaning of the passage ways as well as making use of clay as opposed to filling of shots using coal dust. Additionally, Martin (1948) indicates that Scanlan also advocated for the shutting down of the mine for renovation and maintenance purposes.

From the above case, it is valid to argue that there a lot of issues surrounding this case, ranging from administration to political. With the help of the work and compilation by Wilson Woodrow on The study of Administration, and Cropf’s American public administration: Public service for the 21st century, this section shall attempt to analyze what went wrong in the case and how politics influenced the occurrence of this disaster, and how the same would have been easily avoided. Wilson (1886) indicates that for any organization to be successful, the management must shift lots of their energy in improving the personnel, so as they can attain efficiency.

As seen in the case of Centralia, this was a failure on the side of the governor’s administration as he ignored the call by the head of the mine on the incompetence of the miners who spent a majority of their time gossiping and wasting a lot of time, which would have been used in boosting the output of the mine. The organization methods and follow-up mechanisms, which are key in administration as seen in the argument by Wilson (1886), were not good enough to improve the personnel in the mine.

Secondly, Wilson (1886) says that in any administration system, the government must ensure that they analyze what they can successfully accomplish, and how they can effectively accomplish the same using minimum amounts of funds and less energy. Martin (1948) reports a different case as rock dusting, that has over the years been said to be distressing and not fit for the miners, was applied in the case of Centralia. The government then watches the miners inhaling huge chunks of coal dust, which affects their health.

The government, in this case failed as they had no clear plan on how they would deal with the issues in the mine. Probably, one would argue that this is the reason behind the government assuming the alarms caused by Scanlan, on the poor condition of the mine to operate effectively. This opposes the argument by Wilson (1886) who is of the opinion that administration ought to be a government at work, which seeks attention and immediate action to issues. Wilson (1886) in