[ 360 ] RICHARD SKOLNIK ment!'10 He thought that the introduction of a detailed system of discipline, specifying employee duties and responsibilities, could insulate the Department from outside political meddling. Accordingly, he issued directives specifying departmental requirements and the penalties to be imposed for dereliction of duty. Entering saloons, neglecting horses, employing foul language, and straying from one's post were among those offenses punishable by fines and, if repeated, by dismissal.11 Waring directed his orders to be printed and conspicuously posted at all departmental stations so that employees could not plead ignorance, nor could they doubt that a firm leader and disciplinarian was at the helm. Waring made his presence felt directly as well. Personal inspection tours took him to all parts of the city, and during heavy or unexpected snowfalls, he could be found on the streets directing operations.12 The center of power had shifted dramatically; it now rested not outside the Department, but in its commissioner. Though Waring made new demands on street-cleaning employees, by minimizing their dependence on outside political forces, he eased the pressure on them. No longer would they be obliged to supplement their street-cleaning activities with political services or protect their positions by regular contributions to the Tammany machine.13 By assuring his men that appointments and promotions depended solely on personal merit, Waring encouraged them to identify with the Department and to accept its values and standards of performance. Waring's efforts to establish his leadership did not go unopposed. Department employees, accustomed to lax discipline, tended to view many of his actions as arbitrary and dictatorial. For example, his order to reduce the pay of the Department's clerical employees and his suggestion that a similar policy be applied to the street sweepers, whose pay scale he thought unduly inflated for political reasons, met strong opposition.14 Because, he expected absolute compliance, clashes with his men were inevitable. Strikes only stiffened his attitude. When 10Waring, "The Cleaning of a Great City" McClure's Magazine, IX (September 1897), 9ii. 11 Waring, Street-Cleaning ... (New York: 1897), 22; Fox, Report, 16. 12 Times, February 9, 1895; "The Military Element in Colonel Waring's Career" The Century Magazine, LIX (February 1900), 54-57. 13 Times, January 19 and August 8,1895. ^Ibid., January 16 and February 9,1895; Waring to Strong, January 15,1895, Strong Mayoralty Papers, MA.