CASE ANALYSIS: "THE BLAST IN CENTRALIA NO. 5"
This story sheds lights on the additional insight into the public administration role in modern society. We might not realize how much the modern society relays on the sightless administrative organizations and their convenient performance; who are transporting us safely by road, air, or rail; keeping the purity of our food; sending us our mail. The Centralia No. 5’ victims are just like us depending on the impersonal administrative system. The following story is just an illustration for how the public administration becomes like an inescapable necessity for maintaining the current modern society. On March 25, 1947, the Centralia Mine No. 5 exploded and killed 111 miners. The Mine was established in 1907, two miles south of Centralia, Illinois, to provide coal during World War II. 250 men were employed in this mine to produce 2000 tons of coal daily. Several years prior the fatality time, there were several complaints made related to the safety of the mine. The danger was that the build up of coal dust could give rise to an explosion at any second. As an expert, Scanlan had recommended that in order to reduce the possibility of the coal dust's exploding, the mine would be "dusted" with non-explosive, powdered stone. Yet, his expert opinion was not enough to encourage…show more content… Driscoll O. Scanlan, who was one of the 16 state mine inspectors, worked at The Centralia Mine No. 5 as a mine inspector. On an organizational level, the players include the Centralia Coal Company owned by Bell & Zoller, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), the U.S. Government, the State of Illinois presented by the Governor Dwight H. Green, and the miners themselves. Moreover, there is Robert Medill, the Director of the Department of Mines and Minerals, who the inspector’s reports were sent to; and Robert Weir, the Assistant to the Director, who actually handled those reports as