, 1879-08-17

wooden houses within the city Limits were
abandoned, the exposure alone which Is incl
dent to such scheme would entail severe
loss upon all classes Of citizens. Recentf1re
insurance statistics show that, while the aG-
| greeate insurance business of, the country
has been done at q loss during the past slz
months, low rates in Chicago have yielded
| tho companies profit. This proves That
| Chicago has become oue of the safest cities
| in the world as to fires. If the same relative
| condition of things be continued, insurance
! rates generally will be advanced, but rates IN
| Chicago viii continue as low as they have
been, or become even lower. In cesa the
| Fire law Of this city be tampered with in any
| manner, Chicago property and business will
not enjoy this advantage, but, on the con-
trary, may be compelled to pay higher rates
than other cities pay. An increase of insur-
ance rates means higher rents, lower profits,
and general disadvantage in competing tor
business. Such results impose their burdens
upon all classes. It is not merely the
property-owners and merchants who suf-
fer, but the tenants and employees, whose
pay is reduced and whose expenses are in
creased BY the natural and inevitable opera
tion OF the change. It is safe to say that
the entire saving between the cost Of wooden
houses and brick houses within the district
which it is proposed to exempt from the
fire-ordinance would not amount to 10 per
cent of the increased insurance which would
T,o nj
the loss that would follow in, the destruction
Of property and diversion of business. = III:
But this view of: the matter does not rep
resent the whole dan ger. The final disaster
of o general condagrahon would come sooner
or later. Any concession made to the fire.
fends now will be followed rapidly by new
CONCESSIONS. The ordinance introduced at
the last meeting of the Council by TURNER
proposes to exempt q large district in the
southwestern portion of the city, where the
greatest danger always lies, owing to the pre-
yailing winds and the shanties, which are
already thick in that locality, and also 8 large
slice along the entire western limits.
Suppose this proposed ordinance should
be passed and signed by the Mayor, it would
be but few months, or a year at most, be-
fore another demand would be made upon
the Council for the exemption Of additional
districts. A man owning property on the
north side Of Twenty y-sixth street would be
obliged to build Of brick, while his neighbor
across the street would be at liberty to set
up pine shanty on pine posts with which
to kindle q fire for the destruction Of his
costly house. There would be manifest in
justice il this, and so the license for the
erection of pine buildings would be extended
from time to time till the fre-Gmits would
be bounded probably by Twelfth or Harrison
street in the South Division, by Halsted in
the West Division, and by Chicago avenue
inethe North Division; then Chicago would
be as much exposed to destruction as it was
ten years ago. The only safety and the only
fairness about fre-limits are to be found in
the present law, which prohibits the erection
of fre-traps anywhere within the corporate
jurisdiction Of the city.
If Chicago were threatened with yellow
fever or any other terrible epidemic, it would
be manifest folly to establish a quarantine at
Twelfth street on the south, Halsted on the
west, md Chicago avenue on the north, and
permit the disease to be brought up to those
lines. Yet fire is the greatest danger which
threatens Chicago, and the incendiaries de-
sire that the corporation shall undertake to
protect only small portion of the city
Millions Of dollars have been contributed
by the property-owners Of Chicago since
1871 to enlarge and improve the Fire-De-
partment, to extend the water pipes, and to
construct tens Of miles of sewers, in order
that the erection of wooden buildings within
the city may be excluded without hardship
OF Inconvenience. Shall this enormous out
lay go for nothing? It viii have been ut
terly wasted if the dre-imits be narrowed,
or if two-story frame houses under the name
of sheds be tolerated, because no Fire-De-
partment is so largo and efficient, and
no water-system SO extensive, as to
guarantee protection to G city walled around
with shanties of white pine that burns like
tinder. The property-owners and business
men must assert their rights in this matter.
They must make every Alderman in the
Council feel thar if he shall lend himself to
the conspiracy to burn the city it will be at
his peril. It is to be lamented that the very
suggestion Of such: :a:scheme does not subject
the author to criminal prosecution for con-
spring against the public safety.' There is
q law under which men who commit mere
nuisance can be indicted and punished, but
to endeayor to destroy the fre-limits is
thousand times more menacing to the city
than all the rendering and fertilizing factories
combined, aud public sentiment to this effect
must manifest itself so emphatically that no
Alderman will dare oppose it.
= HOW PAN1CS ARE BRED.
A few days ago The TRIBUNE directed the
attention of those persons who were casting
about for the cause of financial pnnics to the
case of the Rev Adirondack" MURRAY as
illustrating the chief conditions of q general