Morning journal and courier., 1880-04-30
UNHAPPY FIRE UNDERWRITERS

UNHAPPY FIRE UNDERWRITERS.
 If it is fair to judge from the melancholy tone of the annual meeting of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, the fire insurance interest is in bad way. President Baker, in his annual address, said: "ThinRs are going from bad to worse with great rapidity the opposing foe is on the double-quick. Valued policy laws, excessive license requirements, unfavorable decisions by attorney generals as to the intent of statutes, have received an ad dition in bills lately passed which prevent the removal of causes from State to Federal Courts. We are inert, we do nothing as a unit, so we suffer-" Twenty five companies, MT. Baker added, have retired from business during the year. Generalization, useless competition and hostile legislation are bringing fire underwriting to 8 low level. While other kinds of business have shown signs of return ing prosperity, insurance rates have declined during the year.
 The gloom which President Bakers address cast over the meeting was not relieved by the report of the Committee on Legislation and Taxation, which declared that ''during the winter just closed we have witnessed the in AAoS5 SA N~S-S NN wise and negotiable bills, purporting to regu- late insurance matters, than were probably ever before proposed during like period" :" but happily only small proportion have be- come laws. The 'fvalued policy" law adopted by the State of Wisconsin and the bill for similar law now before the Legislature of New York also added to the assembled underwrit- ers' unhsppiness. The effect of ''valued pol icy'' laws, it was declared. would be to change contracts for fire insurance from indemnity contracts, as they had always been, into mere gambling policies; to hinder the procuring of adequate insurance by the property owner and indirectly by the mortgagse; to increase the cost of insuring real estate, and to create suspicion between the insurer and the in sured their moral eff ect can only be bad, as they would offer inducements to owners to obtain oyer-insurauce on real property and thsn set it on fire; by compelling companies to pay the full amount, however obtained, and in disregard of the actual loss. In this con nection one speaker characterized legislators as infinite idiots," and was otherwise happy in his remarks.
 But though the meeting was not joyous 
 the troubles of those engaged in the business of fire insurance, some interesting reports were made, and among them was that of the Committee on Construction of Buildings, who complained that, owing to improper con. struction in this country, the annual losses are double what they should be. They presented numerous statistics and facts drawn from con- parison with the percentage of losses in Eu- rope. They called attention to vibrations in buildings caused by machinery as an element calculated to increase the chances of destruc- tion in case of fire, by weakening the struc- ture. They also called attention to the dan gsfbf oonhagration in the many immense and fimsily built summer hotels recently erected, nearly all of which, they assert, and doubt less with truth, are improperly provided with appliances for extinguishing fires. They re- po4ed unfayorably upon the use of iron in bH siings and said "Ths best authori- ties are now agreed as to the dangers haz- arded by it's use, at least in positions sub jecting it to great strain and unequal tena- peratures, and the opinion has been ex- pressed by high authorities on the subject that even wood, properly used in good solid construction, is better than iron. As has been amply proven by experience, no build ing is likely to prove 8 wreck 50 soon when subjected to great heat, either from within or without, as one constructed mostly of iron. The reasons for this readily suggest them selves. There is the quality of expansion which iron shows in the presence of even moderate heat, and which, in the case of girders and beams not properly set, transmits unusual pressure upon the walls. There is the well known weakening of the material un- der increased temperature, and there is the greater danger to be encountered by hremen in fighting fire in such . building. The walls of a brick building form barrier to the spread of the fire, and at the same time de- fence to the men; but 8 line of iron sup ports does neither. and the heat generated by the burning of a building whose exposed sides are composed only of iron columns, with nothing but brittle glass intervening, may at any moment render the near approach of fremen impossible. It will also be trans mitted, with no other check than the atmos- phere interposes, to adjacent buildings" The general lack of proper building laws was also severely commented upon. The fire insurers think it would be good thing if they could have more to do with making and enforcing building laws, and probably it would.
 One of the members of the Board uttered a sentiment that will find much acceptance out eide of fire insurance circles. ssThank the Lord, D said he, ''the Legislatures have nearly all adjourned" At the next annual meeting It is to be hoped that those present. will feel better.