The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-10-22
SCHOOLHOUSE INSURANCE.
Underwriters Directing to the PrOpo-
sition Raised by the Board.

The question of insuring the schoolhouse
property, to come before the School Board
Friday night, has aroused the insurance
men Of the city. The adverse report OF
President Sloan is objected to by the I'M
derwriters, and some facts will be presented
to the board, tending to show that the in
surance should be renewed. DR.. H. G. Mar
tin, editor of Insurance Rough Notes, states
that the board would be very unwise If
1t failed to effect insurance on the various
school properties owned by the city. In an
interview DR.. Martin said:
LAS a business proposition I think the
action proposed by the School Board in re-
lation to insurance on school property be-
longing to the city most reprehensible. The
board Is a large borrower and a $4,000 loss:
at any time. would involve an additional
annual premium paid by the city for the
past three years, to replace such a loss.
When the School Board has accumulated
a surplus or succeeded In creating an in
surance fund sufficient to cover the loss LA
BILE TO be caused by a single fire it is time
enough TO talk about becoming its own in
s honac P prep sehoo of B9 fae c hayih N the fts p poaoe5-
sion, in trust, to care for and protect for the
citizens has no more right to neglect its
life insurance or trust company acting in a
like fduciary capacity. In a statement
that the premiums paid for insurance dur
ing The past three years on t~wenty-three
pieces of property has amounted to S.
Insignificant sum-$675 in losses. This has
heer. fortunate for the city and the compan-
les have been husky: as they do not, as a
rule, enjoy such immunity from losses on
schoolhouse property.
According to the Chronicle Fire Tables,
whose publishers keep tab on fire losses in
the United States, the aggregate property
loss on schoolhouses during the past fifteen
years has been SO, S74, COS, an average annual
loss of ss2i,s7. During the last three years
seventy-ive schoolhouses have burned in
Indiana, on which the property loss was
1915, $50, and the insurance STAG, go, the net
loss to school districts being $l69. 4SCa sum
sufficient to pay the premiums, at the rate
of one-half Of l per cent, on $4,000, 900 for
nearly three and one-half years. The city
should have every schoolhouse insured, on
the same principle that prompts the wealth.
lest corporations to insure, railroad corpor-
ations, for instance, though their risks are
scattered across the continent. Certainly
the Indianapolis School Board cannot af-
ford to take greater chances of sustaining
fire losses than these great corporations.
1t has fifty-six school buildings of an esti-
mated value of s1.5OO,oN. on which there
should be carried at least 100000 insur-
ance-a proportionate amount on each
amount of Insurance would be about 5000.
On March %, 1893, a fire loss occurred in
the high school building No. ], causing a
loss of 81, 732. 80, which was paid by the in
surance companies, and with fifty-six such
properties exposed, fire losses are liable to
occur any day.
"A Photographic view of the construction
of some of these buildings would show
what is liable to occur in the way of loss
of life should some of these buildings burn.
But this is not pertinent to the question of
insuring the school property which, neg
lected as it is, and farmed out to favorites
of officials as it has been. is likely to bring
the School Board into d~isrepute whenever
a destructive fire occurs. The board should
have more sense than to neglect it's duty,
because, by such neglect, a few dollars has
for a few years past been saved to the
city, any more than an old man should
throw up his life insurance policy because
he is still hale and hearty"