Evening star., 1903-07-01

houses. etc. expired at midnight last n1gnt
and will not be renewed. The District Is
left TODAY without a dollar of insurance on
any of its property. Congress has decreed
that the District shall be it's own insurance
company No appropriation was mace
in the District appropriation Dill Decomlns
available today for the payment OF insu1-
ance premiums. The matter was 1noFoosn
ly discussed last winter before the commit
tees of Congress when the Commissioners
estimates were under consideration.
In framing the appropriation Dill the pro-
vision in the contingent fund Tor Insurance.
was purposely omitted This action Dy
mittee members had been quite free In ex-
pressing their opinion that the District
would save money by standing all risks OF
loss by fire. A statement made Defore tne
committee showed that in twenty years
time only 81 900 had been received by the
District in fire losses. while the amount OF
premiums paid was in the neighborhood OF
$4,000 The Commissioners explained 10
the committee, however. that this small
loss might be considered as unusual only
a year before the period OF the neslnnins
of the report made to the committee IN
1882, the Jefferson School building was
burned with a loss of $4,000. which the
District received from the fire insurance
companies.
Value Of Property.
The risk undertaken by the District this
year amounts to about $3.OOO.OOO. 1t is said
that the non-insurance Of municipal build
ings is a comparatively old practice in other
cities. In these cities, however, councils
could appropriate money to repair fire
losses at any time, whereas In the District
If building should burn. or partly burn, 1t
would be necessary to await action by Con-
gress. as the current appropriation for re-
oirS ia ha rd1
eral wear and tear on the buildings.
The matter was brought to a crisis at the
last session Of Congress because Of the de-
mand of the underwriters for a large in
crease in the premiums. The old agreement
expired last night. and the underwriters
desired higher rate The Commissioners
asked for the increase, with the result that
no appropriation was made for the purpose
at all The Commissioners put the matter
squarely before Congress stating that they
were unwilling to take the responsibility OF
recommending the cancellation of all insur-
ance policies.
Changes in the Departments.
In the street cleaning department today a
number of changes are to be noted. Mr.. r..
" Rusk becomes the contractor for ma
chine sweeping and flushing the streets. He
is to flush G0,00O square yards of street sur
face down town every evening. If 1t is
found that the flushing is not too detrimen-
tai to the asphalt pavements this amount
will be increased The contract with the
former machine sweeping firm, Lilly &
Robinson, expired last night The only in
crease of appropriation in the street depart
ment was made to enable the department
to include certain added territory to its
schedule.
The new appropriation bill provided three
additional places in the Office of the Dis
trict assessor. Mr.. H. H. Darneille. To fill
the places the Commissioners have ap-
pointed Frank A. Gunther, personal tax in
spector, at 1920; John Humphrey, assist
ant license inspector, at 81 600, and Charles
M. White, jr., clerk, at 800.