The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1908-12-13
FIRES AND INSURANCE
What Eeing iueaei 0ut May
tieaa ta a Business.
DAMAGE ONE CANNOT COVER.


Enormous Losses Caused BY The Sus-
pension Of Operations and the Drift
ing Away Of Trade That Are Not
| Appreciated BY the General Public.
II suppose you heard that Blank n
Go. were burned out from the roof 60
the basement last night9' remarks the
nlan IN the car,
NO" exclalms the friend who hasn't
seen the mhruiag paper. 4 suppose
they carried Msrranceg'
"0h. yes--a hundred thousand Of it,
returns the first speaker, at which his
friend settles back with the comment
that everything Is all right then.
This Is the layman's conclusion al
most invariably. Some big concern
burns out, but with insurance to an
amount seeming 10 cover the loss the
average man Is disposed to feel that It
Is all right He doesn't stop to think
OF the enormous risks OF a business
which cannot be covered by insurance
and which for weeks, months or years
after a iire are crippling and perhaps
ruinous TO the IRE victim.
Take. for example, a highly organ
lied factory plant in prosperous times
which has been turning out vast
specialized product from the hands or
thousands Of expert workmen. This
plant, fitted with costly machinery. is
covered by insurance upon Its visible,
material assets, Fire sweeps It and
lays everything In hopeless ruin. II
every piece OF machinery. every build
ing and all material adJuncts OF the
plant have been covered to full value |
In such plant viii the reader dare
make rough guess as to what the |
limitations OF loss mag he2
Only the other day | stepped into
a bookbindery, transformations in its |
street signs and occupying a fifth /
floor in an obscure street. In the ele-
vator shaft was that peculiar odor
which marks the track Of fire and fire.
men days and weeks after such an
accident.
Most Of the fire was next door," ex.
planned the proprietor, but | guess
the smoke and the water were about 4
as bad FOR Us. Sometimes IT is almost
better to hare the fire yourself than
be next door to it,
Which seemed to be especially true
of book material. Where smoke and
Ioot had failed to blot and ruin the
'tock, water from the engines in the
Street had flooded II until ruin alone
was descriptive. Everything had been
,losed down, workers in the plant
we're Idle. and the proprietor was
waiting the adjustment Of the insur-
Ince which he had been carrying. But :
u the extent Of this insurance itself [
vas a knotty situation.
Ordinarily the house had carried pol |
cies which would have left 1t the I
minimum Of risk on its machinery. I
took and materials. Ordinarily a still b
urther blanket policy was carried for
he purpose OF covering the normal e
mount Of book material on hand n
wned by others and contracted for p
But only few days be- 5
ore the fire the house had received e
onsignment Of 5000 worth Of law d
ooks to be bound These volumes, u
side from intrinsic value. represented II
much Of other value as to make T,
le risk abnormal for almost any sea- p
IN. And these books were ruined. Il
Before receiving them the binder Il
ad asked the owners to take out a b
olicy for themselves protecting them Fl
gainst such fire loss. The firm had u
ot done so. and when the fire dam Ii
se came the disposition Of the owners G
as to hold the binder for them under d
le Of the binders blanket policies. Il
On this one disputed point, taking it b
ito court, will some one make
less as TO what this one feature Of G;
le fire may cost the binder. who to tC
purposes was insured. - If it should
: settled in the supreme court after o.
re or seven years, for example? n
But Ia the case Of the big manufac- Il
rv. with NJ i'In0rted special machin- d