The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1909-01-06
FIRES AND INSURANCE
What Being Burned Out May
Mean to a Business.
DAMAGE ONE CANNOT COVER.
Enormous Losses Caused by the 8us-
pension Of Operations and the Drift
ing Away Of Trade That Are Not
Appreciated by the General Public.

ing Away Of Trade That Are Not
Appreciated by the General Public.
II suppose you heard that Blank &
Co. were burned out from the roof to
the basement last night!" remarks the
man in the car
seen the morning paper. Il suppose
they carried insurance."
"Oh, 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 to 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 fire are crippling and perhaps
ruinous to the fire victim.
Take, for example, a highly organ
lied factory plant in prosperous times
which has been turning out vast
specialized product from the hands of
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. If
every piece Of machinery, every build
ing and all material adjuncts of the
plant have been covered to full value
in such a plant, will the reader dare
make q rough guess as to what the
limitations of loss may be?
Only. the other day l stepped into
q bookbindery, unostentatious in it's
street signs and occupying a fifth
door 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 I guess
the smoke and the water were about
n bad for us. Sometimes it is almost
better to have the fire yourself than
be next door to it."
Which seemed to be especially true
Of book material. Where smoke and
SCOT had failed to blot and ruin the
stock, water from the engines In the
street had flooded it until ruin alone
was descriptive. Everything had been
closed down, workers in the plant
were idle. and the proprietor was
awaiting the adjustment Of the insur-
ance which he had been carrying. But
n NJ ino
was knotty situation.
Ordinarily the house had carried pol
icies which would have left it the
minimum OF risk on its machinery,
stock and materials. Ordinarily still
further blanket policy was carried for
the purpose of covering the normal
amount OF book material on hand
owned by others and contracted for
rebinding. But only a few days be-
fore the fire the house had received u
consignment Of $1,000 worth Of law
books to be bound. These volumes.
aside from intrinsic value, represented
SO much of other value as to make
the risk abnormal for almost any sea-
son. And these books were ruined.
Before receiving them the binder
Il
policy for themselves protecting them
against such fire loss. The firm had
not done SO. and when the fire dam
age came the disposition of the owners
was to hold the binder for them under
one of the binders blanket policies.
On this one disputed point, taking it
into court, will some one make a
guess as to what this one feature of
the fire may cost the binder, who to
all purposes was insured" if it should
be settled in the supreme court after
hve or seven years. for example?
But in the case of the big manufac-
tory, with its imported special machin-
cry. its season Of rush work and its
enormous and f1uctuating stock of ma
terial-if on the morning after the
fire the assuring companies settle in
full for the visible losses, how much
has the company been damaged?
Or first consideration, perhaps. is the
enormous payroll Of the concern. II
most of the mechanical work of the
plant has been done by pieceworkers,
still the necessary force Of directing
employees ON salary is a problem. The
determination of the owners is to start
up anew. Tried and proved employees
must be retained while the work of
rehabilitation goes on. They must be
paid even If they are to do no more
than wait. Settlement of some kind
must be made with contractors who
have been supplying raw materials
from the hands of other thousands Of
workers. No matter what the clauses
In contracts providing immunity in
case Of fires. strikes and acts of Proyi-
dence. every line Of business affecting
the welfare of the mandatory has
been affected.
The plant is total loss. Before It
can be rebuilt the ruins of the old fac
tory must be cleared away.
In the meantime all those customers
Of the manufactory who have been
pressing for the filing OF contract or
ders find themselves shut out OF any
chance for receiving them. They turn
at once to other competing establish
ments for the work. Not only does the
burned out firm lose all chance of
profits from this work. but it is run
ming long chance Of losing some
OF its oides. and best customers Of
| years standing.-CaicaEo Tribune.