New-York tribune., 1909-05-17
FIRE WASTE.

There is a distinct and serious reproach to
American administrative efficiency enterprise,
thrift and common sense in the yearly report
which has just been made by the president of
the National Board Of Underwriters. From that
report it appears that the ordinary losses from
fires in the United States, apart from such ex-
ceptional and largely non-preventable disasters
as that ar San Francisco, are considerably more
than S20OO00OOO a year. In the first three
months of the present year they were almost
S53 100000 They are nearly three-quarters of
million every day. In five years they amount
to considerably more than the entire public debt
OF the nation.
Against the expenditure Of a much smaller
amount yearly on our navy there is a great and
persistent outcry as a waste Of the peoples
money With that Outcry we Go not sympathize
nor do most thoughtful Americans But even
those who do most strongly deprecate large
naval expenditures must regard this fire waste
as far worse. For most of the money spent on
the navy is not lost, but is simply transferred
TO the pockets of wage earners. OF government
employees and Of shareholders IN great indus
tries while the money lost in fires is absolutely
lost, without profit or recoupment to anybody
Indeed, the indirect results Of fire losses are still
further losses. in the interruption Of business
and the deprivation of communities Of taxable
property.
The discredit of these conditions is empha-
sized by the contrast with other countries 1t
has long been favorite boast that our city fire
departments are much superior TO those Of Euro
pean cities, and the operations of our New York
hremen have often been displayed TO foreign
visitors for their admiration. 1t may be that
such superiority exists. Yet the mortifying fact
is that our fire losses in America are vastly
greater. from ten to thirty times greater. than
those in European countries That is a fact
which it is difficult TO explain on any creditable
ground We do not know that our climate is
on the whole, more provocative of confagrations
than that Of other lands. AS for systems Of
building construction, Americans have been
vaunting themselves their great advance in
concrete and other fireprOof materials and
methods. So there seems to be only too much
reason for attributing our greater losses from
fires, as does the president Of the National
Board OF Underwriters. to ''recklessness here. as
against the care. forethought and wise super.
vision in Europe"
Perhaps the most disheartening feature of the
case is the circumstance that fire losses here are
steadily and rapidly increasing According TO
the report Of the National Conservation Com
mission, our population has increased 73 per
cent since 1880 while fire losses have increased
l43 per cent or nearly twice as much In the
ten years ended with 1880 the cost of fires was
81 IS a mead Of the population while in the nine
years ended with 1908 they were So 53 and in
the I'VE years ended with 1903 they were So 10.
There Is widespread and commendabe move
ment for the prevention of unnecessary waste
In natural resources and in raw material-in
lumber, coal an other minerals in water and
IN water power. Such waste is doubtless o1.Aa+
IL Is deplorable, and it should be reduced to n
minimum But even greater is the desirabjlitv
OF checking waste by fire. the major part OF
"hlch' there Is reason to believe, is perfectly