The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1909-01-21
FIRE MARSHAL
SCORES AGENTS
PURTELL RAPS INSURANCE MEN
WHO OvERWRITE VALUE OF
PROPERTY.
ENCOURAGING WRONG-DOING.
Annual Report Shows That Dwellings
Lost Most Heavily from Fire
During Year.
INCENDIARISM is NOW CHECKED.


State Fire Marshal T. NJ. Purtell took
rap at insurance agents who overwrite
insurance in his annual report filed with
the governor today. To remedy the evil
he recommends that the Legislature re-
Scind an old law passed in 1874 which
requires that insurance companies in
case of loss must pay the full face of the
value of the policy or erect another
building of the same proportions as the
one destroyed.
Avaricious Agents to Blame.
in the investigation of causes of in
cendiarism, | find the most general mo-
tive to be an attempt to defraud.' says
the report. in order to do this the
guilty party must first have succeeded
in over-insuring the property. Unques-
tionably the original blame for this can
be traced to the careless or avaricious
agent who wrote the insurance without
sufficient investigation as to the value of
the property, although in many instances
additional insurance is obtained through
miSl representation. ! am not prepared
to say at the present time whether 1t is
possible to reach the agent who selhshly
or Carelessly writes the Over-insurance,
yet | do know that after the over-insur-
aucc is written, the criminal is today
protected to Il certain extent by the law
Nli"h has been in force in this state
for a number of years. | refer TO the So
called valued policy law, which entities
Il man to recover the face of policy
on Il building without reference To the
real value This is only Il benefit to the
dishonest insurer as i'll the first place
the honest man does not attempt 10 IN
sure for more than the real value, and If
through error he has done SO, would not
attempt TO collect more than his actual
loss
Many Convictions Secured
The report shows that during the last
year the full property loss III the state
by fire was 81. 1I3, $50, and The number
of fires was 2137. The largest number
of buildings affected in any one class
were dwellings, of which there We're 100
either totally or partially destroyed with
an aggregate loss of SSUO,93O.
That the department has been active
in enforcing the law is indicated by the
fact that over one hundred cases of sus-
pected nCendiariSm have been inVesu-
gated and thirty-three criminal actions
started These with twelve other actions
pending ut the time of the last report
have resulted as follows: Six convictions
10 state prison. three To the state reform
atory. six to the reform school, four to
The state asylumS, fourteen pending, sew
en- discharged on preliminary eXamina-
ton aud five acQuittalS.
Fire Marshal rurtcll recommends that
the law he amended SO that a tax of y
ut per cent he collected from Insurance
companies instead of il Of per cent, as
at the present time. He further recon-
mands that the department be given an
expert electrician who may make per
sonal inspection of electric wiring in
buildings in process of construction.
Lightning Rods Useful.
That lightning rods actually are pro
lection is declared in the report and IL
Illustrated by figures showing thar during
the last year the loss from lightning was
only $4,000 as compared with SlI9,-
600 for the eight months previous. lie
says that more lightning rods have been
erected during the last year than during
nnv LreyinMS fye.ycar perIOl.