Arizona republican., 1909-09-15
ANNUAL FIRE LOSSES
 AGGREGATE MILLIONS ENORMOUS MANIPULATION OF PROPERTY AT LAST STIRRING
 BUsINss INTERESTS. United States Allows $175, 900 More Waste by Fire Than on Basis
 of Germany and Neigh
 boring Nations.

Chicago, Sept. 1.-The fire losses reported for 19O9-for seven months. including July, s119,633, ,950-indicate a total fire tax for the year nearly as great as in 1907 and greater than in 1903 and 1905. and probably to exceed s200,O00.000. In previous years Octo- Der. November and December have noticeably shown the increase when autumn heating plants were started. Efforts to prevent fires seemingly have made little headway, and the huge expenditures made for putting them out merely add to the toll taken in the United States by the fire mon ster, which during the last five years has amounted to much over billion dollars-a dead loss.
 The fire losses of 19O6-the year or the San Francisco disaster-reached a total of s459. 900. and no adequate steps have been taken by any city to thoroughly exterminate the conflagra- ton hazard which in Chicago is said by an authority to be now as great as when the great fire of 1873 broke out regardless of the city's splendid fire department and its reinforcements, the force paid for by the fire under writers The efforts which are being made to secure a high pressure water system for the loop district of Chicago is a sign of the times. however, busi- ness interests having come to see their share in the country's fire losses as insurance companies necessarily must attempt to make their rates bring revenue to cover their losses. That they have not succeeded in this is shown by the fact that the underwrit- ing loss of ten years of the American and foreign" companies has amounted to s77,221.5i2. their average expense being 37 cents on every dollar of premiums and their losses to sos on every dollar of premiums.
 Official note has not yet been taken of the annual annihilation of property to the value of s200, 900. 900 and more. although recent reports from Europena countries show that the fire loss of the United States is annually s175.- O0O.0OO greater than on the basis of European countries.
 Reports show that in Germany, France. Italy, Spain, Belgium. Hol- land. Switzerland and Great Britain the average annual fire loss per capita. the average rate paid for fire insur- ance and the average annual loss of life by fire are each about tenth of the same averages in this country. Berlin has a population about one third larger than Chicago. Ii has grown during recent decades as rapid ly as Chicago. I'd Is quite as strenu- ous in it's activities It is surrounded by enormous and rapidly growing manufacturing sections. The annual fire loss of Chicago approximates s5.000.0 The annual fire loss of Berlin rarely exceeds s150,000
 This astounding comparison has been commented upon by an under writing authority, who said: "The fire waste in the United States .n this en- frightened twentieth century is not only appalling. but that it is permitted is incomprehensible During the past AiNt lllt btSli Ol by fire in the United States-even with the most conservative estimates of the Baltimore and San Francisco confla lagrations-amounted to one bil- lion two hundred and sixty dollars. The human mind can hardly grasp the immenstv Cf the waste thus en- tailed. Insurance has not and cannot replace it. It only distributes. more or less generally and to all the peo- ple, the immense losses which other wise would fall with crushing force uron individuals and communities
 Had this destruction been caused by war. the nation would have arisen as one man tO repel the invader. but with this ins;G:UUS foe whi.: marks it's flaming pathway across the racc of :his land. we stand idly by while .hs awful destruction continues. But the l'ss to the rc"rle and to the na' ion upes not step with the tale of this destruction. The consequential loss far exceeds the direct loss caused by the burning of property itself. Aside from the paralysis of individual and corporate enterprises. the joss of trade, houseless and homeless citizens, and idle and unemployed laborers. the communities and the people sustain a loss which cannot be measured in dol lars and cents. but which Is none the less tangible and which continues for years to come. This loss of over a billion and quarter was taxable property, bearing its share of the burden Of the state comfy school and municipality. Even at a rate If enc per cent the annual taxable charge withdrawn from contribution for gov ernmental dollars, which necessarily increases the rate of taxation upon destroyed property"