Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1909-12-30
A NATIONAL FOLLY.
Average Annual Fire Waste in
United States of $3.50, 600, 900.
People Of This Country Have Been
Buruin9 Up 1900 worth os Prop.
erty Every Minute for the
six Years.

The rumor abroad in the financial world
that several Of the principal foreign fire
Insurance companies are about to rein
sure their lines preparatory to retiring
from the field Of American Underwater
ing. may. II true. bring us to a realization
Of our ~stupendous national folly. The
average annual fire waste Of the United
States for the Ave years ending with 1907
was $262. 900, O0O. and the losses for the
year 1908 beginning with $2. 900. 900 in jan
uary. and steadily increasing. aggregate
over S2oo.cOO.00o. Although there were
but seven fires during the year where the
losses were $1,000, 600 or more, the aggre-
gate loss ebuals that Of the year of the
great Baltimore ~connagration. When
the business man of large interests faces
q restriction OF his credit due to teh fact
that he can no longer obtain sufficient
nre insurance to cover his ooinbustible
holdings. the fact that we have beeln
burning up HM worth Of property every
minute. day and night. for the past six
years.. may at last penetrate his con-
sciousness.
81. W. "GfN icc0 " NNoit u " "a
billion dollars every year in wheat, or
cotton or beef? What II such a value
In shipping should sink In New York
harbor? What II the national treasury
should be looted annually Of that amount
or business failures approximate to that
hguref
The San Francisco calamity forced sew
eral insurance companies out Of business.
in the last Atty years one thousand In
surance companies in the United States,
or more than three times the number
OF existing companies. have been forced
to withdraw. In the last ten-year period
the insurance business suffered an under
writing loss Of four and Z half per cent.
or over $50, 200. 900. Who will continue
to supply responsible capital indefinitely
for the national ash heap? The average
American In his reckless individualism
has assumed no responsibility for the
fire waste. leaving It to the insurance
companies to refill their purses by In
creased premium rates.
State legislatures have made frequent
efforts TO prevent the advance in insur-
ance rates by various Legislative enact
ments. but the legislation cannot prevent
rates being sufficient TO pay losses with
out seriously reducing the ability OF their
constituents to obtain necessary insur-
ance Any legislation which will reduce
tho annual fire loss will. at the same
time, reduce the average insurance rate,
Unless this annual FIRE loss is reduced,
1t may soon transpire that capital will
withdraw from the business OF under
writing without the spur Of unfriendly
legislation: the losses alone. and tho
national Indifference to them being quite
sufficient an incentive.
A fire in the conHested portion OF New
York city covering an area as large as
that of San Francisco would put every
fire insurance company In the country
out of business. 1t Is we'll recognized
that the Chelsea connagration ma. be
duplicated any day; there is scarcely a
city in the country which does not offer
the conditions for such a fire. Meanwhile
what is the good citizen doing? II has
not vet dawned upon him that he can dc
anything.
A man in Boston who recently turned
two Back Bay houses into one by cutting
doorways In the party-wall. protested
against the recently adopted city build
ing law which required him to install
tinclad FIRE doors as n fre stop. He
gravely declared that a FIRE was no more
likely TO start in one house than In the
other.
The declaration Of experts that over
fifty per cent of the present IRE waste Of
the country Is from easily preventable
causes indicates that the entire nation
might well be taught lessons in indlvid-
ual responsibility. Correction OF care
less habits Ia certainly possible in both
grown ups and children. Many OF our
national sins can. however. only be cor
rected by the collective action. 1t IL too
much to expect that our people, In their
impetuous haste and rush. will. in the
very near future, cease to erect the
innammabie shells they now put UP and
MI with equally inhammable contents.
We differ from the European In solidity
OF character: and our character ID re-
iected in our architecture; but we can
at least make reasonable laws to protect
Us from the carelessness Of one another
without going to the extent Of the French
statutes. which make a property owner
liable for damage II a fire spreads beyond
his premises.
Unfortunately no sense OF the immo-
rality OF needles waste has yet moved
us. Superinduced by the mental habit
OF considering our national supply of
raw materials inexhaustible. 10 the
thought that fres do not matter so iong
as there Ia insurance capital to pay for
them. As We are beginning. however.
to conserve our forests we may come to
thai the things our hands have
may be also worth saving.
We may come to look with d:sfavor
upon buildings OF great areas without
c~utofs. with huge Moor openings.
unprotected windows. We may
come 10 demand that our nreproof
shall! be really nreproof. know
will buckle in . hot fire. even II It does
not collapse IN tho rush into concrete
building now evident We may demand :
honest mixtures OF cement, and the use
Of sand sharp enough to bind II, instead .,
Of the water-worn pebbles which viii aid
the crumbltng process, We may cease
Dur folly in making floors ten inches
thick and enclosing stairs and elevators
IN a wall Of equal thickness to prevent the ,
spread Of hre from floor to hoor-and
leaving our only window protection to
inch window glass. when strong
Ind serviceable wired glass held in metal
frames 10 available. .
But who IL to lead us into thus look :
ne after our created property resources?
rhere was organized some years ago tho
Fire Protection associa ton. :
u mas done much good work. BY the
uphc-spirited action OF the men com p,
posing 1t tests Of devices and materials .
rave been mad at It's ahoratortex In !