Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1910-01-06
FACTS ON FIGHTING FIRES
In 1853 Cities the Cost Is $38, $780,.
636.
FOR the Same Si.e5 Is the FER Capita
APPROX Siation.-Europen DEPART
meAts Less Expe nsive.-Statis-
tics Give Interesting In
Ormation.

The number Of city employees Of the fire
departments In the 1853 cities treated of
in United States census bulletin relat- |
ing to the statistics OF cities Of 30, 900 and
more estimated population In 1907. was 90, +,
as or nearly three-fourths of tho num-
Der Of employees Of the poli,e depart
ments in the same cities. Fire protection
In many cities. no yer, is 'ur-.shed In
large measure by volunteer fire organi-
cations. so that the Are fighting force is
somewhat larger thin the police force
Call men are numerically un!mportant In
the cities with population Of over 10000
and In the last few years there has been
marked tendency for all cities of over
30, 900 inhabitants to replace call men with
regular men.
The appropriations for 1906 and 1907 in
clude the anticipated expenditures for out
lays and for maintenance. The appropria-
lions for 1907 amounted to s3S $50. 6S6. an
increase Of g. CAS-. Sf5, or 1915 per cent. over
the previous year. This. however. does
not mean. It Is stated, that the expense
Of maintaining the departments increased
at that rate for a portion Of this amount
was appropriated for the purchase of land.
the construction Of buildings, and for new
apparatus. The per capita appropriation
for the 16s cities reporting was $1.d5.
The per capita cost of ma 1tenance OF
FIRE departments in foreign cities II, ac-
cording to tho bulletin, much lower than
In cities Of the United States. computa-
lions recently made by the United States
Geological Survey placing the per capita
expense in Berlin at Is cents. London at
10 cents, ST. Petersburg at q cents, Paris
At q cents, Milan at II cents, and Stock
holm at 20 cents. The low per capita cost
Of maintenance abroad Is the result of
stricter building regulations, more nearly
hreproof buildings. and greater precau-
lions to prevent the occurrences OF fires
In those cities for which complete re-
ports were made there were ss,255 fire
alarms during 1907 ali 7S.oN fires, Of
which 52.33 resulted In losses. In other
words. only 1913 per cent Of the alarms
were for fires which occasioned loss. Sim
ilarly. disregardng those cities with In
complete reports. the total loss through
fires was s+s.s7s730. on which insurance
was paid amounting to A2,s55,725. leaving
net loss Of 1907, Oo6. or T.. per cent.
The total fire loss per capita was s.. IS
and tho net loss per capita Is cents. OF
the total on buildings and the total on
their contents was returned for s4s, sos. OSl,
showing that SIS. ses, AZ. or 39.3 per cent.
was OH buildings. and 80, 2,sA. or 6o7
per cent. was on contents.
ARRESTS IN LARGE CITIES.
Important. data on the subject on ar
rests Of law breakers and tho sizes OF
police forces is contained in a United
States census bulletin. 1t Is an abstract
Of the annual report on the statistics OF
cities having an estimated population Of
| over thirty thousand in 1907. There were
| 16S Of these cities. and in the tables Of
tho bulletin they are presented in four
groups. Under the head Of arrests. class
| fled by Offences 1t Is shown that the
number of arrests in the l5S cities for the
! fiscal year 1907 was 1.s6s3sl or 5s24 ar
rests to every ten thousand inhabitants.
| In Washington the total number OF ar
rests was more than four times, the num-
Der shown for the larger city of Milwau-
kee. Wis. and approximately three times
the number shown for the stlll larger
city OF Detroit. Mich.
| In classifying arrests by offences. the
bulletin states, It IL impossible to secure
absolute uniformity because Of the dis
similarity Of laws, and also because the
same offence is punished under different
| names in dfferenV cities. The various
classes Of offences against property and
against the person. with the exception Cf
assaults" are fairly comparable for the
different cities, but arrests for such Of
fences formed less than ten per cent of the
total The large class Of minor offences
denominated offences against society
comprised SAT per cent OF the total num-
Der OF arrests for 1867. Arrests for the
speciio offence OF drunkenness formed
81 per cent Of the total hut in many
cities the charge of disorderlv conduct
covered the same offence; thus, in Harris
burg, Pa, less than one-llfth OF one per
cent Of the arrests were on the ground Of
drunkenness. while SIS per cent, were On
the ground Of dsorderly conduct.
Cities with particularly small police
forces were Milwaukee, Wis New Or
leans. La. Scranton, Pa. 81. Joseph, Mo-.
Utica. n. Y. Brocton, Mass. Lincoln
Neb.. Passaic. \. j., and South Omaha
Neb A city with an especially large po-
lice force was Washington. u. C,
Nearly three-fourths Of all employees OF
police departments were patrolmen, OF
whom 500 per cent were on beats, per
cent on posts, ana lo.4 per cent were ue-
tailed on special duties. The number o!
mounted patromen was only So per cent
Of the total number on beats more thar
two-thirds OF whom were mounted on
horses. A relatively large number of the
mounted patrolmen In the cities having
from 5000 o 1OD, 90 inhabitants were In
cities OF the Southern States. while more
than one-half Of the bicycle policemen
were reported from the four cities OF
New York, n. T.. Philadelphia, Pa, Wash