The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-12-01
MILLIONS SAVED BY
PREVENTING FIRES

prevention were the topics discuss
ed at mass meeting last night al
the city hall by various members
of the Minnesota State Fire Proven
ton association. The men who came
to Mankato yesterday to inspect the
business buildings of this city with
q view to advise the owners OF
changes for the better, are insur
ance men of long experience and
are familiar with this kind of work
The meeting last night was a
most successful one as far as the
advice and enthusiasm stirred, was
concerned, although not as largely
attended as was expected. The OBJ
ject of the association was to re-
duce the fire waste.
Purpose of Association.
A. Stinson, president of the asse
citation, acted as chairman. and be.
fore introducing the speakers gave
a short Introductory talk in which
he explained the purpose and eff.
forts of the association. This was a
unit of the national organization
and the results of it's work drew
TO enormous proportions.
He said that although the inspec-
tors had dealt rather harshly with
some fiues in this city, it would re.
act and bring out the benefits OF q
city ordinance to make property
owners comply with the law. AT
present Mankato has no ordinance
of this kind, and he said that one
should be made at once. In doing
so, the association was willing to
help all it could in passing and crit
icising any ordinance the city might
pass.
Reports of inspectors.
All reports of the inspectors will
be sent in to the central office and
the central office will then notify
the owners by letter to remedy
these conditions. If the owner does
not comply within reasonable
length of time, the state will finally
take the matter in hand and com.
pei them to comply with the law.
Mr.. StinsOn then introduced T. r.
Fletcher of Minneapolis who read 4
most interesting paper as follows:
THE prevention of the enormous
fire waste OF this country annually
is receiving more attention and
careful thought at this time from
the great American people than is
given to any other question.
From the White House in Wash.
ington down to the villages and
towns and even in the rural schools
is this subject being discussed; and
properly so, when nearly three hun
dred million dollars worth of prop
erty is destroyed annually; two
hundred million or more of which
can easily be traced to preventable
causes.
This enormous waste is reducing
the wealth of the nation in like
measure, since insurance does not
restore but merely indemnifies out of
remaining wealth.
Truly can it be said that this fire
waste, preventable and otherwise, is
q national disgrace and all OF us
have the humiliation of knowing
that the United States is by far the
leader in this discreditable condi-
ton.
Injury to Neighbors.
Those people who cause, or have
fires injure their neighbOrs, their
municipalities, their states and their
country. They create a part of the
yearly national scandal. They de-
stroy wealth and increase taxation
They are bad citizens. They are
worthy of less respect than the high
wayman-the robber-who merely
transfers possession of property,
while the incendiary, Intentional or
otherwise, obliterates it entirely.
1T is up to you, citizens of this
city, to do your full part in advo.
eating principles and bringing about
practices which will stop this tre-
mendous fire waste which is pre-
ventable.
Suppose your store were burned
out week before Christmas. What
part of your loss would your insur-
ance cover? When you say that
you are fully insured, how near the
truth are you? No insurance will
protect you from the loss of your
trade; a fire prevents your meeting
the wants of those accustomed to
buy of you; you are attacked in an
unprotected point, and trade friend
ships formed during your enforced
closing may mean that some bust
ness will never come back.
After all, your store is merely
an extension of yourself and it
should have the same careful per-
sonal inspection as you accord your
physical condition. These inspections
at stated intervals by you would
be sufficient to insure that all is
being done in the way of proven
ton, because that is largely mat
ter of cleanliness and carefulness
in the individual-in you.n
The Fire Of Your Neighbors.
when your neighbor has a fire,
all you say is: mo harm done; he
is insured" overlooking that if own
ers of property when fires occur
whether with insurance or noD were
given the same treatment as in Eu-
rope. your bills for insurance would
be only one-seventh or one-eighth
part OF what they now are.
Berlin, with a population of
three million, has an annual fire
loss of less than one hundred and
seventy-five thousand dollars. It's
fire department costs a little over
three hundred thousand.
"Chicago's fire loss is five million
annually. Its fire department costs
over three million, although it's pop
ulation is only about two-thirds that
of Berlin.
Applies to All Communities.
"And the same ratio of fire loss