Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1913-03-06
"The Business Of Arson"

Golfers weekly is now running series
of articles under the caption, " The Bust
ness of Arson, which aie very plain and
fearlessly gotten up. 1t seems that THIS
weekly always hits sledge hammer
blow at time when it counts the most
The following we quote for the benefit OF
our readers,
eve have in the United States and Can
ada a fire loss which, for every thousand
of population, is about eight times that OF
Europe. When we reckon In the excess
I'VE cost of fire Insurance. with the huge
sums we ray for fire protection, the dis
parity is much greater And while the
fire loss of Europe is stationary or decreas-
ing, ours is increasing almost foui times,
as rapidly as our population.
At the very lowest estimate, lncendIar-
ism, either active or passive, is RESPONSE
BILE for one-half our fire loss. This was
stated with the supporting proofs, in the
first two articles OF this series. When We
calculate everything that our fires cost us,
we may set our arson loss at quarter OF
billion dollars year. No lower estimate
is possible.
The problem may now be stated in this
way. The United States and Canada e1-
tend through almost exactly the same lat
itudes as western. Europe. They have a.
most the same variations Of climate. They
have been ssttfed almost wholly by the
people of ives tern Europe Yet, race for
race. we find that the Englshman and
Frenchman, the Italian, Poe, and Hun,
have from five to twenty-one times as
many criminal fires in America as they
have at home.
WHY is this? There ire records OF re-
cent emigrants with never fire in their
own country who, before they have had
time to learn our language, have bad
three or four in America. Why? Hu-
man nature, as personifed in twenty
different races, is not changed SO swiftly
and extraordinarily without the best OF
underlying causes. III we have any ma
tional wisdom and honesty, the questions
we must ask ourselves are these: How
are we corrupting these people? What IS
giving their fire crook teachers their OPP
portunlty? In what does the shameful
carson difference" between ourselves
and Europe really lie?
And no questions could admit of clear
err answers, They lie IN the present con-
dition of the fire insurance business in
America, in our manner OF settling fire
losses in our methods OF investigating
fires, in our arson laws.
First-We regard our fire insurance
companies as our natural protectors from
fires & fire crooks. The truth is that all our
poWeyful sock fire insurance companies
must and do gain by fires, and our pres
emit huge increase IN fire losses.
Second-The real directors of the fire
insurance business in America are the
agents and brokers. Every dollar Of lire
loss, honest or criminal, is to them pure
gain. And our fire insurance is, in &c ner-
al, though without intention, sold in
way that must inevitably create the CHM
inal.
These are the larger causes. However
there are certain secondary causes, aris-
ing, in part, from the larges ones;
/ Third-When the fire occurs it is made
easy for the criminal or the hitherto
honest man, to make so profitable an adj
iustment of his loss that he will wish to
have other and larger fires.
Fourth--We have made it easy, by the
Inadequate, incompetent, or negative
investigation of fires, for the crime to re-
main undiscovered.
Fnth-We have made it easy, by the
vile weakness of our arson laws, for crim-
inal, even when discovered, to escape
punishme emf"
I -