The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-02-05
The BUSINESS
OF ARSON
{By Arthur e. McFarlane i'm Golfers
Weekly


Weekly
Here is a. sensation. We are print
ing 1t as such. But it differs from
the ordinary sensational story because
it unaerstates the facts, and because
every fact presented is susceptible Of
exact proof.
The series 1.-THE Business of Arson
sets out to prove that burning prop
erty for the insurance has become our
national crime
Mr.. McFarlane is the first Journalist
to pierce the heart of the matter, to
inform the public of facts which every
directing agent in the fire insurance
business has long known. He has
lived close to the business of fire in
surance all his life; and for the past
eighteen months he has been working
to get the facts of the arson situation
for Golfers.
The series of articles Mr. MoFaI,-
lane has prepared shows, by the tes-
Itimony of the insurance companies
them selves, that the direct and indi-
rect tax from incendiary; preventable
fires In the United States and Canada
American and Canadian tariffs.
It shows how men who want fires
accomplish their end by wilfu1 neglect
Of their property; it shows how 9TH
ers deliberately lay the mine and ap-
ply the torch. It shows how produc-
ing COI1l19TS1a1 1T0S mas 0SCOH1l0 q
regular business in our big cities; and
how the gangs of paid incendiaries
work.
1t shows. indeed, how incendiarisn
is often welcome to those who dornin-
ate the business of fire insurance in
America.
We have in English speaking North
America eight to thirteen times as
great a fire loss, to the dollar of
wealth, as has any nation of Western
Europe. For years we have been
writing around the facts, attributing
our figures to American carelessne ss'
to t'himsy construction to insufficient
fire protection.
None of these causes stands the test
of investigation. Certain other ma
tons build almost wholly of wood; we
build our greater structures Of brick,
stone, steel, and cementn. The ratio
remains the. same-they have one dol
lar of fire loss to our eight, ten, twelve
thirteen!
The fire departments of most CONT
mental cities are slow, oId-fashfoned,
inadequate; year after year, we I'M
prove the personnel, the training, the
discipline, the apparatus OF our fire
departm ents. Still the ratio remains
the same.
Rather, the difference widens. and
always to our disadvantage. While
our population grew twenty-one per
cent. IN one QecdQO, LhdLS OF OHPTS-
cedented activity in flreproof construc-
tion-the fire loss grew eighty-four
per cent.
This may be called Undertaking, but
it is not. Instead it is constructive
criticism. For Mr. McFarlane carries
the trouble up from the little GRIMM
al of the farms and teneKnents to a
big pernicious situation which causes
arson.
He shows that the stock fire insur-
ance company WORKS on a system
which encourages crime and destruc
ton. In other forms of big business
the representatives of the capital, the
central bodies, have control over their
agents. In this alone, the agents have
control over the central bodies.
Through the faults of the system,
insurance agents and brokers profit by
the assumption of bad risks, by issu |
ing policies to men with a proved rep
utation for arson, by insufficient in |
spection of properties by overinsur- |
ance.
They even profit by increased fire |
loss in their communities. And they |
are in a position, as the business |
stands now, to force their wishes upon |
the insurance companies.
Mr.. McFar1ane proves this not from |
without but from within; not only |
from sta tistics and external evidence, |
terances of the big fire insurance men
His series shows how the insurance |
business, simply by making it to the /
agents interest to prevent fires, could /
nearly eliminate arson. Tt shows /
how the rest of the remedy lies in /