The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-03-02
SCHOOLS OF ARSON
Retailers and Wholesalers in the
Arson Business

Arthur E. McFarlane in Golfers Weekly.
Professional arson now has it's retail
ers" and wholesalers" its mortgage
fxers'' and "assignees," its bands who
specialize on stores, on loft factories, on
stables full of horses. A really up to
date organization, as was shown recently
| in Chicago, does everything from procur-
| ing the insurance to collecting it. II Will
| have its ''outside man." who watches the
names OF those who may be needing fires,
and gets the proper friend to make the
| introduction; in one case, however, cir
cular letters were sent out. 1t will haye
| its ''inside man." who takes employment.
| oftenest as might watchman,' in the
| establishment to be burned, in order to|
study the general situation and the hours
and habits of adjoining tenants. 1t will
have its mechanic kind of arson plumb
er, who ''fixes" the fire itself This man
| is usually an expert. One cannot con-
meet up a complicated series of rooms,
put a sprinkler system out of business
and make a good "touch-off'' of big,
closely packed non-inflammable stock
without some special knowledge.
There are about ten gangs in Chicago
| altogether" says one professional who
| talks; land more than 100 people are get
ting a living out of it altogether. About
| rs per cent of Chicago's fires are touch
offs now Ordinarily, competition plays
| fair, and prices are fiXed-pro rata on
| the amount of nsurance-generally 10 per
| cent. But in one case $250,O00 job was
offered, someone cut rates for it, and
there was much ensuing bitterness. All
| who are in a position to know say that
! conditions in New York are worse. There
is every Indication" says one insurance
authority, that New York has regular
fire exchange
But there, is worse than that. In the
tenements of New York and Chicago and
Cleveland and Pittsburg and Paterson ar
| son is taught as in a school.
\ In q months of 1910 and 1911 10 blocks
| in New York's upper East Side gave 449
| fires most of them in clothes closets,
| which former Fire Marshal Beers more
| than intimated were almost wholly for
| insurance"
| 1912. 13 tenement houses in one row gave
! Sc fires. Another row gave it's SO, another
| its 49, Individual houses had their 7, g. II!
| One can follow arson through the streets
| of our great cities as one can follow it
| by trades and seasons. One can follow
| it by families, as other forms of crime
| have been followed in the chronology of
| Is family known to insurance detec-
| tives as .'the family with 100 fires'' Chi
| cago has great tenement districts which,
lif the risk can be measured by the in
surance rate, are now more dangerous
| than our powder mills.
tits the foreigner" says someone; 'sthe
kind of emigration we're getting now
| that's doing it, The Jap and the Greek
| and the Syrian alone have come to us
| with fire records. And no foreign pop
ulation--whensoeve its source--has ever
been able to live in our tenements and
keep its virtue. Every year great new
masses pour into them; and in their turn
| they are corrupted
| The corruption is not brought to us, it
| 1t here. And we're only getting the
grown ups now,' says one city fire mar
| shall ..In another 10 years Wen be getting
J the chldren.' Fire detectives estimate
| that arson in America has doubled in Is
years, and that it will double again in
another 10.
Extraordinary and deep-rooted condi
\ tions can only arise from extraordinary
and vital causes.