The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-10


But one serious fault exists in the city
of Birmingham, according to opinions of
prominent city officials and fire insurance
experts, which were expressed at the pub
lie meeting yesterday afternoon in the old
council chamber at the City hail. 1t is
the city's enormous fire loss.
The speech made by Fire Chief A. v.
Bennett was one of the most important
and interesting talks of the meeting, the
chiefs remarks being filed with facts
that made an impression. The occasion
of the speeches was the public meeting
held by the Alabama Fire Prevention So
ciety TO review in a brief way the in
spection which that society has been maxi
ing of Birminghams fire risk all this
week, having concluded a house to house
| canvass of the business district of the
| city Thursday night.
| Speeches We're made by President W. p
| G. Harding of The Chamber of Com
merce. who declared every man in Bir-
| mingham should cooperate with the work
| of the Fire Prevention society; by Hervey
Laird of Montgomery, deputy state insur-
ance commission; Lloyd d. Batre, a well
known insurance man of Mobile, who
gave one of the best talks of the meeting
President w. H. Hackney of the Alabama
Fire Prevention society; Secretary John
son of the society. Chief Bennett, r. F..
Manly and others.
No Report Made
No direct statement was made by Off
Gals or members OF the State Fire Pre-
vention society, as to the result of tn cir
work this week In Birmingham Presi-
dent Hackney stated that it would be
about 30 days before the full report could
be compiled and made public, but that
within about two weeks something definite
could be announced as to the conditions
revealed here by the inspection.
Several of the special fire insurance
agents and experts made short talks.
however, giving statistics of the enor-
nous loss from fire in Birmingham and
showing that something must be done and
be done quickly. Birmingham leads the
south in the number of fires, according
to statements made at the meeting.
The main recommendation culled from
all the speeches was an immediate cessa-
tion of equipping buildings with wooden
shingle roofs.
President Harding of the Chamber of
Commerce made the opening speech
THAT AN ounce of prevention is worth
pound of cure,'' said he lis one of tho
oldest and truest adages of the ages
There is no place where it better applies
than in fire risk and losses. Instead of
hiring lawyer to get us out of trouble
today, we hire a lawyer to keep us out
Instead of getting physician to cure our
ills, the modern way Is to get a physician
to keep us we'll. The same new idea of
things prevails in almost every phase Of
modern life And there is no place where
1t is needed as bad as in fire prevention.
There never is a fire but what there is
waste. Fire insurance does not do away
with the fact that there was so much
material went up in smoke never to be
recovered. Fire Insurance simply dis
tributes and equalizes the loss. We re-
member how the great San Francisco fire
shook the finarlial conditions of the
whole world. To prevent this waste. we
must prevent the fires
The \fire insurance people realize this
fact as well as any other class. They are
doing a great work to improve conditions
They merit, and I believe they are re-
ceiving, the cooperation of the citizens
of Birmingham in decreasing the enor-
nous fire losses here"
Hackney Speaks
Mr.. Harding introduced President Hack
iney of the Alabama Fire Prevention So
ciety. who made a short speech and pre-
sided over the remainder Of the meeting
Mr. Hackney said:
THE name Alabama Fire Prevention
lCOntlnued m Paws r~mN