Grand Forks daily herald and the evening times., 1914-07-25
JULY rs, 1914.
A. GREAT FIRE AND IT'S LESSON.
The Bureau of Municipal Researc

NNN ~ Afi
sive some of the facts con-
corning h late fire at Salem. Mass.
1t points to the fact that Americans
are a generous people, responding
readily with gifts Of money, food and
clothing whenever disaster overtakes
a community. And well we may, for
we are a careless people. We build
himsy houses, huddled closely togeth-
er, and filled with infammable ma
terials. Our back yards are often
cluttered with rubbish. We pay large
sums in premiums to insurance COM
panies, n we maintain expensive
nre-hghting apparatus; for we have
yet to earn that prevention Is bet
ter than cure.
Baltimore, San Francisco, Chelsea,
and now Salem.
And yet there are those who would
have us go very slowly lest we put
property owners to needless expense.
The immediate cause of the Salem
IRE was an explosion of chemicals in
a leather plant. Why were explos-
i've materials kept in an inhammable
building? Were the ordinances ade-
quate, and were they violated? Was
there proper inspection?
Among the indirect causes were low
water pressure, defective water mains,
inadequate facilities for pumping wa
ter, inadequate fire apparatus, wood
on houses, close together. factory
buildings Of non-fre-resisting con-
struction.
These conditions are not unique;
most Of them could be duplicated in
cities all owe the country. All that
is needed is an explosion or an over
turned lamp and a strong wind. And
yet there are those who say we should
80 very slowly when we would inter-
fere with the right of one mar to jeo-
pardize the lives and property Of his
neighbors.
Among the direct losses Of the sa-
lem hre were four persons killed,
scores injured, ten thousand homeless,
property swept from a strip Of ter.
ritory three miles long and from half
a mile to a mile wide, twelve million
dollars worth of property destroyed.
Among the indirect losses we have
several persons dead from shock,
n thousand persons out Of work,
w~orkingmen leaving town with their
families, many of them never to re-
turn. the disorganization of local in
dustry, increases OF tax burdens, high
er rents, disturbance in every line of
business.
Commenting on the statement fire.
quently made that a great fire repre-
SCENTS an ultimate gain in that 1t
brings about a redistribution of
wealth, President Hadley, Of Yale, has
well said:
"A fire nay increase wage pay
ments in certain trades in a particu-
lar locality, but there are two indi-
rect consequences Of the fire which
generally make the apparent advan-
tage to laborers worse than illusory.
In the first place, the money used
to rebuild the burned house is almost
always diverted from some other line
OF expenditure, so that the gain to
one group of workmen is offset by a
loss to other groups. In the second
place, thts utilization Of labor to re-
place commodities which have been
destroyed, instead Of producing new
ones, means that the community In
the end has fewer comforts and en-
Jeyments than 1t could otherwise have
commanded. This scarcity shows IT.
aelf In advanced prices. For a consid-
erable time after a fire rents will be
higher than they were before.
The destruction Of property by tho
ire does not represent something TAX
en- from the capitalist Inc given to the
laborer. 1t represents a loss Of ON
tort in the community from which as
. rule, no class can wholly exempt it.
self"