The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-02
Experts of Underwriters Association Will Remain
 Here as Long as Necessary
JOINT MEETING
 HELD YESTERDAY
Conference Between Insurance Com mittee of Board of Trade and Engi- neers-Not Here to Discuss Rates,
 But to Ascertain the Causes

l Engineers for the Southeastern Fire Un- derwriters' association will be in Birming- ham until they. have made a complete ! investigation of the causes of the fire loss in this city. They will be here six weeks. if necessary. time being second ary consideration to the securing of the facts. This developed at the meeting yes- terday of the insurance committee of the Board of Trade with the engineers. The three engineers who remain in Bir- mingham are F. c. Tupper, assistant chief; w. D. Gates, chief inspector and H.. s. Jenkins, city inspector. They will be joined next week by G. r. Rutzer and the four will remain in Birmingham un- 1 til they arrive at the root of the reason why fire underwriters are losing money in Birmingham territory. Chief Engineer A. M. Schoen, who attended the meeting | at the Chamber of Commerce yesterday returned to Atlanta at 1s:15 o'clock this morning.
 l. F. Young presided over the meeting at the request of Chairman A. W. B. Johnson. of the Board of Trade fire in- surance committee. MT. Young has been very active in the fight being waged bs the Board of Trade to have the recent 1s per cent increase in rates rescinded, ano it is thought this was the reason MT Johnson asked him to preside.
 No Discussion of Rates At the outset Chief Engineer Sehoen stated that his party was composed of engineers alone and that the matter ot rates would not be discussed by them. ''I am at a loss to explain the many
 fires in Birmingham, but we are hege
 for the purpose of finding out what
 the trouble is,' he said. Our party
 is entirely unbiased: it is simply a
 straight-out business proposition so
 far as we are concerned. We want
 favorable facts as well as other facts
 which might tend to show the ab-
 normal fire loss
 MT. Young assured the engineers that 1t was the desire of the Board of Trade the business men and citizens generally of Birmingham to cooperate with them in their efforts to find the real under lying cause of the fire loss. He said that 1t made no difference whether 1t was ir- responsible agents incindiaries or care lessness on the part of residents they wanted to get at the real cause and re- move it.
 Manager J. B. Horner of the water works company promised the engineers that his company would do all it could to aid them at arriving at the right con clusions He placed at their disposal automobiles belonging to the company and will furnish them with data of all kinds, charts. and maps. besides taking them for an inspection of the waterworks plant
 Former Fire Chief A. " Bennett, now with the waterworks company, was pres ent and said that the best way to reduce the fire loss was to reduce the number of fires. He said that fire department had been made more efficient every year and had been extended in size and scope until now 1t was almost burden on the taxpayers. He pointed out that larger fire hydrants had been installed wherever the fire insurance people had asked for 1t and told also of the installation of many such hydrants, evon larger than the specifications called for, when they had. not actually been ordered.
 Fire Chief Middleton said that he Lad found some ncindiary fires since his ac- cession to his present position. He sug- gested that central agent be appointed to pass upon all applications for fire in-
 
 now was thorough and frequent and that the captains of the outlying stations now made Inspections often. Poor Housekeeping, Says Brown
 R. A. Brown. president of the Business Mems League, gave 1t as his opinion tha. poor housekeeping on the part of Bir- mngham matrons was partly to blame for the fire loss. He said that premises were not kept as clean as they might he. He also stated that some agents were to blame for over-insuring property. In some cases. he said, the company was to blame for not inspecting every risk He con demned the lax manner of writing insur- ance as we'll as the fashion of adjusting a fire loss before breakfast" saying the companies should take tlme enough to investigate a loss before paying an in- demnity.
 Robert W. Ewing. president of tho Board of Trade, was the next speaker. He echoed the remarks of Mir. Young that the business men and the board would cooperate entirely with the engi- neers in giving them facts and figures. However. MT. Ewing said. the business men of Birmingham ,lre thoroughly aroused over the increase in rates with out notification. He said that Birming- ham business men proposed to have them reduced and that if 1t proved necessary the legislature would be petltOned to en-