The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-01


 "Birmingham. from the standpoint of the fire insurance man. is in n mighty bad fix.-
 This was the emphatic statement of H. G. seibIes, president of the Jemf- Insurance company. yester- day.
 What is the matter with Birmingham from the fire insurance agents view point?" was the question asked Mir. Sci bles by an Age-Herald reporter. MT. Sci bles. turning to his files, took pains to give some accurate information in answer to the query.
 The first and main thing wrong with Birmingham from the fire in- surance agents viewpoint he said,
 Ifs it's large area. Birmingham is like all new and fast growing towns in that respect. We have good fire department. It is splendidly equipped. It seems large enough. It is large enough for the population, but it isn't large enough for the territory it has to cover.
 Nations Fire Loss
 Tn considering such things few peo- pie stop to think that Birmingham, with population of 175,000. covers nearly 50 square miles,. Do you know that Pittsburg. with a population of nearly 60O,000, has an area of but 40 square miles, Then with corre- spondingly sized fire department in Pittsburg in ratio to the population. do you wonder why I say I'd rather write an insurance policy there for one-third of what I would write one in Birmingham?
 The average per capita fire loss in the United States for the last three years has been as follows:
 Year. Capita.
 1911 .......................... $2.62
 1912 ......,..........s....,.... ........ 2.o5
 1915 ....................-..... 2.25 In Birmingham in the past 10 years it has been far, far above that. Here are some figures showing the per capita loss in this city: 1908, sS IS; 1909, $40; 1910 $3. "a: 1911. S524 1912, s. .27; 1915 s. H. 1914 (estimatedD. $7
 Do you wonder why the fire under writers association raised the rates 15 per cent? They would have easily been justified in raising them 25 per cent
 Some Local Loses
 "Let me give you some figures show ing the premiums paid into several Ol tue DlS companies ODtTdllnS III this town. for the first six months of 1914. and the losses they have had to pay out. Of course I cannot give you the names but the figures are genuine and anybody interested can easily find out they are genuine: .z
 "One company received $3O00 in pre- miums and paid out $17.000 in fire losses.
 "Another received $s5oo in premiums and paid out $2000 in losses.
 Another received $6500 in premiums and paid out s1S,500 in losses.
 Another received $40OO in premiums and paid out S30, 900 in losses.
 Still another received $2500 in pre- miums and paid out $60oO in losses.
 ''Is that breaking even? Can any company of any kind continue to do business on a basis of that kind? Something had to be done and the only thing to do was to raise the rates.
 Cause of 1913 Decrease
 Now then, by comparative table you will see that Birmingham's fire loss per capita up until 1913 steadily increased until in 1912 it was $5.57, with the average for the United States in that year $2 .55. In the spring of 1913 is when the under writers met here and held an inyestiga- tion. It resulted as we all know in the city offering to cooperate and the agents organizing into body to guard against improper risks and similar moves to help the situation, The commissioners passed the shingle ordinance. a fire inspector was put to work and due to the agitation in the matter the public was stirred up somewhat. Citizens cleaned up their premises and the fall in the per capita loss in 1913 was the result. It went down to $3.11; still far above the average. though, remember
 Now those people who are fighting the recent 15 per cent raise in rates, point to this dror in the per capita loss for 1913.