Newport daily independent., 1918-04-29
PROTECTION AGAINST
 LIGHTNING ORDERED

For the first time in the history of the American fire prevention move ment, state fire marshal has order ed properties protected against light hing damage. State Fire Marshal Fleming. of Ohio, has issued blan- ket order, which will compel every telephone company doing business ln Ohio to equip telephone lines enter ing certain occupancies with light ming arresters and adequate fuses. This was done, says MT. Fleming, as a war measure, and the order applies to sixteen classes of plants, among which are warehouses, flour mills, grain elevators, wholesale provision and grocery companies, cold storage plants, canning factories, storage and preserving plants; grain, hay and provision storage; bakeries and food repositories. One of the principal purposes of the order was to protect the food supply, since serious fires had occurred as a result of the lack of lightning arresters.
 Fire Marshal Fleming is able to accomplish his object in this case be- cause he deals with comparatively few telephone companies, who are loyalty cooperating with him to guard the nations food supplies and other vital necessities. If he had to deal separately with each individual property effected by the order, the task would be beyond the perform ancance limits of his small force of deputies. The farmer is among those so situated that state and federal ,governments must depend upon him to protect his own grain supplies, and it should not be overlooked by him that the lightning damage to food re- sulting from a lack of lightning ar resters on telephones is small com pared to that which is due to lack of lightning rods on farm barns. Re- cords of the Indiana Fire Marshal Department for the four ears, 1915 1916, show nearly twice as many lightning fires for barns as for all other buildings combined. SiXty-one per cent of lightning fires in these four years were barn fires. In con- sidering these figures in relation to Fire Marshal Fleming's order, 1t should be remembered that small per centage only of lightning fires in buildings other than barns were due to a lack of lightning arresters on telephones.
 It is not only vitally necessary that the farmer guard what food supplies are in his control, but also that he maintain a high productive ettl- ciencv on his farm during the war. President Wilson has just appealed to all farmers to produce more than ever, even though farm labor may be more scarce than usual. That means the farmer must look to human la bor saving machinery to aid him. Destruction of this machinery in a barn fire in the midst of the planting cultivating or harvesting season IS calamity that often completely de- stroys the productive efficiency on the farm where it occurs. To guard against this, also, the farmers barn is strategic fort in this war. It should be guarded as never before.
 The time to put the barn in order for the critical season of 1918 is now March and April bring the spring thunder showers with lightning de struction. Today the farmer can ob- tain first-class installation by rela- lie companies using the best grades of metal How long these companies may be able to obtain supplies is not known. The sure way to get high