The Nenana daily news., 1919-02-13

discussed "The Arson Trust" and showed how incendiaries had burned S8,121,S ,Sl6 worth of property in one year during the war, exclusive of the many other millions destroyed indirectly by explosions. Ole R.. Roe, of Desmoines, fire marshal of Iowa, in an address on "Pyromania" said education was one of the most efficient means of combating this evil. F. R. Morgaridge of New York, formerly assistant fire mar shal of Indiana, said most firebugs were adolescent boys and girls He advocated proper home and school training.
 Despite the fact that the United States was at war and that enemy agents were active, twenty states re- ported slight decrease in the num- Der of cases of arson While it was announced as a fact that in the first nine months after America drew the sword, $43,O00,OO worth of war in- dustries went up in smoke, in only ten per cent of these cases was there even suspicion of spy-work. "Carelessness" was designated as the biggest firebug of all. One grain elevator fire alone destroyed enough wheat to make years sup ply of bread for 100000 soldiers.
 Many fires at first attributed to German spies and pyromaniacs were found, upon investigation, to be due to other causes. One notable in stance was a spectacular and costly waterfront fire in Brooklyn, the Dow's stores, in which vast uuan- tity of grain intended for shipment to the Allies was destroyed. It was discovered that the blaze was the result of dust explosion caused by spark either from friction or static electricity. Another conspicu- ous instance was the Baltimore bier fire which at first was positively ascribed to pro-German plotters. Rigid investigation by federal agents according to fire marshals, de- finitely determined it's non-incen- diary origin.
 Following a reference to the Nor gan, N. J., disaster, in which nearly one hundred lives were lost and , $2O,000,00O damage done, delegates spoke of the work accomplished the past year by the fire prevention section of the War Industries Board This bureau, is was stated, had in. spected more than 2,OOO large plants valued at over $1O,OOO,OOO,OOO ana in large percentage of cases the safety recommendation of it's vol unteer dollar-a-year engineers were carried out.
 It was stated that fire prevention methods adopted for the sixteer large army cantonments throughout the United States had proved most effective, although these camps con. sisted of wooden buildings. Haz ards were reduced to the minimum by proper watchfulness, water pro tection, isolation, conduiting, and enforcement of regulations in re- gard to smoking and the use oi matches and lights.
 ! H, c. Brearly, one of the speak. CTS, said New York City was ir imminent peril of a great conflag. ration when on Nov. z, after the erroneous report of the German surrender, "storm" of paper was ! thrown from windows of business buildings littering the streets to a depth of several inches and many :, miles of ticker tape covering tele- graph and telephone wires consti- tuted fire hazard of the nth power Fire Chief Kenlon, of New York i City, declared that if serious blaze had started at that time, or on Nov. II, four days later when the scenes of pandemonium were re-