The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1919-01-25
"You Can't Eat Your Cake and Have 1t"

A rumor is ahoat to the effect that a petition is being prepared for presen-
tauon to the city council. demanding the resembling. or modification, of the
Winnemucca fire ordinance, recently enacted. This seems strange. OF course
the councnmen of this town have no power to modify the requirements of the
fire underwriters. These requirements are merely statements of how tic
lessen fire hazard. Insurance has to be paid for on the basis of the hazard
In other words If We want ito build cheaper houses, we must be content to
pay higher rates
winnemucca has long wrthed under the rates imposed by insurance com
pames. Yet it must be admitted that events of. the past two years seem to
be full justification of those concerns Indeed, it is doubtful if they have
come out even, in this particular town. There wa agitation for a proper
fre-fghtmg equipment. This a obtained. and it is now in the hands of a
of handling their machinery in a a to satisfy the most exactng.
The fre-fghthg equipment. however, is only half of the question. The
insurance people demand it, % be sure. but they demand also a proper regard
to safe construction of buildings, before a lower schedule of rates will be
obtainable here A. the last council meeting the matter seemed % come up
in the form Of the increased cost ofc himneys. One OF the specifications in
the underwriters requirements is for twobrck chhmneys. Some citizens
asserted such chimneys wereto toe expensive, md declared the onebick type
to be good enough.
On the other hand. a wellknown contractor and builder said to this news
paper that if he yer building a house for himself a two-brick chimney would
not be good enough for him. He would go further and line that with a fire.
proof thing, and consider he had made a good investment in tn additional
security thus afforded. Whichever view n may take of it, the stubborn
fact remains that the only way in which to secure underwriters aes is to
comply with underwriters requhements-in other words, to eliminate a GER
tain fire hazard from buildings to be insured.
A few dollars saved in the construction of a chimney may be readily
eaten up by the difference between a high and low insurance premium. And
so long IS the risk remains the premium will be charged.
If we mistake not the Governor of Nevada has contracted a mild form
of the epidemic Of "paternahsm' which is raging sc fercely just now in our
sister state. California. Laws regarding public health, and public morals.
pro and ION, are worset than valueless until there is a demand for them from
a majority OF the people. No M man o any body OF men, is elected to
sit in judgment on the people who are not lin Office" Governors and Legisla-
lures arr elected to do the will of the majoriy-and for nothing else.
Whenever there are no hungry people in the United States, it would be
well to vote millions to feed the hungry in other lands. Meanwhile, so
expending millions as to hoist the price of foodstuns in the United States
may be a coed way Ito stop bolshevism in Europe. but it would not seem to
be the bet way to halt it in the United States a country IN which it used
to be fashionable for American statesmen to take o m incidental interest
There seems TIC be good reasons TO believing that approprating public
money becomes. by practice. a pleasurable sensaton-IAmerican Republican.