The New York herald., 1921-09-04

1O1h ure unuerWriling JustincS ~
- self every day in the year by the
public welfare work of Fire Sanitation
which permeates its whole structure and
which goes forward so increasingly and
yet unobtrusively.
Thousands upon thousands Of tires and
millions upon millions Of property edlues
are needlessiy sacrificed epery year through
fires that might be prerented By carefulness
and cleanliness
Almost every natural factor in stock FIRE
underwriting Is Fire Sanitation agent
commissioned to minimize this needless
human and property waste: the actu-
arial and rating bureaus and the local
boards and exchanges in their survey,
inspection and rating work; the many
companies, their field representatives,
their 100000 agents and the $4,000 or
more EMPLOYEES in the discharge of ordi-
nary duties and in public conservation
work.
In a still broader and more public
way through the National Board of
Fire Underwriters and its affiliations,
Fire Sanitation is being inculcated as q
principle in the home, community, state
and country to the lasting good of the
whole people. All this is not that the
companies may make larger profits in
the reduced losses sure to follow-com-
petition and the voluntary agreement to
limit profits attend to that-but that
the business may justify itself to itself,
to the public and to the country at large.
When the United States was called
to take up arms in the late war, the pro-
lection from fire of cantonments, ship
building plants, grain elevators and the
fourteen thousand factories engaged in
manufacturing war material, becam
of first consideration. The National
Board OF Fire Underwriters--a volun-
tary organization Of 1S0 stock companies
associated for educational, engineering
and statistical purposes, with no control
over rates of fire insurance and no dis
ciplinary power whatever over its mem
bership--offered to the government the
services not only of its own trained en-
gineers but the experts of Actuarial
Bureaus, Local Boards and Exchanges
and the field men of individual COM
panies, to prevent the unnecessary loss
OF war material by fire.
Their work was salutary. The United
States Grain Corporation did not have
ono solitary dollar Of fire lossi Every
cantonmcnt in the United States was
protected by engineering rules laid down
by the National Board staff and there
we're few fires and no confagrations.
Ship building was protected with equally
satisfactory results and fires IN war
working plants were minimizedl
wish it were possible, in this effort to
encompass an encyclopedia within
few brief sketches, to detail the public
welfare work of the National Board of
Fire Underwriters, but must content
myself merely with saying that through
Underwriters Laboratories it provides
for expert tests at cost for every device
submitted which must reach an dstab-
lished minimum standard to receive ap-
proval, all subject to review by the
United States Bureau of Standards at
Washington; that it cooperates with the
authorities everywhere to expose those
who perpetrate the crime OF arson and
SO jeopardize lives as well as property
values; that it helps cities to standard
ize fire departments, fire alarms and
water supplies, to adopt standard build
ing codes and generally to observe Fire
Sanitation.
The National Board cooperates closely
with the National Fire Protection Asso-
ciation to develop the best methods OF
preventing and extinguishing fire; with
the Fire Marshals' Association OF North
America, those state officers whose
duty it is to apply the laws Of fire control
and investigation; with the interna-
tional Association Of Fire Engineers, the
chiefs Of fire departments which are the
pride of American cities, with Safety
Councils, credit men, civic bodies and
the specialists in electrical manufacturing
and installation, in building construc-
aion and every industry where the prin-
ciples Of Fire Sanitation may be made
operative.
The National Board comes into more
direct contact with the public by liter
nture prepared to emphasize Fire Pre-
wcntion. Among the many publications
is Safeguarding America Against Fire.
ISSUED monthly, and presenting fire facts
Tor the army of local agents to dissemi-
nate as fire cautions and fire lessons to
Tic people with whom they come in di-
rect contact. Safeguarding the Home"
aenching the youth OF America the first
principles OF fire prevention and what
10 do in case Of fire, is official in several
xtates as public school manual and is used
IN thousands Of schools where there are
5lo legal requirements. There are other
publications many others - dealing
with the prevention, control and ex-
tingushment Of fire. Then too there
IL "The Danger That Never Sleeps"
a fire caution filmed under the au-
spices Of the National Board, and soon
10 be released.
These sketches have served merely
TO outline the broader fundamentals
of stock FIRE underwriting which, TO re-
peat, serve as a basis for the operations
of the coordindtcd but not combined
companies, all in competition with each
other and with all other types Of car
Tiers. There is no mystery" about our
business though there is in,ricacy and
complexity thousand and one ram
iications that are not generally under
stood. know so well the broad gauge
and public spirit of the vast majority
of those in charge Of the destinies Of
sstock fire underwriting, that ! am conf
dent were the people themselves to in
svcsfirafc they would find the whole