Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1921-09-30
PROPERTY BURNED
IS PROPERTY LOST
Fire Insurance Replaces, But The
Money Paid BY Insurance
Companies Is Not Created"

Property burned is property lost,
according to the Maryland Fire
Prevention Campaign workers,
whose slogan during the ten days
beginning October | will be, "Stop
a Fire Before it Starts" During
the campaign every citizen of
Maryland is to be asked to do all
he can to prevent fires in private
homes, farm buildings and manu-
featuring plants, by using care and
commonsense. Says Ira G. Hoag
land, nationally known as fire pre-
vention engineer:
Fire is both q boon and bane.
Uncontrolled, it blights. burns, con-
sumes, destroys, devastates, wreacs
havoc, inciuerates, kills and mains,
and generally lays waste to the crea-
tons of nature and man.
The destructiveness of fire, the
economic devastation of it, is gen
orally thought Of in terms of the
material damage wrought, the value
of buildings burned, contents con-
stunned, property destroyed.
Fundamentally, the value of hu-
man life 10 economic, but the con-
current destruction of it by fire is
little thought of in that sense. 1t
Is felt as personal bereavement, not
as society benefit of creative intel
LICENCES and producers of wealth.
And little thought is given-be
forehand-to the economic havoc
wrought by fire in business and in
dustry; to the thousand and one
things in the aftermath of a fire
which try the souls Of men.
1t is fondly imagined, for the
most part, that the insurance
against loss by fire on the buildings
Of commerce and industry and their
contents of merchandise and ma
terials, raw, wrought and in proc
ess of manufacture" will be full
and complete recompense for loss
by fire.
II am insured to the limit. A
fire won't cost me a cent. The in
Surance companies will suffer, not
me !" is the familiar chatter Of hon.
est but unthinking men-we are
not considering the uncomfortable
kind that make money out of fires
and flourish like the proverbial
green bay tree because of rotten
politics.
OF course the insurance COM
panies will pay for the losses to
buildings, equipments, merchandise,
and what not in the way of ma
terial things, and, sometimes to in
come and profits.
And the insurance companies
while paying do not pay; the pub
lie pays the price. The insurance
companies only collect and dis
tribute money for indemnity. They
do not suffer and are not expected
to.
But who pays for the losses
which are the inevitable conse
quence of the destruction of build
ings, their contents and other things
material, the impairment of pres
tige, the interruption of business,
enterprise, contractual relations,
ACKNOWLEDGMENT of organization and
what not else?
A burned building is far moro
easily replaced than burned bust
ness; and a wrecked works than
an incinerated industrial enterprise.
That which makes business and
industry are not buildings, mer-
chandise, machinery and what else,
but the organization of human intel
ligence.
A fire burns business building,
or factory. These and their con-
tents may be replaced But far toe
often the business and the indus
try, as such, are burned beyond re-
pair. And if not that bad the scar,
are deep and unforgettable,
Ask any honest man whose sou
has been scared by fire.
There is not any insurance foi
the human distress, economic ant
otherwise, that follows fire.
1t has been estimated that the un
insurable losses from fire equal tn,
insurable losses. In other words
for every dollar of loss in propert,
burned, which is insurable, there il
a dollar of loss in business burned
or industry incinerated, which is no
insurable.
These uninsurable losses are of
ten referred to as interruption
losses.
Who may suffer then, with i'm
punity?
And for those who do, the futur,
will deal with much more harshl,
than has the past.
There will be in the immediat,
future fullsome renaissance o
the ancient law of the survival o
the fittest.
Our once prohigate nation will
have to think of saving what W,