New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-07-27
GIVING THOUGHT
TO
FIRE INSURANCE:
Schedule Rating, the Self
Elective System Give 5
Property Owner Voice -
Economic Cost Trend Is
Downward - Nj h o d Is
Scientific
fSecond Of Series Of E;oht
Sketches. The First May be had on
Request. The Third Iriu Appear IN
The Tri6Nse IN the Near Future.l

large city, would not only want infor-
nation as to the rental price but I
you'd want 10 know what fire insur-
snce rate I would have to pay. While
no guarantee against destruction by
fire. of course, low premium rate in
djcates that the construction is good
and the danger from fire minimized
There is nothing like modern scientific
rating by schedule to strip off the GIN
rerbread and make building trans
parent.
Schedule rating is your fire insur-
ance balance sheet of debts and
credits. On the debit side are the fire
breeding and FIRE spreading dehcien-
lies; on the credit side the fire resist
ing. fire preventing and fire eNtinguish-
inc factors. AS these matters are
largely under the control of the
owner. we call this Self-elective rat
inc system. 1t is rightly named.
Pause for q moment and imagine the
thousands of ramifications that must
enter into schedule rating. No two
buildings are alike; no two occupan-
cies alike; fire resistive and fire breed
ing conditions are all different.
Designed at first for mercantile and
manufacturing properties and other
large structures used for business pur-
poses. schedule rating has been ex
tended to apartment houses of larger
area, though not yet generally to aver
sge dwellings. 1t takes into eonsidera-
tion varying features of each indi-
yidual risk and looks also to the con-
fagration possibilities and probabili
ties of the city in which the property
Is located, including width and grade
of the streets, police and fire depart
ment efficiency and other factors that
might have a bearing upon damage
ability" from fire.
There is nothing secret about the
way your rate is made. 1t is set forth
in this balance sheet of debts and
credits Gall printed out in detail and
expressed in dollars and cents) and
sou or your authorized agent or broker
may have copy. In fact you should
study this balance sheet carefully if
you would know how your premium
rate may be still further lowered by
improving the fire resistive features of
your property.
Our schedules are not perfect-no
man made system is--but we are sim
cerely trying to perfect this Self-elec-
tive plan of rating for your sake as
well as our own. 1t is one of the ano-
males of fire insurance that we, as
underwriters, would rather insure low
than high rated risks. So We bend our
energies toward inducing you SO to
perfect and safeguard your property
that low rate will be produced. Every
slime we can by this method prevent
FIRE loss-and every fire in large city
is the seed of a confagrabion-we re-
duce the cost to you, furnish an ex-
ample to others, conserve the resources
of the country and possibly make some
money ourselves. Yours is the short,
but ours is the long road to profit
About the only classes of properties
today not generally rated by schedule
are average dwellings, ana risks of like
character. Logically all such proper
lies fall Into certain groupings based
upon construction and take the same
Or fixed or fat rate. We term it
minimum" rate. It lie quite expen-
sivs to rate dwellings BY schedule,
there not being enough differentiation
In the individual risks, which are
grouped by grades OF construction
called Glasses" to make an apprecia-
bic difference, and the premium rate is
SO low to start with that the variation
Is likely to be only few cents either
way. The trend, however, is toward
the application of schedule rating to
even these few exceptional classes.
The machinery for schedule rating
is enormous. Practically every fire
less in the United States sustained by
stock companies is now classified as to
cause, construction of the building,
occupancy-everything! 1t is hercu-
lean job. We are learning to measure
the ''damageability" Of property of
the many kinds Chow susceptible to
hre and water damage it isl; the
hazards of Exposure" (your neigh
boris property); what breeds fire,
spreads FIRE, and what puts out fire.
All this is reflected in a basis rate
which may be termed our manufacture
ing cost for better understanding. To
this we must add our home Office eX-
penses; the charges we have to pay
Tor public supervision, and fees and
licenses, to the forty eight states of
the Union; taxes, Exceptionally high
.axes they are too), and the cost of
Inspections, reinspections and what
not, all of which may be likened to the
,9obbing" of manufactured articles,
tnough there is, of course, much diff
ference Our retailing process comes
When the finished productive policy
contracts delivered to you at
given rate through local agents or
brokers'. In addition to all this, of
course, comes the constant stream of
nre losses and their adjustment and
payment
Every agent and every broker are
lending their influence to induce you
% make the changes that will make
your property safer and thereby secure
sfedlts IN your premium rate; induce
mments that make the cost to you lower.
Every rating organization in the coun
ny has an expert staff that is ever
pose.
IL you Lpow &c oo,, ntb,r h,s;roc,