New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-09-04
Fire Sanitation as a Natural
Factor-National Board of
Fire Underwriters and Its
Welfare Work - Whole
Business Justifes Itself to
the Public.
Eighth and last Of Series Of Sketehe,
that have appeared in The Tribune for
The Past Tho Months, Copies of which
VIII Be Mailed on Reqaest)

itself every day in the year by
~ the public welfare work of Fire
Sanitation which permeates it's
whole structure and which goes for
ward so increasingly and yet unob-
trusively.
Thousands upon thousands Of lives and
millions upon millions of property values are
needtessly sacrificed every year through fires
that might be prevented by carcfulncss and
Cleanliness
Almost every natural factor in
stock fire underwriting is Fire
Sanitation agent commissioned to
minimize this needless human and
property waste: the actuarial and
rating bureaus and the local boards
and exchanges in their survey, in
spection and rating work; the many
companies, their field representa-
tives, their 100000 agents and the
10000 or more employees in the
discharge of ordinary duties and in
public conservation work.
In still broader and more pub
lie way through the National Board
Of Fire Underwriters and its affilia-
lions, Fire Sanitation is being incul-
Gated as 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 re-
duced losses sure to follow-com-
petition and the voluntary agree
ment 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 protection from fire of can
comments, ship building plants,
grain elevators and the fourteen
thousand factories engaged in man
ufacturing war material, became of
first consideration. The National
Board of Fire Underwriters-a vol
untary organization of 100 stock
companies associated for educa-
tional, engineering and statistical
purposes, with no control over rates
of fire insurance and no disciplinary
power whatever over its member
ship--offered to the government the
services not only of itssown trained
engineers but the experts of Acc
tuarlal Bureaus, Local Boards and
Exchanges and the field men of in
dlvidual companies, to prevent the
unnecessary loss of war material by
I fire.
Their work was salutary The
United States Grain Corporation did
not have one solitary dollar of fire
loss! Every cantonment in the United
States was protected nv engineering
rules laid down by the National Board
staff and there were few fires and no
confagrations@ Ship building was pro-
tected with equally satisfactory results
and fires in war working plants were
minimiZedi
I wish it were possible, in this effort
to encompass an encyclopedia within a
few brief sketches. to detail the pub
lie 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 de-
vice submitted which must reach an
established minimum standard to re-
ceive approval, all subject to review by
the United States Bureau of Standards
at Washington; that it cooperates with j.,
the authorities everywhere to expose
those who pcrpetrate the crime of
arson and so ieopardize lives as well
as property values; that it helps cities
to standardize fire departments, fire
alarms and water supplies, to adopt
standard building codes and generally
to observe Fire Sanitation.
The National Board cooperates
closely with the National Fire Protec-
ton Association to develop the best
methods of preventing and extinguish-
ing fire, with the Fire Marshals' As
ISOLATION of North America, those state
officers whose duty it is to apply the
laws OF fire control and Investigations
with the International Association of
Fire Engineers, the chiefs of fire de-
partments which are the pride of Amer
can cities, with Safety Councils, credit
men, civic bodies and the specialists
in electrical manufacturing and in
stallation, in building construction and
every industry where the principles of
Fire Sanitation may be made operative.
The National Board comes into more
direct contact with the public by liter
allure prepared to emphasize Fire Pre-
vention. Among the many publications
is Safeguarding America Against
Fire" issued monthly, and presenting
fire facts for the army of local agents
to disseminate as fire cautions and fire
lessons to the people with whom they
come in direct contact. Safeguarding
the Home teaching the youth of
America the hrst principles OF fire
prevention and what to do in case of
fire, is official in several states as
public school manual and is used In
thousands of schools where there are
no legal requirements. There are
other ublications-many others-deal-
ing with the prevention, control and ex-
| tinguishment of fire. Then too there
| is 1.-THE Danger That Never Sleeps"
a fire caution filmed under the auspices
of the National Board, and soon to be
| released.
These sketches have served merely
to outline the broader fundamentals
of stock fire underwriting which, to
repeat, serve as a basis for the opera
tons of the co-ordiaated, but not COM
.bined companies, all in competition
with each other and with all other
types of carriers. There is no "mys-
terry" about our business, though there
| is intricacy and complexity-the thou
sand and one ramifications that are not
generally understood. know so we'll
the broad gauge and public spirit of
the vast majority of those IN charge
of the destinies of stock fire under
writing, that I am confident were the
people themselves to investigate, they
would find the whole work so important
and SO devoid of conspiracy or monop-
oily that they would demand its pro-
lection and not permit of its curtail-
ment or destruction.
JOHN B. MORTON
President