Evening star., 1923-10-13

| Uninterrupted statistics are so dry
that they are extra hazardous from
a hre-risk standpoint. What does II
mean to say that the United States
| burns UP. in one year, s521.861 900
/ and that three-fourths of the fires are
due to inexcusable care1essness?
1t should mean that every year that
loss equals what it would cost to
| the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. A
! good schoolhouse can be built for
$4,000. and rather than build 10,500
such schools annually we, literally,
! nave the money to burn" Yet 25
+, per cent OF our citizens are illiterate.
Every seven or eight years the fire
loss would cover the soldiers adjust
! ed compensation, with no need of a
sales tax-but, instead, the careless
keep the home fires burning"
That ancient villain Nero fiddled
while Rome burned. yet. extenuat-
, lngly. II Is not proved that he set
Rome afire. The American public
beats Nero as an incendiary, however
1t may rank with a violin. Running
a close second to Canada, it beats the
rest of the world.
The San Francisco disaster account
ed for the peak of the national fire
, loss In 1906, which jumped from s170,-
| 100000 in 1905 to s450.00o.o0O In 1906.
Then the loss dropped back in 1907
i to only s200.000,O 900, and 1t zigzagged
around s2Q0,OOOOOO for the next ten
years. Suddenly, during the war, 1t
jumped to $32O.000.O00 in 1913. and
on up to s4so:oool 900 in 1922 and on
year 1923. These figures are given
by the National Fire Underwriters.
X 4 \ x
The above refers to the nations
burning. The city of Washington
could add. annually. seventy miles of
asphalt streets or build forty new schools
with what 1t burns up. If it dared
discharge its able fire department
and cancel its expensive insurance it
could add teachers TO all those forty
new schools, and pay them q fliving
wage" or better.
In the last year, through careless
ness, twenty-nine families of Wash
ington stored their live Goals in
wooden containers, and called out the
fire department. Automobile owners
neglected to keep their machines in
order, SO backfiring, wire short-cir-
cutting or gasoline ignition caused
230 fires-some with fatalities. Burn
ing trash in back yards, instead of
notifying the street department to
remove 1t. caused SAT blazes in homes;
sooty chimneys, 279 fires; boiling over
of fats while cooking. As fires i:
storing matches in paper boxes, or
within reach of children, 343 fires
some babies burned; carelessly aim
ing lighted cigars or cigarettes at
awnings or waste paper baskets, 1873
blazes: defective heating plants, 14O;
sparks from bonfires and chimneys,
las fires; patriotic fireworks, al
though forbidden by law, fires. on
last July 4.
During the year 6 victims burn
ed to death in the city; 81 not
members of the fire department
We're injured by fires; 14S firemen
injured. In 1922 about 1000 alarms,
in the fiscal year 1923 an increase
of 795 alarms. Loss In 1923. $2.074.-
096, an increase of SS94.000, which
is over 25 per cent, as compared with
the fiscal year 1922.
x X X
The secretary of the National Fire
Protection Association, Franklin II.
Wentworth, says: Our annual waste
Of SIS per capita means that every
man, woman and child pays IS a year
for fire waste. That means that a
man with the average family-a wife
and three children-pays S25 a year
''The United States government in its