United States” was presented by this board and upwards of 12,000 copies
were distributed to state and municipal authorities and to the press. We
quote the causes then set forth as operating to make the large fire waste
in the United States.
“First: The difference in the point of view and the responsibility of the
inhabitants of Europe and those of the United States.
“Second: The difference in the construction of buildings.
“Third: The difference in the regulations governing hazards and hazardous
materials and conditions, and in the enforcement of such regulations.”
And suggested as essential means toward its reduction:
“First: That the public should be brought to understand that property
destroyed by fire is gone forever and is not replaced by the distribution
of insurance which is a tax collected for the purpose.
“Second: That the states severally adopt and enforce a building code
which shall require a high type of safe construction, essentially
following the code of the National Board of Fire Underwriters.
“Third: That municipalities adopt ordinances governing the use and
keeping of explosives, especially inflammable commodities and other
special hazards, such as electric wiring, the storing of refuse, waste,
packing material, etc., in buildings, yards or areaways, and see to the
enforcement of such ordinances.
“Fourth. That the states severally establish and support the office of
fire marshal and confer on the fire marshal by law the right to examine
under oath and enter premises and to make arrests, making it the duty of
such officer to examine into the cause and origin of all fires and when
crime has been committed requiring the facts to be submitted to the grand
jury or proper indicting body.
“Fifth: That in all cities there be a paid, well-disciplined,
non-political fire department adequately equipped with modern apparatus.
“Sixth: That an adequate water system with proper distribution and
pressure be installed and maintained. In the larger cities a separate
high pressure water system for fire extinguishment is an absolute
necessity, to diminish the extreme imminence of general conflagrations.”
At the Second Conservation Congress a paper on the “Conservation of
Utilized Resources from Destruction by Fire” was presented by us and
about 13,000 copies were widely distributed. We quote a section:
“If the office of State Fire Marshal were created by every commonwealth,
and that official and his deputies given power to enforce good fire
prevention laws, investigate, and, if necessary, prosecute cases of arson
or criminal carelessness in the starting or spreading of fires, ascertain
the cause of every fire, and by the distribution of literature educate
the citizen to the need of care and forethought in the protection of his
property, a distinct conserving of the utilized resources in that state
would follow.
“If our municipalities will enact and enforce improved and safe methods
of building construction and cause the removal or reconstruction of
existing structures which constitute, because of their construction,
a menace to adjoining properties, our cities will be freer from the
imminent conflagration which now threatens them. Eliminate defective
chimney flues, unprotected external and internal openings, excessive
areas, weak walls, and combustible roofs; prohibit the storage of rubbish
and demand the safe use and handling of dangerous inflammable liquids and
oils; regulate the use of explosives; and the destruction of our values,
created from the natural resources but enriched many fold by human toil,
industry and skill, will be materially diminished.
“If the citizens of a community, as members of their local civic bodies
and boards of trade, will create in such organizations a Committee
on Fire Prevention, whose duty it shall be to study the subject and
awaken among their associates a realization of individual and communal
responsibility, and if our boards of education will emulate the action of
the State of Ohio in prescribing primal education of the school children
as to the chemistry of fire, the causes of fires in our homes and how to
guard against them, and how to extinguish incipient fires or hold them in
check while awaiting the response of the fire department, a preparation
will be made in that community which will check the constantly increasing
fire waste.”
This organization has not been alone in its efforts in this direction,
neither has there been an entire absence of activity on the part of state
and municipal authorities.
The National Fire Protection Association, of which the National Board of
Fire Underwriters is an active member, has through some of its members,
but principally through its secretary, delivered forty-two addresses on
the fire waste in thirty-one different cities. At the annual meeting of
the association held in New York in May last, it adopted the following
resolutions, urging upon the public the vital importance of better
construction and protection, and of a greater care in the maintenance of
property:
“The National Fire Protection Association, with all the force at its
command and with the absolutely united and unanimous support of its
entire membership, wishes to place before the public in the strongest
possible terms that the situation in connection with the fire waste is
becoming so acute that there is necessity for action.
“Action by all cities and towns in adopting proper building codes,
which will call for improved conditions and the use of fire resisting
construction in congested districts.
“Action by the state and municipal authorities covering the regulation of
the transportation and storage of inflammable oils and explosives.
“Action by those in authority to the end that all buildings where people
congregate, such as schools, theaters, factories, and hotels, shall be so
constructed and equipped that the lives of the people within them may be
safe-guarded.
“Action by the proper authorities requiring the introduction of automatic
fire extinguishing apparatus in all commercial establishments and city
blocks.
“Action by the proper authorities prohibiting the manufacture and sale
and use of the snap match and requiring the universal adoption and use of
the safety match.
“Action by the public in bringing about a safe and intelligent
celebration of Independence Day, and, above all,
“Action by every citizen of the land in using his individual effort in
the cause of educating the public in regard to the dangers from fire, not
only in so far as it applies to the personal and immediate consideration,
but also from the broader standpoint, namely: that of the welfare of our
land.”
At the same meeting the Association was honored in being addressed on
“The Fire Waste” by the Hon. Walter L. Fisher, Secretary of the Interior,
from whose remarks we quote:
“Indeed, I do not doubt that the average intelligent citizen of
the United States is aware of the fact that fires in America
are comparatively frequent. He undoubtedly appreciates in a
general way that a large percentage of our fires are from
preventable causes, and that the sacrifice of life and property
through loss by fire is, much of it, needless. What he does not
fully realize is his own duty, and the duty of city, state and
nation in the premises. He understands as yet but vaguely the
significance of that change of public sentiment which has made
of the movement for the conservation of our natural resources.
He glimpses but dimly how great an obstacle to human progress
and to human happiness is needless waste, whether it be in the
use we make of the products and the forces of nature, or the
productions and the energies of men. If the justification of
private property is that it tends to promote the common good
through increased energy and increased efficiency, which is
the antithesis of waste, then the broadest application of the
principles of conservation should extend to our created as well
as our natural resources, for in the last analysis the loss by
fire of a city building owned by an individual will be just as
important to the people of the United States as the loss by
fire of timber in the public domain. Both the building and the
timber are assets of the Nation. If they are destroyed these
assets are wiped out. No system of taxation will serve to bring
them back, whether this tax be collected by the constituted
authorities under the law, or collected by private interests
as premiums on policies of insurance. In either event, the
taxation is paid by the owners of property and it is ultimately
borne by the community as a whole. Reforestation costs money
which must be levied through taxation in some form. Rebuilding
a dwelling house, or a business block, or the business district
of a city, costs money, a large proportion of which under
insurance methods is assessed against property which has not
burned. It is the people who pay, whether they own land or
buildings or other things of value. It follows thus that the
question of fire waste is of direct pecuniary interest to every
citizen. Beyond the individual pecuniary interests, there
is also the obligation of each citizen to his fellows to so
protect his property and conduct his affairs as not to endanger
the lives and property of his neighbors.
“It is the duty of organized society to protect its members in
life and property. But organized society, it is clearly shown,
has been remiss in its duty. The obligations of municipal,
state and national government have not been met.
“It takes the force of public opinion to accomplish any
reform, and your association should receive hearty aid and
encouragement, for through it much of the educational work
which is a prerequisite to any successful agitation may be
accomplished. There is a real and vital necessity for teaching
each citizen of the United States the significance of the
national fire waste. The truth in regard to our national ash
heap should be brought home to each person having a family to
protect and property to preserve.
“It seems ridiculous that a people so apt and so eager to seek
out and destroy the mysterious and hidden enemies of mankind
should be so slow and sluggish in fighting a foe so plainly
in sight and so readily vanquished. We have led the world in
seeking out the causes of pestilence and removing them. We
are in the very vanguard of the battle against tuberculosis,
typhoid and yellow fever, and still we stand apart and let the
older nations lead the fight against an enemy much more easily
conquered.
“To arouse the people against the fire foe is our task. If
there were any dispute as to the facts, if anyone opposed a
movement to check the fire loss, the American people might
more readily become partisans of this movement which you are
leading. But there is no difference of opinion regarding the
essentials. The average American citizen would admit that
our fire waste is in the nature of a national disgrace. The
task is to make him do something to remedy conditions. You
must popularize your movement and create a general demand for
adequate laws and thorough enforcement. To relieve the people
of the unnecessary burden which they are now carrying, you must
teach them the importance and the significance of that burden.
You must show them the necessity for a defence against this
common enemy. Organized methods must be adopted for bringing
the significance of the fire waste before every person who will
read the written word or listen to the spoken one. Let the
people once realize the exact facts of their own negligence,
and they will be swift to provide the remedy.”
The Western Union, an organization of insurance companies operating
in the Middle and Central West, has carried on, by public speeches of
some of its members and through its committee on publicity, a most
commendable campaign to impress the public with the significance of our
fire waste. Numerous circulars have been distributed and printed in whole
or in part in the newspapers.
Many commercial bodies and boards of trade of our cities have taken
up the subject of the fire waste, appointed local committees on fire
prevention and advocated and secured improvements tending to afford
better fire protection, and lessen the great financial drain which the
fire loss was causing in their communities.
The National Association of Credit Men, which has perhaps devoted more
time to the study of insurance and the fire waste of the country than any
other commercial body, has been very active in acquainting business men
with the importance of the subject and in encouraging the adoption by
municipality and state of such remedial measures as will tend to diminish
the steadily and rapidly increasing fire losses.
The states of Ohio, Montana, Nebraska and Iowa are instructing their
school children as to the importance of observing greater care in the
handling and use of the ordinary fire hazards. The Fire Insurance
Commissioners in annual convention in August last adopted the following
resolutions:
“The appalling annual loss of life and property in the United States by
fires, due to criminal carelessness, ignorance or dishonesty, commands
the serious attention of the American people. From present indications
over $300,000,000 in property values will be utterly wiped out during the
current year—a sum so vast that it must have a serious economic effect on
the prosperity of the country. The causes for this enormous drain on the
savings of the Nation are well known and to a large extent preventable.
“The destruction of property by fire is ten times as great per capita
in the United States as it is in Germany, France, England, and other
countries abroad; and in addition to this needless waste of property
there are also thousands of men, women and children burned to death or
crippled in the various local fires and conflagrations that constantly
occur. The chief factor responsible for this situation is general
carelessness and the utter lack of personal responsibility for the
removal of causes productive of fires.
“We recommend a campaign of education through the governors, insurance
commissioners and fire marshals of the various states, for the purpose of
bringing directly to the attention of the people the causes responsible
for the national ash heap, and the adoption of legislation which
will safeguard the lives and property of the people by holding every
individual responsible for carelessness resulting in fires.
“We commend the suggestion unanimously adopted by the Association of
Fire Marshals of North America, urging that the governors of the various
states set aside one day each year to be known as ‘fire prevention day.’
By proclamation the governor can call the attention of the citizens to
the enormous preventable fire waste of the country, and urge the taking
of such precautions, individual, municipal and state, as will tend to
reduce it. Appropriate exercises can be held in the public schools,
instruction on the common fire hazards can be given the children, and the
day can be made the occasion of the ‘clean-up’ day, which is doing so
much to remove hazardous conditions.
“_Resolved._ That the individual members of the convention will use their
influence to secure such action by the governors of their respective
states, as an important, practical and educational assistance in the work
of fire prevention.”
The governors of a number of our commonwealths have already acted
favorably on part of the foregoing suggestions and by proclamation have
set aside a day to be known as “fire prevention day,” when the citizens
will be called upon to clean up their several premises and provide better
fire protection, as a part of a nation-wide study of fire waste, and the
individual responsibility of property owners and householders.
The State Fire Marshals in annual session adopted somewhat similar
resolutions. The awakening of our people on this subject affords
encouragement, but as yet it is only partial, incomplete, and not in
keeping with the national importance of the subject.
A number of our states enacted fire marshal laws during their last
legislative sessions, some of which were commendable in their provisions,
but many of them embodied the false theory that such laws are more
beneficial to the fire insurance companies than to the public, and impose
on the former an additional tax for its support and enforcement. In
contrast to this policy, the Legislature of New York State, recognizing
that the state was collecting through its insurance department vastly
more than the expenses of the department, enacted what may be taken as a
model fire marshal law, the provisions of which are to be carried out and
enforced by the state at its own expense.
Probably two-thirds of our fire loss is from preventable causes. Based on
this estimate, nearly two hundred million dollars of property values are
unnecessarily destroyed annually, reducing the wealth of the Nation in
like measure, since insurance does not restore but merely indemnifies out
of remaining wealth. It has truly been said that this preventable fire
waste is a national disgrace, and we have the humiliation of knowing that
the United States is by far the leader in this discreditable condition.
Publicity has been mentioned recently as a cure, or partial cure, for
other evils. Likewise publicity will have an advantageous effect in
preventing fires. A special lesson to be preached and reiterated is that
those who cause, or have, avoidable fires, injure their neighbors, their
municipalities, their states and their country. They have created a part
of the two hundred million yearly “national scandal.” They have destroyed
wealth and increased taxes. They have been bad citizens.
If the distinguished persons who are in attendance here will interest
themselves in their respective communities and states and advocate
the cause of conservation of the fire waste and the elimination of
preventable fires, they will help, and give an impetus to, the movement
for lessened fire losses and the saving of lives from fire. While the
members of the National Board of Fire Underwriters have an advantage
of contact and outlook as to the fire situation, they have no more and
no different interest in the subject than have other citizens. Good
citizenship demands that all, individually and collectively, should do
their full part in inculcating principles and bringing about practices
which will stop the ravages of the tremendous fire waste that is
scandalous because obviously preventable.
GEO. W. BABB, New York.
W. N. KREMER, New York.
E. W. WEST, Glens Falls, N. Y.
E. G. RICHARDS, New York.
R. M. BISSELL, Hartford, Conn.
R. DALE BENSON, Philadelphia.
C. G. SMITH, New York.
REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES.
BY WILLIAM P. WHARTON.
To cultivate in the public mind a more lively appreciation of the value
of preserving the wild bird and animal life of America, is the object of
the National Association of Audubon Societies for the protection of wild
birds and animals. Backed by thirty-eight state Audubon societies, the
National Association is directing its endeavors along certain definite
lines of activity.
Coöperating with state forest, fish and game commissions and with local
clubs, organized for game protection, the association is an important
factor in aiding to secure legislation looking to the protection at
all times of the valuable non-game birds, and the preservation from
undue killing of the various game birds and game animals with which the
country is blessed. In forty states the Audubon law for the protection
of non-game birds has been enacted, and in many other states Audubon
bills for the establishment of state game warden forces, the shortening
of seasons for killing game, the creation of game protective funds by
requiring hunter’s licenses, limits on the number of game birds which may
be killed in a day and other restrictive measures have been enacted.
The association has always been active in advocating the passage of
various federal laws looking to the conservation of our native wild life.
Through its officers, agents and members large numbers of violators of
the game laws are annually reported to the state authorities and in many
instances prosecutions are begun and pushed by its representatives.
Its continuous fight against the millinery traffic in the feathers of
native birds is a well-known subject in contemporaneous history. To
safeguard American water birds, the association has purchased, leased and
in other ways secured control of numbers of islands, lakes and swamps
where birds of this class are accustomed to congregate in great numbers
for the purposes of laying their eggs and rearing their young. Today
virtually all of the important breeding colonies of birds on the Atlantic
and Gulf coasts of the United States, as well as many of those along
the Pacific coast, are guarded in the summer by wardens employed by the
association. Through its efforts, the United States Government has been
interested in establishing fifty-three bird sanctuaries by making islands
and lakes frequented by breeding birds in summer federal reservations.
The association coöperates with the Government in paying for the services
of wardens who guard these birds from the inroads of hunters who may
desire to kill them for food or to secure their plumage for the feather
markets.
The association conducts a wide educational campaign by means of
lecturers and the annual distribution of hundreds of thousands of
pages of literature and pictures of native birds. It is pushing the
organization of bird study classes in the schools, and as an example
during the past year, over ten thousand Southern school children received
systematic instructions in bird study.
The association in its various fields of endeavor coöperates with the
officials of the United States Department of Education, with the United
States Commissioner of Education and numerous scientific societies. Its
growth during the past few years has been almost phenomenal and the
results achieved in rehabilitating the bird life of many sections of the
country is a source of great encouragement.
A LETTER.
_From J. L. Van Ornum, Representing the Society for the Promotion of
Engineering Education and the Society for Testing Materials._
Had there been time for me to extend the greetings of the Society for the
Promotion of Engineering Education to the Third Conservation Congress, I
should have stated that:
At our annual convention of fifteen years ago a paper was presented on
the subject of “The Conservation of Government Energy Through Education
and Research,” in which the statement is made with reference to our
natural resources, “the Government must be possessed of large resources
and a settled policy. Resources are not so easily commanded now as
formerly. All sources must be guarded and everything realized must be
successfully husbanded.”
In the work of the engineering colleges, which distinctively consists in
educating young men in those fundamental principles which particularly
concern the direction of the great resources of materials and power in
nature to the use and convenience of mankind, the student is trained to
regard wastefulness as serious a fault as he does otherwise defective
design.
With this idea of the essential economy of their plans and works thus
impressed, engineers have been filling their place in the development
of the material resources of the Republic for more than half a century,
until there exists a body of trained men to whom conservation is an
ingrained trait.