Part 40

“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.

Having this common ground of interest, it would seem that each organization may be of service to the other; that which I represent gaining an enlarged interest in those social, economic and moral questions which so vitally affect human welfare, and you, perhaps, utilizing the trained experience available to most fully disclose the true conditions upon which conclusions must depend, so that the principles advocated may always be based upon ascertained facts.

As I listened to the reading of the resolutions on the last afternoon, it seemed to me that if the situation referred to in my last paragraph had been utilized, the statement with regard to the purity of rivers would have been materially modified. I think that civil (sanitary) engineers are rapidly realizing that there is a practicable limit set by conditions of civilization to the absolute purity of rivers, in some cases, which has been theoretically deemed desirable. However, I wish to say in general, that it seems to me the resolutions passed by the Congress are excellent.

ADDRESS.

BY J. C. BAUMGARTNER _of California_.

I regret exceedingly that a gentleman from our state with whom many of you are well acquainted, a former governor, George C. Pardee, who is the chairman of our State Conservation commission, is not here. I feel wholly incompetent to represent California upon this occasion, but have been asked to say just a few words.

When the governor of California asked me a few days ago to take a place upon the state Conservation commission I was very proud and glad to do so. I happened to be a newspaper man by profession, and quite a number of papers throughout the state had little items about my appointment, and the heading in many instances read something like this: “Baumgartner gets a fat plum,” “An editor recognized,” and so on down the line. I made a little reply to that in this way: I said that I was very glad indeed to be recognized as a man who was willing and perhaps in some little measure competent to have a part in the great work of conservation, without money and without price, as you all know, and as was expressed from this platform this morning, this work is a work in which no individual has any selfish interest. It is a public-spirited work. And it is certainly one of the biggest and best things that is going on in this country today. Nothing has been done in California by the state government by way of recognition of this work until within the past few months. So that we who are here from that state are here to learn, and not to attempt to instruct. If we can learn our A B Cs here, we shall feel that our time and money have been well spent in coming here.