A CHAPTER IN FIRE INSURANCE. 765 



neous and concentrated risks by great cities. It shows a long and 

 honorable record without the levy of a single assessment. Yet what 

 owner of city property, with Boston and Chicago in his memory, would 

 care to become liable for fourteen times the net premium of a normal 

 year ? 



While the direct extension of mutual underwriting has recognized 

 limits, still its methods afford lessons of utmost value not only to own- 

 ers of buildings, but to architects and builders. Stock-insurance com- 

 panies usually accept risks as they find them, and base the rate of a 

 premium on the assumed degree of combustibility. Mutual insurance 

 has taken its chief mission to be the prevention of combustibility, by 

 a judicious co-operation between owner, architect, and builder. It has 

 demonstrated that this co-operation accrues greatly to the owner's 

 advantage in money saved and safety increased. The cardinal prin- 

 ciple of mutual insurance is to minimize risk by a strict examination 

 into the causes of fires. This rule should be carried out in every city 

 and town of the Union, by properly appointed officers, clothed with 

 necessary authority. It matters not how petty a blaze may be — its 

 investigation may yield information of immense value. An unsus- 

 pected source of danger may to-day burn ten dollars' worth of prop- 

 erty, and next month consume a million. An electric current crossing 

 water rendered conductive by a ti'ifling chemical admixture ; fine 

 flour - dust diffused in a mill ; sparks struck by a wheel or tool of 

 metal — these are among the hazards for which special safeguards 

 have been devised and applied within recent years. There is nothing 

 strange about these hazards, now that they have been pointedly brought 

 into notice. They were simply common neglected matters, imtil over- 

 whelming disaster showed the necessity of prevention. In small fires 

 or great, investigation into causes should be thorough, that means of 

 safety, if such exist, be ascertained and enforced. Mr. Atkinson is of 

 opinion, that fires not preventable need not cost more than one tenth 

 of one per cent per annum of the value of property insured. All 

 beyond that, he holds to be the price of faulty construction, inadequate 

 appliances, and imperfect discipline in their management. 



While mutual underwriters have been exploring the essential prin- 

 ciples of sound construction, they have arrived at much as applicable 

 to warehouse or hotel as to cotton or paper mill. They have pointed 

 out the risk of gingerbread coi'nices, hollow floors, and high-j^itched 

 roofs. They justly inveigh against the common practice of setting 

 pine Mansards on lofty structures. They give instance after instance 

 where solid party-walls and self-closing hatchways have saved prop- 

 erty, by holding a fire within manageable bounds, and keeping it in a 

 horizontal area, where it can be successfully fought. They have deter- 

 mined the best appliances wherewith to combat flame, and how they 

 can be best placed and used. An important principle in the construc- 

 tion of these appliances has been evolved as a result of their labors — 



