The Review of Reviews. 



Auguit 1. 1906. 



INFLAMMABLE CITIES. 



Mr. Joseph K. Freitag, in the Engineering Maga- 

 zine, pleads earnestly for the passing of legislation 

 in America compelling the enforcement of general 

 building requirements similar to those in force in 

 European countries. His convincing article shows 

 at any rate that in this respect the United States are 

 far behind more conservative, old-world countries. 

 THE DANGER OF CHEAP LUMBEE. 



The fact that lumber is scarce and expensive in 

 Europe, whilst in the United States it has been 

 cheap and easilv available, accounts for the differ- 

 ence in building methods: — 



But, fortunately, in this respect at least, lumber has been 

 steadily advancing in price until some grades have in- 

 creased as much as 15u per cent- during the past few 

 years, while steel, brick, stone, cement, and the clav pro- 

 ducts have been gradually decreasing in price, until there 

 .ire good commercial as well as civic reasons to hope that 

 the hitherto TTtopian accomplishment of universal fire-re- 

 sisting construction ma.v soon replace the era of jig-saw 

 ..nd wood-frame- 



FIEE LOSS GREATER THAN NATIONAL DEBT. 



Some of Mr. Freitags figures are positively start- 

 ling. It is estimated that the annual fire loss in the 

 United States now represents a tax of jQ^ per year 

 per famiK of population. In 1904 the total loss by 

 lire in the States was _;^46, 000,000, or an average 

 ilailv loss of _;^i26,ooo: — 



To show even more plainly what this stupendous drain 

 upon the resources of the country really means, take the 

 actual losses by fire tabulated by the National Board of 

 Fire Underwriters, and it will be found that, in the past 

 twenty-five years, no less than 3,500,000,CKX) dols '£700,000.0001 

 worth of property has been sacrificed to this national 

 waste. This great total may be better appreciated if com- 

 pared to this national debt of the United States, which, at 

 tlie highest point ever reached, on .July 1st, 1866, amounted 

 13 2.7J3,236,173 dols. (£550,000,000). 



NINETEEN DEATHS A DAT. 

 In 1904, nearly 7000 people lost their lives in fire casualties 

 in the United States, a daily average of nineteen lives 

 throughout the year, thus nearly equalling the deaths 

 from railroad disasters in the country, where the statistics 

 for such casualties show confessedly the worst conditions 

 in the world. 



Mr. Freitag makes an instructive comparison be- 

 tween fire losses in American cities and in those of 

 Europe and Great Britain, where, he says, fire re- 

 sistance has been recognised as a public necessity 

 Mr centuries past: — 



The annual fire loss in Boston is now about £300,000, 

 while in an average European city of equal population 

 the fire loss will be found seldom to range over £30.000. 

 And this is in spite of the fact that the daily number of 

 fires will be about the same, and in spite of the usually 

 marked superiority of .\merican fire-fighting facilities. The 

 real reason for the difference is to be found in the methods 

 ')i building construction. While American cities have per- 

 mitted the erection of " fire-traos '■ on ever\- hand. Con- 

 tinental municipal regulations limit the height and area 

 of buildings, the character of the building materials, and 

 generally enforce adequate fire-resistive construction 

 throughout all city btiilcings. 



CONFINING FIRES. 



In such cities as Ha\Te, Rouen, Milan, Rome, 

 Brussels, Antwerp, Leeds, Sheffield and Bristol even,- 

 fire in the year 1890 was confined to the building in 

 which it originated. In Dresden, Florence, Vienna 

 and other cities even- fire w-as confined to the floor 

 • ^'^ which it originated: — 



In Hamburg, out of a total of 682 fires in 1890, 659 were 

 -confined to the floor where the.v started. 660 to the building, 



while only ten fires extended to the adjoining property. A 

 conflagration, or the extension of lire beyond the imme- 

 diately adjoining property, had not been known since 

 1842. And we must bear in mind that man.v of these 

 results are obtained in spite of what Americans would 

 consider the most ridiculous fire-fighting facilities. 



Mr. Freitag says that the San Francisco disaster 

 has, at any rate, proved that the steel-frame build- 

 ings are practically immune from earthquakes, and 

 also that fireproof buildings are of little use unless 

 they stand in a fireproof city. 



ARE SUNDAY SCHOOLS NECESSARY? 



Query by a Clergyman. 



.\ by-product of the education controvers\ ap- 

 pears in the NineUenth Century, in a paper bv the 

 Kev. E. H. Rycroft on Sunday schools. The writer 

 slronglv believes in the State giving instruction in 

 religion in its schools, and objects with equal vigour 

 to this "■ vital part of national education ' being left 

 to ■' voluntary agencies ' like the Sunday school. He 

 questions whether the buildings in which the Sun- 

 day school meets would not now be condemned by 

 a sanitary inspector, and are not now the source of 

 diphtheria and typhoid. And if the buildings now 

 used by the Church of England as day schools were 

 closed to Sunday schools, " any hole or comer 

 would in many parishes have to be used as Sunday 

 schools by the Church of England. The writer 

 proceeds to a fairly comprehensive indictment of 

 Sunday school teaching: — 



Next, as to Ttachers: these, with a few brilliant excep- 

 tions, are of very little use. A Sunday school teacher 

 generally offers herself, and as a rule the teacher is a 

 ■ she," not because she possesses the gift of teaching, but 

 because, moved by the spirit of religion to olfer herself 

 for some pious or charitable work, she is told by Iter 

 clergyman or minister that a class is vacant in the Sunday 

 school. Experts in education, who watch the faces of a 

 class in the element-ary school as an experienced teacher 

 instructs the children, are aghast as they see the bored, 

 listless look on the faces of these saine children trying to 

 sit still and " be good " in the Sunda.v school. Tlie chil- 

 dren know well enough that they are learning nothing. 



But what all this time ha^ the real teacher Iwen doing, 

 it such a one can be found in the school? She can teach 

 — she wants to teach : the class can learn from her. and 

 so want to learn. But it is hopeless with such a shuffling 

 of feet, and "Maggie Jones, be quiet." "Thomas Smith, 

 sit still." going on all round. 



SUNTJAT NOT A DAT FOB INSTRUCTION. 



The writer will rouse even angrier criticism by his 



next contention: — 



" Sunday schools are necessary for the religions life of 

 the nation.' you say. This is doubtful. Sunday is a day 

 tiiat seems to have been ordained for worship and rest, 

 uoti for instruction. And if one-twentietli part of the 

 energy now put into Stinday schools were put into the or- 

 ganisation of children's services, there would probably be 

 a wider and more satisfactory appreciation of worship 

 than is now the case. We have, through oar system of 

 compulsory education, made the proletariat consider they 

 have no responsibility for their children during many hours 

 of the day, and quite three-fourths of the children present 

 in every Sunday school are there because the parents do not 

 want them at home: while, if the Stinday school were to go 

 the way of all human institutions, it would come home 

 to parents that while it might be well that their children 

 should be away from them in the elementary schools during 

 week days, yet this did not absolve them from the respon- 

 sibility of bringing up those children in the fear of God. 

 The sight of a father or mother sitting by the side of 

 their children in the pew at church or chapel has become 

 exceedingly rare, and the Sunday school s.vst€m is partly 

 responstb e. 



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