The New House 
when the lesson begins to be well-learned; when you 
touch the pocket-book. That we lost last year 
6,772 lives by fire in this country makes our good 
people very sad indeed, though it deters them but 
little from so continuing to build that six, or seven, 
or eight thousand more poor souls will be launched 
into eternity in the same way next year. But our 
fires are costing us enormously in money. Last 
year $230,000,000 went up in smoke. True, we 
got back possibly $200,000,000 from the insurance 
companies, but then again to get that $200,000,000 
we had paid the insurance people $500,000,000 in 
premiums. Then our fire departments are costing 
us enormously, the installation of new apparatus 
and improved water systems and supplies means 
more and more taxation and, as I say, our business 
men are awakened to the realization that this foolish 
way of building is a costly one, too, and so they are 
beginning to listen with some attention when we talk 
to them about fireproof construction. In most 
cities buildings of over three or five stories are com¬ 
pulsorily of fire-retarding construction. There was a 
time, twenty or more years ago, when wood was 
very cheap and steel and tile were comparatively 
dear. Then, it was economy to build flimsily. 
To-day, wood is almost a luxury, for it has increased 
150 per cent, in price in the last fifteen or twenty 
years; while brick, and tile, and steel are now man¬ 
ufactured at comparatively low cost. As a matter 
of fact, a well-built fireproof structure to-day costs, 
as a general thing, not over ten per cent, more to 
build than a structure whose principal parts are of 
wood, and, in a great many cases, for large halls, store 
buildings, and certain other classes of construction, 
fireproofing costs not over five and six per cent, 
more than wood. And that is in the first cost, mark 
you. When you come to count up, as a business man 
must, the difference in favor of fireproof as regards 
the longevity of the building, its greater immunity 
from deterioration and necessary repair, the fact 
that little or no insurance need be carried on the con¬ 
struction itself, you find that the building properly 
constructed, of brick and steel, and fireproof clay 
tile, means a less ultimate total investment than the 
flimsiest of cheap wooden construction, while at the 
same time it brings in far greater returns in rentals, 
affords far greater satisfaction and affirms one in 
the belief that he is a good citizen and has accom- 
FLOOR PLANS OF TYPE B 
47 
