CONGRESS AND THE FIRE LOSSES.
THE necessity for national legislation to prevent the terrible waste of the nation’s wealth by fire that is going on every year is conceded by all persons familiar with the subject. When an amount of wealth equal to about one-fifth of the profits on all the industries of the country is destroyed annually through the recklessness, carelessness or malice of the people, it is time to call a halt, and interpose laws that will tend to lessen this crying evil. But in order that such legislation may be intelligent and practical, it is first necessary to definitely ascertain the causes of fires, or the causes of a majority of fires. The imperfect statistics now gathered are sufficient to indicate these causes, but are not sufficiently definite to warrant Congress in passing laws upon the subject. The prerequisite to intelligent legislation, therefore, is accurate statistics, compiled by government officers, who shall be clothed with power to compel reports to be made to them relative to every fire that occurs, if necessary.
Recognizing the necessity for such accurate statistics as a basis for intelligent legislation, the National Association of Fire Engineers, at its annual convention in 1882, adopted the following resolutions:
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