FIRE LOSS AND THE INSURANCE POLICY.
The following statement of the actual position of fire insurance in its relation to the economic interests of the community is significant, coming, as it does, from insurance sources and approved by the National Board of Fire Underwriters; “It is a mistaken idea that payment by fire insurance companies makes good the property loss, for property burned is value wiped out of existence, and the insurance companies merely distribute the loss by collecting in small sums premiums from all the property owners, and paying in large sums to those who suffer loss by fire. Property burned is money wasted, and the people of the United States are the most wasteful in the world in this direction. Fire losses being the barometer of insurance rates, it is interesting to note that the fire cost per $1,000 of value of property insured is twelve times greater in the United States than in Great Britain, where high buildings, large areas, poor flues and shoddy construction are prohibited by law, and it is twenty times greater than in Ttaly, where the construction is still better and the conflagration hazard practically eliminated.
The following statement of the actual position of fire insurance in its relation to the economic interests of the community is significant, coming, as it does, from insurance sources and approved by the National Board of Fire Underwriters; “It is a mistaken idea that payment by fire insurance companies makes good the property loss, for property burned is value wiped out of existence, and the insurance companies merely distribute the loss by collecting in small sums premiums from all the property owners, and paying in large sums to those who suffer loss by fire. Property burned is money wasted, and the people of the United States are the most wasteful in the world in this direction. Fire losses being the barometer of insurance rates, it is interesting to note that the fire cost per $1,000 of value of property insured is twelve times greater in the United States than in Great Britain, where high buildings, large areas, poor flues and shoddy construction are prohibited by law, and it is twenty times greater than in Ttaly, where the construction is still better and the conflagration hazard practically eliminated.
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