HOW TO REDUCE THE FIRE INSURANCE TAX.

HOW TO REDUCE THE FIRE INSURANCE TAX.

FIRE insurance being a tax, it may be reduced like any other similar impost. No property owner or business man need pay more than his neighbor; but each must pay according to the class of risk under which the property insured comes. Every improvement in his risk reduces his insurance rate, and an iron shutter, a brick chimney, or a parapet on an exposed wall, fire pails, and extinguishers, standpipe and hose, permanent ladder to open hatchway, and any number of other improvements may reduce the annual rate more than the entire expenditure. The mere fact that there is an insurance tariff acts as an inducement to make improvements of this kind, and thus the insecurity of the community from fires will be correspondingly increased. The tariff is also a safeguard against dangerous Innovations in heating, lighting, and industrial processes—to which innovations there is no end. When they come up they are carefully investigated, and their use is permitted only under safe restrictions. For instance, a few years ago people took to sprinkling their stores with coal oil in order to avoid dust in sweeping—a dangerous practice which underwriters refused to permit. Next came the faulty installation of electricity, which for years was done in a very ignorant manner. The National Board has now control of every electrical installation, which is carefully supervised under proper rules by an electrical inspector. If such improvements were left to municipalities to bring about, they would either be dillydallied with, or some one’s pull would prevent their being carried out.

FIRE insurance being a tax, it may be reduced like any other similar impost. No property owner or business man need pay more than his neighbor; but each must pay according to the class of risk under which the property insured comes. Every improvement in his risk reduces his insurance rate, and an iron shutter, a brick chimney, or a parapet on an exposed wall, fire pails, and extinguishers, standpipe and hose, permanent ladder to open hatchway, and any number of other improvements may reduce the annual rate more than the entire expenditure. The mere fact that there is an insurance tariff acts as an inducement to make improvements of this kind, and thus the insecurity of the community from fires will be correspondingly increased. The tariff is also a safeguard against dangerous Innovations in heating, lighting, and industrial processes—to which innovations there is no end. When they come up they are carefully investigated, and their use is permitted only under safe restrictions. For instance, a few years ago people took to sprinkling their stores with coal oil in order to avoid dust in sweeping—a dangerous practice which underwriters refused to permit. Next came the faulty installation of electricity, which for years was done in a very ignorant manner. The National Board has now control of every electrical installation, which is carefully supervised under proper rules by an electrical inspector. If such improvements were left to municipalities to bring about, they would either be dillydallied with, or some one’s pull would prevent their being carried out.