The Remedy for Incendiarism.

The Remedy for Incendiarism.

The question of incendiarism, says The Chronicle, is a growing question with insurance companies and ought to be a burning question, in a double sense, with the authorities charged with the duty of protecting society by the discovery and punishment of crime. What proportion of the something like $125,000 000 of fire loss for this year of our Lord 1891. is due to intentional burning, it is difficult to say with certainty, but that at least ten per cent is the result of guilty intention, will, we think, be generally conceded. Another considerable percentage is due to criminal carelessness, which, though not presenting the same moral aspect, is quite as bad in results to the fire insurance companies. To say nothing of the numerous cases revealed of late where individuals or gangs have deliberately set fires for revenge or pure cussedness, the burning of insured property by or at the instigation of the owners has become alarmingly common.

The pressing and practical question is how the crime shall be prevented or materially lessened. The companies themselves cannot adequately cope with it, for they are handicapped in advance by a mistaken prejudice in the public mind against any evidence of arson presented by the insuring company, the cry of interested motive being raised at once. That there are hundreds of cases where the company adjuster is perfectly convinced that the fires are of incendiary origin, though not capable of such proof as, furnished by the company, would serve to convict before the average jury, is well known.