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Show Today's Disaster ' Seldom indeed does the editorial page "scoop" the news ; department. This is an exception. Though the front page headlines will tell you nothing about it, you should know that your country today sustained a tremendous disaster. Property valued at $1,466,174.44 was wiped out and 41 persons lost their lives by fire. The death-dealing destruction de-struction proceeded continuously throughout the 24 hours, j Every hour $61,115.60 every minute $1,018.59 every sec- , ond 16.97, was wiped out. The .fact that a similar catastrophe occured yesterday, : and another one will occur tomorrow, and another one -on each of the 365 days of the year, does not make the event j less disastrous. Yet that is what happens. This is just ! another yay of stating what the National Board of Fire Underwriters, the highest authority on the subject in the 1 country, tells us: that the annual fire-loss throughout the ! ration is '$535,372,782. 1 More' than half a billion dollars annually. Just $16.97 a second, day or night! An average of 15,000 lives lost every ' years! This is our economic waste through fires. In 1903 the fire loss was $145,302,155. In 1913 it 1 , was $203,763,550. .In 1923, the last year for which complete : authentic figures are available, it was $535,372,782. It has increased 269 per cent in 20 years. According to the same high authority, the annual fire ; loss in American dwellings alone averages $65,000,000. This j represents 135,035 fires; which means that 369 fires occur in homes every 24 hours. One occurs every four minutes, clay and night, somewhere in the United States. There is a farm-building fire every seven minutes. , The Literary Digest recently quoted a statement that "the wastage by fire for the two years, 1922 and 1923, would more than meet the ordinary expenditures of the government : for any year before the war and would more than cover half the budget for 1925. i This tremendous fire-loss is a national waste. A national waste is a national problem. It is to focus attention on this , problem that the present week is being observed throughout I : the country as National Fire Prevention Week. |