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Show " ... i ; I'ERMLSSllVLK NEGLIGENCE ! :. VIU careleliyTau over a man , -h Vour automobile, it is P, t,,t :-ou shuuld have to pay b,m for your carelessness. Iu every walk of life a n he,j re.pon.-.ble for his careless ac K ,t c,a injury to others, except n case of fire. An individual can ,ari.k.;sly burn up $100 of his own. property and $ 100,000 worth of h neighbor's and nothing is TJ. cltv mav spend $1,000 or $10,000, of 'taxpayers' money to put out the fire. . ! Owners of tenement houses, no-, tels and rooming houses can main tain absolute Are traps with opeb stairwavs which act as fluw for a fire in the building, thus cutting oh means of escape for occupants. Such buildings burn down dally and we calmlv read of the persons killed lu (ne fire, "which originated from some unknown cause." and think no more about it. We pay no attention to the fact that the building and the construction of its stairways offered visible proof that if fire started in the struiture it meant almost sure death to some of the occupants. Thousands of cities permit this class of construction and when persons per-sons are burned to death through the criminal negligence of an owner and a citv permitting the use of such a fire trap, nothing is said and no dam. ages are collected. The whole process of the law will be set in motion to collect $100 fn" a man who has had a fin.ger broken in an automobile accilent. But 13, ... t 1 in float1. 000 persons can De uumeu annually in the United States, man through the criminal negligence of property owners in maintaining fire traps, and not a complaint is uttered. . |
