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Show NATIONAL I IKK lKE VKNTIO V WKKK, MTOIil.lt Jtli. In lOlh.; Seldom does the editorial page "scoop" the news columns. This Is an exception. A tremendous disaster dis-aster occurred today. Property valued at $ 1,4 tfi.7 4 4.4 4 was wiped out and 4 1 person-, lost their lives by lire. The destruction proceeded continuously through 24 hours; ev-j ery hour $l 1.1 1 ?i. tin every minute $1,018. GO every second $1G.97. was wiped ouit! ' Tliis is another way of statin."; what the. National Hoard o! Fire Underwriters, th? highest authority on t he subject , tolls us namely, that our national annual lire l0''.s is $535,-272.782.0 $535,-272.782.0 0. What this means may lie comm-e-hended from a few comparisons. Our am Oil production of :old and silver Is $1 03,1 1 0,741 less, than one-fifth of our annual fire-lo-s. As a people, we produced a wealth of $1,900,287,000 in our 1922 corn crop; but we wasted more than 2 8 per cent, of that amount by fire. Our 1922 cotton crop amounted to $1,192,461,000; our flre-loss was 44 per cent, of that sum. In 1923 we paid 0'inr Government internal revenues, excluding income and inheritance in-heritance taxes, totaling $309,015,-05 $309,015,-05 0. We wasted by fire that same year more than .half again as mucl: as Uncle Sam collected in these revenues. rev-enues. What is the cause of this loss? Fire department chiefs, insurance and other experts tell us that 7 5 per cent of our fires are partly or wholly .preventable, the Jesuits of one form or another of carelessness. Care-lescness Care-lescness certainly is to be denounced. But is is a delusion to think thaT. the time ever will come when it will not be necessary to forestall the results of carelessness. Just what does this mean? In this State, according to the Underwriters, Under-writers, "matches-smoking" is responsible re-sponsible for the largest fire-losses. Now if, in every instance of earless ness on the part of users of matches the place where the tire occurred had 'been built of incombustible materials, ma-terials, the consequences of the carelessness care-lessness would have been less disastrous. disas-trous. For the fundamental cause of combustion is combustibility. And the way to forestall the results of carelessness is to build fire-3afe. We must either admit that "we build to burn," or accept the challenge chal-lenge of the new slogan, "Build Fire-safe." Fire-safe." It is possible for the average home-builder to accept this challenge. chall-enge. The development of modern building materials makes it possible possi-ble for even the most modest home to be built fire-safe. For instance, fireproof gypsum wallboard may be ui-ed 'n place of h'ihly inflammable! pulp, paper of fibte wallboards. A t ireproof shaathing of non-metallic mineral may be used as a sheathing or stucco backing to pro-uct pro-uct the wood studding of the frame A fireproof gypisum lath may be substituted for tinder-like wood lath. these are only example; of the protection offered the home-builder by the modern materials manufacturer. manufact-urer. Gypsum is only one of several sev-eral non-metallic minerals that may be used to encase and protect the wooden parts of a building. Portland Port-land cement concrete, asbesto?. siate, tctra cotta, lime and other mineral compositions also make it possible to build fire-safe economically. This Is the lesion of National F; e Prevention Week. The National Nat-ional conference on Home Building. -- wh'eh met recen'ly in Chuao. went on record as "acor!i:i? pre'ernee . to f re-reistant methods and mater-!.-..' in the const m t o:. of American homes and dwel'.irj." What the ! ev.orrs advise, the public can adopt. . "P.nild Fire-Safe" not only means a reduction in our $5.5.. 172. 7S2 ai.nual t'ire-l"s;: it me'ti-. fundamental funda-mental an 1 eroinvni'-il inur-m e to, gi.r. in and propej-jy-ofcery home- ; builder. ; - |