Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 53, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1910 — OUR NATIONAL GREATNESS. [ARTICLE]

OUR NATIONAL GREATNESS.

■•■ve Record*, Such aa Fire Louh, Not to Be Frond Of. Our national habit of boasting, while it has no more grievous result than to make us appear ridiculous, amounts to a species of self-deception which is both ludicrous and reproachful, says the New York Mail. To say that we are the richest nation in the wond is merely • stating a single fact To say that we are the most wasteful, is stating another truth which is equally important, even though it be less pleasing to the national pride. We are wasteful—almost criminally wasteful—not only of our great natural resources sUch as timber and coal, but of human life Itself. The record is more than a record —it Is an indictment.

Take the story of fire losses by way of illustration. The census bureau in a report concerning fire departments and fire losses In 158 leading American cities in 1907 states that the losses in those municipalities amounted to more than >48,000,000, on whiph there was >42,000,000 of Insurance. William H. Tolman, director of the New York museum of safety appliances, states that the per capita fire loss of the United States in 1907 was >2.58, which was twice as great as the average among the great nations of Europe. It is estimated by recognized experts that due care and the use of approved preventive measures would effect a yearly saving of >360,000,000 worth of property in the United Stages. Consider the cost of protection from fire in this country. The per capita average in the 158 cities covered by the census report was >1.65 in 1907. The per capita in Berlin is 26 cents a year. In London it is 19 cents, and in Milan only 17 cents. In the 158 American cities that had >48,000,000 of tire losses in 1907 the taxpayers were assessed >38,000,000 for the maintenance of their fire departments. The protection was costly and it protected only in a limited degree.