a general agreement in Canada among the companies in regard to signed applications will be se cured, time and competition will decide.
16. insurance company will ex amine the property that is offered for insurance. What does this inspection mean? Whatever the de tails, the following points will always be taken into consideration. The general conditions from a civic point of view, in a town or city in which the risk is located, will be considered. These will include not merely the fire department and those related directly to it, such as water supply, or those related directly to the business of insurance, but many things which perhaps are not ordinarily thought of, such as the kind of streets, police force, high winds and numerous other points. When this foundation has been laid, the individu0 risk will be considered—its construction, oc cupancy, hazards, exposure--that is, its relation to the surrounding properties, its fire prevention devices, the general tone of the management, usually called house keeping. Just as there are no two human beings alike, so in all probability there are no two risks that are absolutely identical.
17. Details of inspection.—In the case of the indi vidual risk, some of the points that are noted are as follows: The kind of building, as frame, ordinary, or fireproof; height; area; roof; thickness of floors, floor openings such as stairways, elevators, dumb waiters and protection, if any. The business con ducted, floor by floor, including the nature of the property on each floor; any work that is done, the number of hands employed in the work and the kind of machines used.
The majority of fires in the United States are due to carelessness. Therefore, the inspector goes very carefully into the question of unsafe heating or light ing apparatus, untidiness, broken floors, windows, oily floors and other points which denote a somewhat sub standard conception of housekeeping. Fire-fighting devices will be carefully scanned such as the fire pails, the extinguishers, stand pities, sprinkler system and anything of that nature on the premises. The care of packing material and kind of doors which separate one building from another will be taken into considera tion. When the insurance inspector is thru with the property he probably knows many things about it which the insured himself never suspected and in fact may never have had time to investigate.
18. Canadian inspection Underwri ters' Associations in Canada are doing excellent work in regard to inspection. This is described by Mr. A.
W. Ross, formerly secretary of the Mainland Board of Fire Underwriters, in the following words: We maintain a number of experts who have had extensive experience in inspections and applying schedules to various classes of risks. Uniform practices in the manner of con ducting the business are demanded, concurrent forms of policies upon all important individual risks are maintained. In this connection, all daily reports are examined, and ap proved, or otherwise, as the cases may warrant. In the congested or mercantile sections of a city, special inspec tions and rates are made, each risk being rated upon its own merits. The same thing applies with respect to special hazards and all important risks. The inspections or sur veys of each risk, together with detailed information, are kept on file in our offices, and are open to the inspection of all parties interested. It has been the practice of this association to invite the inspection and criticism of the owners of risks, and we are only too pleased upon every occasion to have'the interested parties visit our offices and consult upon any real or supposed grievance which may exist. We advise always to undertake improvements which they may suggest. In this way we can materially improve the hazard in the risk, thereby reducing the rate. In a few instances, we experience some difficulty in inducing owners to undertake suggested improvements, but we find the num ber of such persons is gradually becoming less, and our eas perience proves that the large property owners and public generally are daily becoming more disposed to consult with us on the question of construction and protection than they ever have been before.
Our suyveying staff make periodical inspections of the more important risks in so far as it is possible with the assistance employed. Investigations are constantly being made as to the extent and efficiency of fire departments, water supply, character of streets, conditions and construc tion of buildings in various cities and other important mat ters incident to the prevention or suppression of fires and the extent of the conflagration hazard.
We also employ, or have made arrangements with other associations for the use of their sprinkling engineers, and we suggest and assist in the drawing up of plans and speci fications for the sprinkler equipments and when installed finally inspect and pass upon the same.