PREVENTIVE ACTIVITY of INSURANCE COMPA NIES. While a part of the animal loss by fire lutist be charged against the system of insurance. insur ance companies must. on the other hand. be cred ited with a large share of the responsibility for the discovery and application of methods for preventing such loss. Not only have they always been active both in the adoption of preventive measures and in compelling or inducing the in sured to adopt such measures. but it is also to their initiative that a large part of the progress in State and municipal activity along the saute lines has been due. As an example of direct preventive activity by fire-insurance companies themselves may lie mentioned the maintenance of fire brigades and fire patrols. The early Eng. lish companies laid great stress on the VD I ne of their sell in extinguishing fires. Companies of `watermen,' organized for this purpose. were supported, at first by the individual companies. and later by associations among, the underwriters. It was not until 1866 that the maintenance and control of the London fire brigades passed from t he hands of the underwriters to the municipali ties. The English companies still support 'sal vage corps,' whose duty it is to protect property from damage by fire or by the water used in extinguishing tires. Insurance companies in the
United States have established organizations with duties similar to those of the English sal vage corps. They are variously known as fire patrols, salvage corps, and protective associa tions. The earliest American association of that order was established in New York in 1839. Similar organizations are supported to-day by underwriters' associations in at least thirty of the larger American cities.
Of more importance than this direct prevent ive activity of insurance companies is the in direct influence which they exert through the pressure which they bring to bear on the insured. This pressure is exerted in some cases through the refusal of the company to accept the risk unless certain changes are made in the property which will lessen the' danger of fire; more com monly through inserting in the policy that cer tain specified acts of the insured, of such a na ture as to increase the risk, shall render the policy void, and almost universally by varying the premium rate' in accordance with the number of preventive devices adopted by the insured. The introduction of automatic sprinklers into general use was directly clue to such discrimina tion by insurance companies.