pilot for rocks, and shoals, and ice-bergs. The Columbian Exposition is, in one respect, at least, like the life of man, in being full of problems, which must await its close for their solution.

One thing, however, is known in advance. We need the hearty and active co-operation of foreign nations. A World's Fair confined to the exhibits of but one continent would be as obviously one-sided and defective as an anchor with but one fluke. Hence we hail those commissioners as our sponsors in other climes and among their own people, as we hail you also as our sponsors among the people of your respective States. You and they can safely say that Chicago has not only fulfilled, but has greatly exceeded her promises, in having subscribed, and in now rapidly paying, more than the maximum sum pledged by her, which was ten millions of dollars—an incomparably vaster contribution than was ever before made by any city to any exposition. But just at present there is, in certain quarters, a hue and cry that "Chicago is not living up to her engagements, and is appealing to Congress for aid to which she is not entitled." Allow me to assure you that precisely the contrary is the case, as I happen to know exactly what we did promise Congress and the country. We promised ten millions, and we are now offering fifteen millions, the increase being occasioned by the enlarged scope of the Exposition through the extended classification which the United States Commission-a federal body-adopted and prescribed. Under that state of fact it would have been perfectly consistent, and only just and equitable, that Congress should be asked to contribute the extra five millions so rendered necessary by the act of its own commission. But Chicago does not ask it as an appropriation, but as a loan. She might well say: Come ye people of the United States, ye sixty odd millions, we, a city of a million, or the sixtieth part of your number, have raised all we agreed to raise; you make more necessary, now tax five millions of dollars among yourselves and ourselves, and we will pay then about threefourths of the whole cost. But no! Chicago, in her civic pride and intrepid spirit, asks no gift, but volunteers to carry the whole burden, and invites the entire nation to share the benefit. The minds of people in certain disaffected quarters are befuddled in this matter. Designedly they are made to believe that a temporary loan is a gift, or partakes of the nature of a gift. Let me illustrate : Suppose one of my auditors undertakes to build a house for ten thousand dollars, and circumstances beyond his control, for instance, a capitalist and exacting guardian, induce him to enlarge the plan at an excess in cost of

five thousand dollars, borrowed of the higher power for a few months on security. If that capitalist (as, in this instance, the entire nation) should share the possession and the credit of the structure, upon whom would be the hardship of this increased cost? Would any sane man pretend that the private builder does not actually incur the whole cost, because he makes a temporary loan? Does not Chicago incur the whole outlay of fifteen millions, borrowing for a brief period five only on absolutely good security? Instead of reproach on so gossamer a pretext, does she not merit the applause of the entire country for the generosity and unflinching enterprise with which she grapples and masters the stupendous undertaking?

Caution your people to give no heed to the wild rumors of opposition in one city and State-an opposition, even so far as it obtains, that, in the presence of magnificent progress at home and abroad, dwindles into utter insignificance. Criticism is to be expected, and indeed is often salutary. Sometimes from a mass of exaggeration and even falsehood, there yet remains a residuum of truth that, however unpalatable, may serve as an excellent tonic.

But what residuum of truth is there in the last report which reached me only a few days since as being now industriously circulated in France and southern Europe, to the effect that in the progress of our building irreparable blunders and unfortunate delays have occurred, and to such an extent as to render it impossible for the opening of the Exposition at the time appointed! Of course the falsity of this report, like that of many others, will be duly exposed. Even were the time for building by day insufficient, which is not the case, daylight for labor would not be the sole reliance. Our energetic Chief of Construction, reversing as to its purpose the prayer of Ajax to Jupiter: "Grant me to see, and in the light destroy," would invoke the aid of electricity at night, that "in the light" he may build and thereby destroy the hopes of ill-boding prophets.

Such malicious perversions of the truth are not the products of manly minds. Nor are they justly chargeable to the people at large of the "Imperial City" and State, but they find their evil inspiration in a minority, as important in numbers as it is illiberal in spirit. One instance is recorded of a body of pure water being turned suddenly green by an earthquake. It were unfair to New York to believe that at the Columbian Exposition she will exhibit herself as the second of such phenomena-turned green with envy from the shock of disappointment.

Patriotic New Yorkers repudiate these torturers of the truth. Let

them continue to be haunted by the spectres of their own creating, whilst the World's Fair managers work steadily on, with unwavering faith, toward achieving a triumphant success, looking hopefully forward to the time, even in this life, when there may be applied to them the comforting words: "They rest from their labors, and their works do follow them."

Doubtless some of you gentlemen, when aroused early yesterday morning by repeated peals of thunder, considered it naturally appropriate that the day of the Grant celebration should be ushered in by salvos of heaven's artillery, even though the military were disposed to rebel against the stealing of their thunder. Unsettled as the elements were till noon, there came then the flood of glorious sunshine, and thenceforth it was a perfect day. And so when the Exposition movement was first agitated there was thunder all along the line-a disturbance of the elements that boded no good, from St. Louis to Washington, and from New York to Chicago. But Congress shed its bounteous light, gradually the clouds dispersed, and great patches of blue have ever since cheered the Exposition sky.

Visit the grounds, gentlemen, and judge for yourselves. Behold an area like that of all Central Park, New York, devoted to Exposition purposes, about three times the area of the Paris grounds. Witness the rapid construction of the mammoth buildings, the extensive lagoons, the artistic preparations for horticultural and floral adornments, and generally the activity that pervades all departments of the great enterprise. Then see for yourselves at headquarters the reports from the several States of the Union and the gratifying messages from foreign countries, and you can better judge and testify to your friends of the enormous insurance to be effected, as well as of the magnitude and magnificence of the coming Exposition, to be commensurate with the great occasion it is designed to celebrate.

Mr. W. F. Fox

Mr. Chairman: It behooves this assembly to express its thanks in more than ordinary terms for the eloquent and encouraging address we have just had from the Hon. Judge Bryan. It is not often that this body is honored to the degree that it has been this morning in the presence and speech of Mr. Bissell first and Mr. Bryan second. The speeches of these two gentlemen have an uplifting tendency; they broaden the view of the underwriter. It is good for us to go up to a higher point of observation and look down upon broader fields with a

broader vision, and I think it becoming to express to Mr. Bryan, by a rising vote, our appreciation of the honor done us by his presence this morning and his interesting address.

The thanks of the Association were unanimously tendered to Mr. Bryan by a rising vote.

The President

Gentlemen: Upon our programme remains another paper, which will be from one with whom you are all well acquainted-one of our oldest friends, one of our ablest writers and speakers-who will address us on the subject of "Fire Prevention by the Coroner Plan." Mr. C. C. Hine needs no introduction.

FIRE PREVENTION BY THE CORONER PLAN.

MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE FIRE UNDERWRITERS' ASSOCIATION OF THE NORTHWEST:

This has been one of my hobbies for perhaps twenty years, and when the President invited me to speak to you about it, I declined on the plea that I had already, in public addresses and written editorials, said all I had to say, and if I should discourse upon it again here, I would be thrashing over old straw—which is a very unworthy thing to do before the Fire Underwriters of the Northwest! I told him of an address made before the Firemen's National Convention; of the correspondence had with the Governors of the States and Territories, in an effort to procure legislation; of a pamphlet, of which I had circulated more than 10,000 copies; and I told him several other things, but, with the obstinacy characteristic of a Chicago man, the more I convinced him the less he yielded! and as one of us had to yield, and as I was the larger man, it seemed more gracious that New York should follow precedent and succumb to Chicago.

The excessive waste by fire, and the desirableness of checking it, are matters so large and so important that I do not need to explain my long-continued interest in them. There is ample cause for alarm among other good citizens as well as insurance people. Our fire loss ratio ought to be diminishing. During the last fifteen years substantial improvements have been made in the general character of the buildings of the country; many new water-supplies have been created; more engines and better have been added to the fire departments; our police

and our systems of alarms; our sprinklers and our automatic apparatus:-all these have been making advances, so that the risks of the country as a whole ought to be, and doubtless are, so far as their physical construction and environments are concerned, better to-day than they were fifteen years ago. Doubtless the average underwriter would say, without hesitation, that the United States is at present a better place in which to do business than it formerly was, so far as the physical hazards are concerned.

Now, what are the facts? I have secured from the Census Bureau and other sources the annual property valuations of the country for fifteen years down to date, and have placed beside them the yearly fire losses of the Chronicle Tables, and have cast the percentages, and I find that during the first five years the percentage was 0.1746, during the second it was 0.2033 and during the third it was 0.1911. It was lower during the last third of the period than it was during the middle, but it was higher than during the first third. The trend is upward instead of downward, in spite of the improved physical aspect of the field.

THE FIRE WASTE.

Table showing property valuations in the United States for fifteen years, with the losses by fire, and the percentage of loss to value year by year. The valuations for 1880 and 1890 are from the census returns, and the other years are estimated. The losses are from the Chronicle Fire Tables.