FIRE DEPARTMENTS-FIRE PROTECTION

a false invoice, or concealing or destroying an | ly on duty, who sleep in the engine house, and invoice; of the internal revenue laws, for carrying on business of distilling without payment of tax; for failing to give bonds; for obstructing public officers; for distilling during forbidden hours, etc.

FIRE PROTECTION

construction; absence of precaution against | tional Board of Fire Underwriters. The first fire in non-fireproof risks; congestion of busi- of these associations formulates rules and ness sections in our large cities, and the ab- standards through its various special commitsence, late adoption, or poor enforcement of tees for the guidance of inspectors, and in its efficient municipal building regulations. Fire publications makes this information available prevention is a much greater issue today than to architects, builders and property owners. is insurance against fire. Laboratories are also maintained by this association for the purpose of verifying by proper tests the merits of fire protection facilities and building materials, as claimed by their inventors. The last named organization has prepared a model building code, already adopted by a number of municipalities, copies of which are freely distributed to the officers of our cities. Its expert fire protection engineers also visit the leading cities of the country periodically, with a view to studying and reporting on the conflagration hazard.

Protection Against the Spread of Fire.—To reduce the nation's fire waste two main lines of effort can be pursued: (1) to prevent the spread of fire; (2) to prevent the origin of fire. From the standpoint of construction it is customary to classify buildings as "ordinary," "slow burning," or "mill construction," "semi-fireproof," and "fireproof." The slow burning building is so constructed as to make the floors at least three inches in thickness with a view to separating the stories of the building in such a manner that a fire in combustible material will, under ordinary circumstances, require at least one or two hours to burn through the flooring. A fireproof building, on the other hand, is constructed with a view to isolating each floor from those below or above it so effectively that the contents on any floor may be consumed without the fire being able to communicate with other parts of the building. To meet this requirement, the building should be of steel cage construction, all its structural members should be properly insulated, all stairways and elevators should be encased in fireproof shafts; and all the tiers of windows should be fitted with wire glass in fireproof frames. Semi-fireproof buildings, while constructed of non-inflammable materials, differ from fireproof buildings in that their structural members are not properly insulated against heat.

Mention should also be made of private efforts along this line, such as the work of the Factory Mutuals. The insurance companies, likewise, through the application of the schedule system of rating, exert a very wholesome influence. By computing the rate according to an elaborate system of specific additions for defects or deductions for specially good features, instead of quoting the rate in a single lump sum, the insured is enabled to see just how certain changes in construction, or management, will give him a lower rate. This direct appeal to the pocket book operates not only to improve existing risks, but leads to the better construction of new risks, most of which are now planned with reference to the advantages in fire insurance rates resulting from improvements suggested by the rating systems of the several fire underwriters' associations.

1875
1880
1885

1890

1895

Year

FIRE LOSS PER CAPITA

Total Loss

Per Capita Loss

$78,102,285

$1.77

74,643,400

1.48

102,818,796

1.83

108,993,792

1.73

142,110,233

2.06

1900

1905

1906

1907

1908
1909

1911

As has been well said, "Every fireproof structure built among combustible buildings might be regarded as a policeman standing be. tween belligerents threatening to destroy each other." While existing buildings cannot be torn down or reconstructed, instant results can be obtained by the adoption and rigid enforcement of statutes and ordinances which will serve: (1) to prescribe the type of building construction permitted within certain city limits, and regulate the equipment of such buildings with fire windows, shutters and doors, 1910 with fire extinguishing facilities, with proper electrical fittings, etc.; (2) to regulate the Protection Against the Outbreak of Fires.— planning of new buildings as regards fire But the fire waste of the country, especially service tanks, boilers, elevator and other floor that of initial fires, may be much further recommunication, the localization of dangerous duced by equipping buildings with fire extinprocesses, and the subdivision of the property guishing facilities in proportion to area and into separate fire areas; (3) to supervise the height, and with due regard to the fire hazard storage and sale of highly combustible ma-involved. Such facilities are standpipes with terials; (4) to maintain inspection sufficiently siamese connections, fire pails, post hydrants, frequent to assure the proper observance of the law on the part of the property owners. Agencies for Improvement.-Probably no agencies are doing more to improve conditions in the construction of buildings than the National Fire Protection Association and the Na-systems.

public and private fire departments, stationary steam fire pumps, chemical extinguishers, public and private waterworks systems, stationary or portable clock systems, automatic sprinkler systems and electrical notification

FIRST INSTANCE, COURT OF-FISH COMMISSIONS

and H. A. Fiske, Hand Book of Fire Protection
(1909); F. C. Moore, Fire Insurance and How
to Build (1903); S. S. Huebner, Property In-
surance (1911), ch. xx; Am. Year Book, 1911,
254, and year by year. S. S. HUEBNER.

FIRST INSTANCE,
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE.

COURT OF. See

By far the most important of these several | vention and Protection (1904); E. W. Crosby, devices, especially as regards factory and mercantile risks, is the automatic sprinkler, which "without the assistance of human effort will discharge water almost simultaneously with the outbreak of the fire, will apply the water locally in the very spot where combustion is taking place, will distribute the discharge of water in such a manner as to accomplish the greatest good with the least amount of water, and will give immediate notice of the existence of a fire." It consists of an arrangement of pipes spread under all ceilings in all parts of a building and equipped with a sprinkler for each 75 or 80 square feet of floor area. The system of pipes is supplied automatically with water from elevated tanks, pumps or city connections. Each sprinkler head is kept closed with fusible solder, the melting point of which is adjusted to vary from 165° to 360° according to the nature of the risk. In case of fire the resulting rise in temperature will melt the fusible metal, thus opening the sprinkler and automatically permitting the discharge of a fine spray of water at the rate of about 30 gallons per minute at 30 pounds pressure. To prevent unnecessary water damage, the sprinkler system also contains an automatic alarm valve so constructed that the flow of water in the pipes will operate an electrical or mechanical gong at the desired points.

The remarkable efficacy of the automatic sprinkler is demonstrated by the experience of the Factory Mutuals; although they insure the most hazardous type of risks, the rate on woolen mills, for example, largely through the improvement of fire prevention methods, has been reduced from an average rate ranging from $1 to $2 per $100 of insurance to about four cents. The records (extending over a period of twelve years) of 8,942 fires, in risks equipped with sprinklers, shows that in nearly 6,000 cases the fire was extinguished by the sprinklers unassisted; and that in less than six per cent of the fires did the system prove ineffective. So large is the reduction in the fire insurance rates (varying from 30 to 75 per cent of the premium) granted by insurance companies to property owners who will instal a sprinkler service, that the saving in premiums alone will often return the entire cost of the sprinkler system within a period of three years. In general the adoption of the less costly forms of fire extinguishing facilities constitutes a good investment. There is also the elimination of the loss of time and demoralization of business which follow every

fire.

See FIRE DEPARTMENT; FIRE LIMITS; INSURANCE, LEGAL BASIS AND REGULATION OF.

References: The Joint Committee of the Senate and Assembly of New York, Report on Fire Insurance Business, February 1, 1911; Illinois Fire Insurance Commission, Report, January 4, 1911; Spectator Co., Fire Pre

FISCAL YEAR. By the fiscal year is meant the consecutive twelve months to which the financial accounts of a government apply. Until 1843 the fiscal year of the Federal Government ended on September 30; since that date it ends June 30. The reason this earlier date was selected was to give ample time to furnish estimates to the heads of departments and the President, for consideration before the meeting of Congress on the first Monday in December. In local government there is no uniformity in the fiscal year, but there is a growing tendency to make it conform to the calendar year.

D. R. D.

FISH COMMISSIONS. In nearly every American state there now exists a commission or board, appointed by the governor, and holding office at his pleasure, which administers fishery affairs under authority conferred by the legislature. Massachusetts was the first state to set up a fish commission (1866). Positions on fish commissions are often salaried, sometimes purely honorary, and in some cases are held ex officio by the governor or other elective officers.

Fish commissions are often combined with game commissions (California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Washington), or with oyster or shellfish commissions (North Carolina, Texas, Virginia). In some states (Maine) there are separate commissions for inland fisheries and for sea and shore fisheries; and in some states (New York, West Virginia) game and forestry matters are considered by the same board, commission, or department that is in charge of fisheries.

The functions of the state fish commissions are to advise the executive and the legislature, to enforce fishery laws, to propagate and distribute food and game fishes, to collect revenue from the licensing of fishery apparatus or operations, to allot (for lease or sale) waters for cultivation of shellfish, and in general to promote the local fishery interests.

The United States Fish Commission, established in 1871, is the medium provided by Congress for dealing with the fishery matters which come under federal jurisdiction. Until 1903 it was independent, the single commissioner being appointed by and reporting directly to the President; but on the organization of the Department of Commerce and Labor it became a component, and its name was changed

TO.

FISH, HAMILTON-FISHERIES, INTERNATIONAL

References: State fish commissions, Annual Reports; U. S. Fish Commission, Bureau of Fisheries, Reports (annual since 1871), Bulletins (annual since 1880), including the following: G. Brown Goode, Status of the U. S. Fish Commission (1884), 1139-1184; Hugh M. Smith, U. S. Bureau of Fisheries: Its Establishment, Functions, Organization, Resources, Operations, and Achievements (1908), 13651411, pl. exliii-clvi.

HUGH M. SMITH.

The

to Bureau of Fisheries. Upon the division of Department of Commerce and Labor (see), the department, in 1913, the Bureau of Fish- until that Department was divided (Mar. eries remained a part of the Department 4, 1913); since then it has been a bureau of Commerce. Its duties, successively en- of the Department of Commerce, and is larged by Congress, include propagation and under the direction of a commissioner. distribution of food fishes and other aquatic function of the bureau is to foster the fisheries animals and stocking of public and private of the United States. The most important waters therewith, study of the coastal and in- branches of the work of the bureau are the terior waters and their inhabitants in the in- propagation of food-fishes and the inspection terests of the fisheries and fish culture, collec- of certain commercial fisheries. In recent tion of statistics of the fishing industry, study years, much work has been done in connection of the methods and relations of the fisheries, with the Alaska salmon and fur-seal fisheries. protection of salmon, seal, and other fisheries In 1912 the fisheries service extended its acof Alaska, of Alaskan fur-bearing animals, tivities by means of an increased personnel, and of sponge fishery off the Florida coast.. and with the usual inspection work and staSee COMMISSIONS IN AMERICAN GOVERN- tistical canvas of the fisheries, began importMENT; FISHERIES, RELATIONS OF GOVERNMENT ant observations looking to the development of the so-called minor fur resources of the territory. The value of the furs of this character in 1911 was $370,573. In the states there has been coöperation with state fisheries commissions (see FISH COMMISSIONS). The propagation of food-fishes is carried on in thirty-two fish hatcheries, and ninety-two auxiliaries and egg-collecting stations, located in thirty-one states. During the year, 1911-12, the total output of fishes and eggs was 3,687,535,911; and applications for fish for stocking purposes were received for plantFISH, HAMILTON. Hamilton Fish (1808- ing in more than 10,000 different bodies of 1893) was born at New York City, August 3, water. The bureau also prosecutes biological 1808. In 1830 he was admitted to the bar. inquiries and experiments for the promotion His political career began in 1834, when he was of scientific knowledge concerning fishes and an unsuccessful candidate for the assembly on marine animals. See FISHERIES, RELATIONS OF the Whig ticket. From 1843 to 1845 he was a GOVERNMENT TO. References: Dept. of Commember of the National House of Representa- merce and Labor, Annual Reports (1903tives. In 1847 he was elected lientenant-gov-1913); Dept. of Commerce, Annual Reports. ernor of New York for the remainder of the term of Addison Gardiner, resigned, and the next year was chosen governor. In 1851 he entered the United States Senate, where he served one term, becoming a Republican upon the formation of that party. His chief prominence in the Senate was due to his outspoken | possibility of private property in waters (this opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In 1862 he was appointed one of the commissioners to visit federal prisoners in Confederate prisons, and opened the wa for the exchange of prisoners later agreed upon. In 1869 he became Secretary of State, holding the office throughout Grant's administrations. His principal services were as a member of the joint high commission which negotiated the treaty of Washington, in 1872; and the settlement of the Virginius affair, in 1873, with Spain. He died at Glen Clyffe, N. Y., September 7, 1893. See REPUBLICAN PARTY; STATE, DEPARTReferences: A. B. Gardiner, in N. Y. Genealogical and Biographical Record, XXV (1894); W. A. Dunning, Reconstruction (1906); J. F. Rhodes, Hist. of the U. S. (18931905), VI, VII. W. MACD. FISHERIES, BUREAU OF. The Bureau of Fisheries was one of the bureaus of the

MENT OF.

A. N. H.

FISHERIES, INTERNATIONAL. The modern doctrine of the freedom of the open or high seas rests neither upon an analogy to the doctrines of the older Roman law, denying the

would negate all claims to maritime jurisdiction), nor upon the scholastic notion that the fluidity of water renders it unappropriable, and hence not an object of sovereignty (this by a parity of reasoning would deny any jurisdiction over the air-space above), but upon the universally accepted principle of jurisdictional rights over the marginal seas as appurtenant to land. Some states have successfully urged claims to the land beyond the strict three-milelimit (see), particularly where bays extend intra fauces terrae with entrances wider than six miles (e. g., Chesapeake and Delaware Bays). In the case of bays the sinuosities of the coast render the line of three miles inconvenient and difficult of determination. Therefore the doctrine known as the "headlands doctrine" (see) has found considerable favor in recent times, according to which a straight line drawn from headland to headland determines the extent of territorial jurisdiction.

FISHERIES, INTERNATIONAL

As there is some point at which the jurisdic- | challenge by other states. Furthermore jurisdiction has been asserted over portions of the sea formerly freely used as parts of the open sea. These extensions of jurisdiction have not infrequently been for the purpose of protecting the shore-fisheries. Russia has attempted to extend her authority over the White Sea by the introduction of a twelve-mile-limit, and Canada has enacted fishing-regulations for Hudson Bay. The effect would be to make these waters closed seas. In 1910, Russia seized the British trawler Onward Ho! for fishing in the White Sea between three and twelve miles from the shore. Although vessel and crew were released, Russia did not abandon her claim. The seizure of a Norwegian vessel in Moray Firth some five miles from the shore for violation of Scottish fishing regulation was upheld by the High Court of Scotland in 1906 (Mortensen vs. Peters, Am. Jour. Int. Law, I, 526). The decline of shore fisheries points to more careful and extensive regulation, not in the interest of state expropriation, but for the conservation of its resources. Conditions under which fisheries flourish do not end at the point of three miles from shore. Extensions of this limit, therefore, for the conservation of the resources of the territorial seas are

tion of every state ends, the great waste of waters beyond, called the open or high seas, is necessarily free. The open sea is free as a highway and in time of peace one state may not interfere with the vessels of another so using it. The right of taking the products of the sea is similarly complete, although the action of the tribunal in the Fur Seal Arbitration of 1893 might appear to modify it (see SEAL FISHERIES). Limitations upon the right of appropriating the products of the open sea do not exist in international law, but depend either upon the municipal laws of each state operating upon its nationals and vessels engaged in such activity, or upon such treaties as set up a standard of duty for the signatories and their nationals. No state may exercise jurisdiction in time of peace over the open seas, except over its own vessels and nationals and over pirates jure gentium; therefore no rights of exclusive territorial maritime jurisdiction analogous to that over the maritime belt can be acquired either by prescription or otherwise. An exception apparent rather than real exists in the case of the pearl-fisheries of Ceylon and the Persian Gulf, long protected by Great Britain without international protest. These fisheries, found in shallow waters, are really ap-reasonable, though hardly to the degree atpurtenant to the land though partly beyond the three-mile-limit.

tempted by the United States for the protec tion of the seals when she declared Bering Sea to be a closed sea. Such extensions to be valid must be acknowledged by treaty, if not acquiesced in by other states as in the case of certain bays.

See BAYS AND GULFS; BRITISH NORTH AMERICA, DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH; COMITY, INTERNATIONAL AND INTERSTATE; HAGUE TRIBUNAL; HALIFAX COMMISSION AND AWARD; HIGH SEAS; MARE CLAUSUM; NEWFOUNDLAND FISHERIES DISPUTE; SEAL FISHERIES; TERRITORY IN INTERNATIONAL LAW; THREE-MILE LIMIT.

A state by its own regulations may police the high-sea fisheries but only as to its own nationals and vessels. States by treaty may regulate fisheries beyond their maritime territorial limits, but such engagements are not binding upon states other than the signatories. Great Britain, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, and the Netherlands signed a convention at the Hague in 1882, for the policing of the North Sea fisheries. This convention, which set out with minuteness the limits of the ocean within which it was to be effective, References: Grotius, De jure Belli ac Pacis provided a code for the regulation of vessels (1625), II, c. 3, §§ 7-15; Vattel, Droit des of the signatories engaged in these fisheries, Gens (1758), I, ch. xxiii; L. Oppenheim, Int. including the time and manner of fishing, in- Law (1905), I, 333–338; J. B. Moore, Digest terference by one vessel with another, and giv- of Int. Law (1906), I, 716-722; C. de Maring force to such provisions by conceding a tens, Causes Célèbres du Droit des Gens (2d ed., mutual right of visitation, search, and arrest 1858), I, 267-298; B. Castel, Du Principe de to the public vessels of the signatories. Nor la Liberte des Mers (1900); D. R. Chipeliades, way was not a signatory, claiming greater De la Liberté de la pleine Mer (1887); J. jurisdiction over its marginal seas than three Imbart-Latour, De la Pêche (1885); C. David, miles, as recognized by the treaty. The same La Pêche Maritime au point de vue internapowers signed (France not ratifying) the tional (1897); G. F. DeMartens, Récueil Hague convention of 1887 for the regulation | Général de Traités (1808), IX, 505–563, XXII, of the liquor-traffic in the North Sea. The 562, XXXIII, 268-276; F. Lopez y Medina, system of police regulations set up for the Coleccion de Tratados Internacionales, Ordi North Sea was adopted for the open sea fish-nanzes y Reglamentos de Pesca (1906); R. eries outside the territorial waters of Iceland Waultrin "La Mer Blanche, est-elle une mer and the Faroe Islands by the convention of libre?" in Révue de Droit Int. Pub., XVIII London, 1901, between Great Britain and Den- (1911), 94-99; T. W. Balch, "Is Hudson's Bay mark. an Open or a Closed Sea?" in Am. Jour. Int. A few states, e. g., Spain and Norway, still Law, VI (Apr., 1912), 409-460; T. W. Fulton, assert jurisdiction beyond three miles for all Sovereignty of the Sea (1911). purposes including fishing, but not without

J. S. REEVES.

ja