The Ways and Means Committee, according to the newspapers,
listened politely to the artists for a time, and then turned their
attention to the duty on carbonate of soda. Whether, in the presence of
practical matters like carbonate of soda, they will ever, think again of
the tax on mere works of art, remains to be seen.
* * * * *
_Fire and Water_ says, referring to some remarks of ours about the
policy of transferring the fire-extinguishing apparatus of small towns
to any neighboring large one in which a serious conflagration happens to
break out, that we were mistaken in "supposing" that the insurance
companies might refuse to pay losses in suburban towns occurring during
the temporary absence of the regular protective apparatus, and that as
the contract of insurance does not mention anything of the kind, the
companies would be compelled to pay losses, whatever happened to the
engines, so long as their policies remained uncancelled. Now, in the
first place, we did not "suppose" or "assert," as another paper says we
did, anything about the matter. We simply said we had been told that the
companies would not pay in such cases, which was true. We were told
that, and by an insurance agent, who ought to know something about it.
Moreover, this was not the first time we have heard the same thing. Not
long ago, in a discussion in the city government of a town near Boston,
one of the members protested against allowing the town engines to leave
the limits of the municipality, for the same reason, that the insurance
companies would not pay losses occurring while the engines were absent.
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