D. In all highly cultured quarters, the almost entirely voluntary fire-extinguishing system, in which the people turned out in a body to battle with the flames, made way for the fire-militia system; and if the latter should make place for what we may designate as a standing fire-army which is most easily attained in connection with the fire-insurance system, we should reach the ideal of such a system, especially if the business of insurance was in the hands of the state or of the municipality. Such a system would be in accordance with the principle of the division of labor, and, also, with the fact that usually the most vital interest is the greatest spur to action.[237d-15] [Footnote 237d-1: The former almost unrestricted liberty of the American system of insurance has recently been curtailed, in most of the states, by a rigid governmental superintendence, by special insurance boards with power to permit companies to engage in the business of insurance, and endowed with the right of imposing proper penalties, but of declaring the privilege forfeited at the end of any year. Compare _Brämer_ in III, Ergänzungshefte der Preuss. Statist. Ztschr. und Mitth., 1871, No. 1.] [Footnote 237d-2: The first fire insurance provisions or regulations paid little attention to the danger of over-valuation. Similarly _v. Justi_, Abh. von der Macht, Glückseligkeit, etc., eines Staats. 1860, 81. Also _Krünitz_, Oekonom. Encyclopædie, 1788, XIII, considers it improbable that any one would have his home insured at a higher than its real value. On the other hand, there were formerly bitter complaints made in the United States that the agents, on whom the determination of the rate of premium and the control of the insurance-sum depended chiefly, were led to make over-valuations in furtherance of their own interests. (Mitth., 1871, 3; 1874, 95.)]