Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1858-06-18

I
a. once as nrindier,. Another thing Il
which we desire to call the special Atten'
ton Of our readers. is the regulation adopted
by certain companies, by which, in insnring
for series of years, they tale pay for ~,
whole nms in adrdHor. under the pre,encc
that the insured will be subject to no as.e's-
meut. for the whole period. There may be
companies in Maine that have adopted ,hi.
rule, but we know OF none; but We do know
% several out Of State companies. having
agents in this State, who do their business
in this way. A few years since company
Of gentlemen spectators got together
in another State, and aprropria,ins run
out charter To their use. under which there
had never been an organization. formed
an insurance comp,ny. Once their rules
was tins adraaoe pay system. The Company
established agencies in this State, and by a
system OF advertising had great run.
Thousands upon thousands rushed into this
company, paid four years assessments In
advance. and IN les than six months nearly
all OF them were called upon - pay assess.
men,.. and had TO DO u or forfeit their poll.
cies. But the worst Of IL was that the
whole thing wa, Bogus concern. They did
pay some part Of some OF their losses, but as
general thing, rcpudiaied under some pre-.
tense Of di'hOncs, burning, or some other
excuse to evade pay ing those they bad drawn
into their snare. The "ge,ters VI" OF the
company all retired in few year. MINNIE
" rirA, and the different agents in this State
pocketeJ out Of every policy about four dol.
lars fees. This is only an isolated case /;
Row many more such impo'itions have been
Practiccd upon the people Of Maine We can.
not tell. The people Of this S,uto have
means OF Knowing but very li'tls abou,
foreign State COMPANIES, hence 1, Is the nAr,
Of wisdom to get their property insured in
eompnie. about which personally they have
some knowledge.
81. Look Oh, for travelling agents. And
here We ough, to say ,ha; we do no, in thu.
remark include certain ciiiIcn. OF our own
STATE who have bS'n employed by our own
State companies m this business. There are
a set Of ,iarl' travelling round in Maine as
agents Of insurance companies, whose ohjcc,
Is speculation aud plunder. and /, 'Againsi
this elias. we would caution out readers.
Not long since one Of these fellow. came
along in a certain town IN Oxford County,
took the application Of large mill owner
for an insurance on bis mill. and other
property, received from him nv dollars N
oasi. with an agreement, to send the policy.
a7iikai - iie las' rs riR o,raer usr hard
Of han Or las mos,y. The safer way Is to
have nothing % DO with travelling agent.
flr insurance companies, unless they come
recommended by so,no responsible citizens
Of our own State. n you do. in nine cases
out Of ten you will &c, cheated. and very
often ,windlol on, OF all they can get on, Of
you.
9TH. The prescn,sys,em Of obtaining poll.
cic. |. all wrong. All travelling agencies
should be abolished. and eompanie. DO their
business exclusively through local agent.
4 responsible local agent in a town, pr.
'5Haly knows about the value Of property
10 be insured, while travelling ascn, can
know nothing personally about 1t. The
rssul, Is many Of ,hesc travelling agents
srprai-e property altogether too high. Take
an instance that came under our immediate
observation. one Of Thea. number came
along and insured house aud barn Tor
$50. OO-,wo.,hlrds the value Of tho prop
erty. Now this same property, with two
acru Of land has, 10 our own CERTAIN know.
ledsr. actually been three times sold, and
the hiehc., price it ever brough, wa. $3.50.
Had the owner been burnt out, all be could
have got from the company. under bis policy.
would have been ,wo.thIrds Of the actual
value Of the builiing- destroyed, aud ye, he
bad 10 pay assessments on twice the SUN be
could have obtained, aud all because the
agent rated the property too high. Thi. i.
only a solitary case we know Of numerou.
Others likeii. Then again, trA.elling agents
have TO have more than double the fees ihA,
local agents would require to % the same
amount OF business. These extra bill. the
people have TO pay. Aboli'hing thee
travelling agencies, aud then local agents
could afford TO act bu, As things are man.
aged now, no man permanently located can
uGJri to have anything TO do with these
matters. Here are these migrating agents
racing round every house. and running
down every man who has seventy nine
building 10 get him insured; hence 1t is no
object Cor a man 10 become local agent.
The result OF the whole matter is. there Is
no dir,ci rsspoHaJihfy between the company
and the person. insured, hence the conse.
quence-. Bad men, through these irrc.pon.
sible agencies, &c, their property insured
for twice its value, and then burn !, them.
selves TO make money. Every thing i, done
IN n loose manner, mixed up with fraud
and deception. 1t follows that law suits
are resorisd to, to settle conflicting claims
both parties become losers in the end, and
by these means a good principle by bad
management Is perverted to bad use, and
what otherwise would be a blessing, proves
curse.