The Ashland union. [volume] (Ashland, Ashland County, Ohio) 1854-1868, 1860-09-05
To the Farmer 81 ohio.

10 the Farmers Oh 44A0.
Correspondents of the Cleveland Herald.
MEDINA GoUNrT, Aug. 2s, 1860.
The farmers Of Ohio, who belong to mutual
insurance companies, do not generally Under
stand their liabilities, nor the repofts of said
companies.
Having had several years Of experience III
the transaction of insurance business, Ideem
it my duty to give the public the facts. In
the first place it Is generally believed that
nothing can be collected of the members=after.
the premium has all been paid. But this is
not the. fact. I will quote from the 9th sec
ton of the act of incorporation of the Ohio
Farmers Insurance G0hipany Of WestHeld,
Medina county, Ohio - essi
"SEc. 9 That it shall ever happen that
the whole amount of Premium notes shall be.
insufficient to pay the loss occasioned by any
one fire or fires, In addition thereto, a SUN may
be assessed on all the members of said COM
pany, not exceeding fifty cents on each ore
hundred dollars by them respectively insured
Now it is the fact that each member, ac-
cording to the act of Incorporation, is liable to
be assessed fifty cents on each hundred dollars
that he may have insured, each and every time
that a fire occurs. Now, / ask, where is the
end of assessments? r
The old Medina Mutual whose affairs went
into the hands of a receiver, some seven or
tISuL years SliC6, are now BdhIlS dSScSSLueulS
and collections. Mutual insurance companies
usually make annual reports, and often times
report a large surplus on hand; but there is
one aspect of the case that farmers do not I'm.
1asss~ea-4t 10 this "a time of making
their annual reports, al their poiirics mn force
are running from one day to six years, which
the company are holden for the losses as they
occur, and this surplus was received on these
outstanding policies. Now l will quote from
the report of the Ohio farmers Fire Insurance
Go. Of Westfeld, Medina Co., Ohio, May 1,
1859: Surplus on hand, May !, 1859, 49,.
352 81; expenditures of preceding year, S10,-,
566 rs. Then the unexpired policies were
running from one day to six years. Now, it is
fair to make an average, and say that they all
run three years. Now admitting that the loss
es and expenditures to average the same. as
the year proceeding May l, 1883, how long
would the surplus of S19,352 81 last 2 Sup
posing said company issued no more policies,
and attempted to close up their business. 1t
would last about a year and ten months, which
would leave them minus the expenditures of
about one year and two months, or about S13,
900. Now l ask in conclusion, where is the
boosted surplus? There is none. r
su aot3 BUCKEYE STATE.
We take the above from the Cleveland Her
.dza, and if it viii continue to show up the
unsoundness and false basis upon which a
great many of the Mutual Insurance Compa
mics are foundsa, although it is a Republican
paper, it will be heartily thanked by hundreds
of the farmers of Ohio, who have been most
outrageously suihdled by them. These h1u-
tual Companies usually get a special charter
from the State Legislature and a lot of provi-
sions are put in at the special request of the
&c tupahies, and are Iobbied through by some
of them, provisions which afe not understood
by the insured, and which as is shown in the
above article, leave every man insured, at the
mercy of any kind of a swindle the officers
may get up. More than that the above article
shows that necessarily, when an Insurance
Company commences to close up its affairs, they
must make assessments on the premium notes
given by the policy holders. in face of the fact,
that their agents always claim that they will
probably never make an assessment.
1t is the experience of a great mary men
in our county, too, that after they have once
got caught in one of the concerns they hard
ly ever get ont of them until they have paid
enormously for their "whistle " For instance,
here is a specimen of the Kind of engineering
SOm6tlHlcS ptdCtiOOo v NnC a u rue 10
get out of them. Suppose a mani in
sures for three years from the Ist of january
1858, and that on the 1st of January 1859,
he sells the property insured aud surrenders
his policy. In two orthree years they COME
in with an assessment for losses insuredzand
officers expenses and salaries &c, for that year
1885, and no, man, especially at a distance
from the location of the Company can tell
anything about the correctsess of the state
ments, nor can any one tell hoo such money
they are collecting for these supposed cxpen-
sesgand losses, all over the country. sm9
7iThcse are some Of the practical workings Of
these institutions We may give more here
after Enough people have been swindled by
them to make it high time that they were
fully shown up. aee5-Lge s5I : ]
i,g We clip the following from the Ashland
Times of last week. 81 esI rob7 Is
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