The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-12-22

partment, with supervisory powers, promlses
so much protection 60 policy holders as may
be included in restraining weak, etete, or
decayed institutions from preying too long
upon public confidence.
That Superintendent Miller has done what
he deemed to be Immediately in the line of
his duty we cannot doubt Aud that he pur-
poses to show no partiality in his investiga
tions, we must also believe. There is, never
theless, q peculiar modification likely to be
felt by the earliest victims of such depart
mental scrutiny as we presume has been
begun. 1t is not surprising, perhaps, that
the gentlemen interested in the Great Western
Company oppose the Attorney Generals mo-
tion, which aims at dlssolving their organiza-
ton and winding up its affairs. Having
secm ed stay of proceedings for period OF
ten days, they have undertaken to set their
house in order by way of proving that the
superintendent is in error, and that their
assets Justify their continuance in the bust
ness of promising to pay money to their
policy-holders in the far future.
But if they do not succeed, what then?
Are we to have an "Albert" panic here, such
as not long ago shook the whole fabric of
life insurance in England? Over there, the
discovery, one fine day, that the 'Albert"
Company had done such an unlimited busi-
ness as to have no proportionate amount of
funds to match, precipitated panic through
out the kingdom. Nobody who held a life
policy felt that he was insured, and there was
no legal provision for satisfying pardonable
curiosity in that direction. It took year
to quiet down these thousands of
startled nerves, and, as the practical
effect of the scare, a law was enacted by
Parliament compelling the companies to
make annual returns IF their financial condi-
ton. This innovation was so distasteful to
many of the companies whose operation
had previously been shaded by habitual reti-
cence-that they lent very little aid toward
the passage of the law. But the world
moved for all that, and it took them along
with it. How many more ''Alberts" will be
unearthed and dragged into unwelcome sun
shine, under the influence of the English
Life Assurance act, will soon be known, for
the first annual statements are due in JAN
uary.
nj this State, however, and in Massachu-
setts, insurance companies of every kind have
for years been the SUBJ ects of official inquiry,
and their status has been made dependent
upon the sworn statements returned every
year to the departments, and widely crcu-
lated in reports and by the press 1t may be
deemed almost certain that no company can
continue to do business in either of these
States many months after rendering a state
ment at all suggestive of depleted assets or
demoralized administration. We may, there
that nothing like widespread distrust in our
life companies need be anticipated from the
action taken in this particular case, and three
quarters of million policy y-holders who have
an aggregate stake of So, 900, 100000 at risk
in the American life companies) will cordially
agree with us in the hope that this confidence
may not be mistaken.
But the occurrence to which we have sd-
verted is full of warning. The Superintend-
ent has very clearly defined a remark made
in his late report to the effect that he pur-
posed giving less attention than his prede-
cessor to figures, and more attention to facts.
His process of reducing figures down from
their swollen proportions to very hard facts
may as well be taken to heart by the compa-
MES. Let officers study economy, prudence,
and careful selection of lives, and thus pre-
| serve their companies from sudden blow at
MIR. Millers hands. But if they will not do
this, they will sooner or later find the oppor-
tunity for study taken from them. The
whole subject is one that cannot be allowed
to sleep
PENNSYLVANIA IN THE CABINET.