New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-11-30
rvSUR1ycE WITHOUT 4 BROKER.


The hIo-insurnnco companies hayo ontorod
upon a mutual agreement to reduce materially
the commissions paid to agents and brokers.
They give out faint expression of hope that
thereby there will be effected saving i'll the
cost of insurance, though they simultaneously
put up the rates. The measure is heralded as
"reform :" the foreign are more urgent than
most of the home companies about it; it is
moro generally adopted than anything OF the
kind heretofore. 1t is, however but one move
ment in long war; Similar combinations
have been formed at different periods in in
surance history, and resolves duly recorded,
that were to have restricted the agents COM
missions, and TO have done away with the
broker altogether. But always, after few
months things went back into their old chan
ncls; agents fourishcd; brokers found bust
ness. Even now we hear it vaguely reported
that certain companies are about to desert the
new combination after disintegratiOn begins,
the end is not far distant
Without proposing to take sides in this old
struggle, We may say that its origin lies deep
in the social structure and it has elements OF
perpetuity. The mddleman is an inyariable
product of competition between sellers, be-
cause he is the means of attracting and con-
centrating custom. In all trades there is
strong desire to get rid of the broker, agent,
ommission-merchant, jobber, retailer, middle
man but in any effort to carry out such
change the reformer is met by an invisible uiS
inertiB known as the claws Of trade" The
difference in these matters between fire insur
ance and most other kinds of business seems
to be that the companies that have insurance
to sell do frequently get rid of the go-be
tween. and deal direct with the ultimate
buyer; and that no conventional sentiment of
trade makes such n performance objection
able. If q publisher sells to the buyer
of one book and gives him the trade
discounts il Wholesale dealer in toys sells
to paterfamias his Christmas gifts at the
same prices "a to the keeper of a retail toy
shop; if wholesale importer dispOses of his
invoices without the intervention of broker,
jobber, or commission merchant, with few ex-
ceptioDs there attaches an odum to the trans
action; it is done in secret, and the seller asks
that il shall be concealed from his customers.
But in fire insurance, many of the companies
openly urge direct transactions with policy
holders; indorse printed cautions on their
policies adverse to dealing with brokers or
agents; claim in law that the broker is not
their agent, and, finally, pay the brokers' com
missions to polcy-holders. 1t is naturally the
companies whose names are most before the
public that have the most hope of being able
to dispense with the brokers' aid.
While the present reduction of commissions
is operative, there will be many instances
where men who have hitherto had their insur-
ance business taken charge of by broker or
agent, will undertake to deal directly with the
companies; for doubtless not few agents
and brokers will go out Of the business, find
ing it Improbable TO men who for the first
attend to their own fire insurance, few hints
may be timely at q moment when distrustful
rumors fill the air. 1t is of course best to Sc
lect companies in which some of the directors
are personal friends whose management and
tatements of facts can be depended upon. To
ascertain the condition Of company, look in
the last annual report Of the New-York State
Superintendent OF Insurance: there is CODY