Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1873-07-07

COMMUNICATED.
LIFE INSURANCE, &c.-Please publish the
following remarks on the subject of Insurance,
from the Baltimore Sun, and oblige
A MERCHANT
There is one almost universal feeling IN the
community in regard to the manner iu which
the business of life insurance is too often con-
Quoted. Such is the anxiety of the companies
and their agents to extend their business that
cupabe carelessuess is frequently exhibited by
both in regard to the risks which they run aud
the nature of the lives they insure. Constant
personal solicitation seems to be the principle
upon which they act. On the trains and in
travelling the ''accident-policy' Dan has be,
come rival nuisance to the " "prlze-candy- pack
age" boy. On the street, in the counting room
and the office, the question, Are you ln-
sured z" is sounded in the ear or meets the eye
at every turn. Ii you want blotter, paper,
weight or ruler tor your desk, lead pencil
to make memorandum, or tablet on which to
make it, some obligiug insurance agent at your
elbow is ready to make you present OF either,
neatly stamped with the name OF his company
and the inducements it offers to persons about
to insure. The applications which are made
for insurance and which are forwarded to the
companies are notoriousy filed up, aud the
answers to the printed questions written but.
in the great majority Of cases, under the per-
sonal supervision Of the canvassers or agents
through whose efforts and BY whose solicitation
the applications are obtained. The interests
of the company and Of the agent work to
pether to facilitate the acceptance of the risk.
Facts which plainly aud truthfully stated,
might cause the application TO be rejected, are
often sOttened down or omitted at the sugges-
ton of the agent, or withheld by him for some
reason. 1t is true that the companies, partlcu
larry if at distance, may be and generally are
ignorant Of the particular misrepresentation or.
oopceaments which the applications contain,
aud may be thus led into taking risks which,
with full knowledge of the facts, they would
have rejected. But the system Of conducting
business which facilitates and encourages such
frauds, the greediness and competition for
business, and the large commissions offered to
stimulate the zeal OF solicitors and canvassers
are all theirs, aud the agents are Of their selec-
lion, and if, bindy shutting their eyes to the
fruits of their own policy, the companies take
unsafe and improper risks, and pocket the pre-
miums as long as the parties live to pay them,
and thep when they die, seek to escape pay
mcnt OF the loss upon the ground that they
were imposed upon 10 the application, the COM
mon sense of the community refuses to tolerate
suy such defense. So long as the companies BY
their mode Of carrying ON business invite i'm
position. and 80 long as their own agents are 10
any degree parties to it, they certainly have
little prcteuse in equity or sound morals to
make their own cupidity and carelessness
shield to protect them from responsibility. At
the same time, no doubt frauds upon Insurance
companies. when detected and established by
proof, ought to be severely punished, and the
mere loss of the possible fruits Of fraud in such
cases would hardly seem to be punishment
enough. The perpetrators, when practicable,