Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1874-02-09

\
we would inquire-Are we not under great
obligation to the fire companies Are they
In condition to submit to the taxi Have they
sufficiently recuperated from the last few years
of disaster to endure additional burdens! IL
seems to US like adding the last feather to the
camers back. The life companies are IN con-
dition to shoulder it, but the fire companies
are not The life companies are just as well
of to-day as they ever were. The chicago
and the Boston fires left them unframed. 1t
is an incontrover.ible fact that fire insurance
companies have suffered within the last de-
cade beyond all precedent, and Maine has
not been exempt from confagrations.
No period in the history of American I'M
derwriting was ever crowded with such II
startling array of devastating fires as the
years II and 70, and in '73 almost every
daily paper reported the news OF an extensive
| fire. The fires have been so numerous dur
| ing the year '73, that the public in perusing
the newspapers refer at once to the "Fire
Record" and exclaim, 1--WE should think that
every FIRE insurance company would be wiped
out of existence" ave don't see how they
stand such immense demands upon their re-
sources" And still we propose to tax them
and are constantly croaking about increased
rates of insurance. When our cities and vii.
lagos have been visited by the fiery element,
the insurance companies, and that too the
foreign ones, have always responded prompt
a. a. al
and adjusted their losses as fast as they could
be ascertained Portland, Belfast and Au.
gusta have been referred to many times, as
examples of the magnanimity of these pub
lie benefactors.
The author states in the above mentioned ar
ticle, that foreign fire companies last year.
| doubtless meaning the year i2) received
from premiums in this State about 1000,
and paid in losses only s37s, 900, etc. Well.
that does look like large prof. excluding
the expense of doing the business. But we
think that the percentage of profit IN tins
State would be nothing more than fair upon
the capital invested if we should deduct the
gross casl, expenditures of the companies from
amount of premiums received.
Then. again, perhaps it would be quite as
surprising to the public. and We think crafty
ing to those who think they are prosecuted
with high rates, when we learn that taking
the same companies doing business in Maine
| in 1872, as whole. their gross cash expendi-
lures exceeded the gross income by about
| 81, 465 ,479. That is, it will be understood,
that these figures relate to the business OF
those companies done in and out of the State.
Then, again, if the three per cent. tax, or
whatever it may be, should have tendency
to expel the unreliable and reckless compan-
| les, it might be quite consideration But it
seems to US, that, on the contrary, it would
tend to the expulsion of the soundest and
most reliable corporations, while the small
reckless raiders, regardless of the cost of do
ing business and scientific management,
would remain looking to the premiums re-
ceived rather than to intrinsic security. How
about this matter? Let some OF the insurance
experts "drop few lines
| One fact is certain, if our rates Of insur-
ance are considered exorbitant now, and the
leading insurance companies intend that they
shall not be oppressive and such only as first
class security sancticns, that the companies
when subjected to a heavy stamp tax, did not
set the screws a bit tighter for it. But they
passed it by, recognizing the action of our
government, accepted the situation and the
exigency Of the times and waited patiently
for its repeal. Why did not Congress con-
tnue the taxation of these corporationsI We
think that the question can be easily an
swered. We think that if the fire companies
| had recovered from almost overwhelming re-
verses they would willingly submit to it, Let
them get on their feet once more and they
will come up manfully and put their necks
under the yoke. They are not niggardly
class of corporations.
| 1t ia proposed to tax railroads, Are insur-
ance companies ETC., TO meet State expendi-
lures and to alleviate the burdensome taxes
of the farmer viii it, in the case of the fire
insurance companies remedy the evil? In
some other States it has been tried and they
lust make the farmer and real estate owner
pay the tax, by increasing the rates of insur-
ance.
We would endorse heartily any movement
that would assist the farmer, and if we must
tax the railroads, life insurance companies,
ETC., let us include the express and telegraph
corporations, reaping machine and sewing
machine manufacturers. ard a variety Of 9TH
ers who find it necessary to the successful
prosecution of their enterprises to extend their
business from State TO State through local
agents, but whose business is attended with
no such immense losses as the fire insurance
business incurs.
TIE GUILFORD DISASTER.