The Portland daily press., 1874-06-11

by the insurance companies to-day completely
Illustrated that view. These few companies
nau at stake five or six millions of dollars thai
nad been before one Congress and had been ig.
ANONYMOUSLY kicked out. They had been beat.
en- IN the House by more than two to one and
yet they would not stay defeated.
AT O'Clock Mr.. Butler of iMassa chusettss
rose to close the debate.
Mr.; Poland of Vermont complained that the
tlme had not been fairly apportioned to the
minority OF the committee and asked Mr..
Butter to yield fifteen minutes to Mr. Beck.
ME- Butler declined and expressed the opin-
ION that the minority of the committee had
had more than their fair proportion of the
time.
-(savagely-Allow me word.
Bntler frmly-Sir, 1 will not
Poland-Are you sure you will not?
Butler-l am sure will not.
foland-Two of the gentlemen who signed
the minority report are not here
Inc Speaker, after good deal of hammer
lng-Ihe gentleman from Vermont (Poand)
is not IN order. The rules give the gentleman
from Massachusetts (Butler) the floor abso-
lutely.
Poland perfectly unrufled) Il am en-
deavoring to appeal to the gentleman's sense
of Justice
Butler-(buntly)-T do not want any appeal
mr. Butler: Mr.. Speaker-What must be
IN! tne exlgency of that cause, what must be the
" uuC IuOuey concentrated Ill a lew
hands IN the city of New York, and in the
cltles OF Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore,
that can so influence the polite and courteous
gentleman from Vermont that he violates every
RUE oi the House and every courtesy of debate
apd insists on thIusting himself upon me
against my Will and against the will of the
House after we have listened for four mortal
hours to the claims of these insurance COM
panles, presented here for money out of the
people when they have already had two dollars
loI one divided among themselves. l am
either right or wrong in this and desire to show
myself right before the House and before the
county. hold in my hand the charter of the
old Atlantic Insurance Company whereby in
1857 1T was made mutual only in name. 1t is
no no. more mutual company than an old air of
have heard in our childhood when played
with variations by an Italian Opera Company.
daughter.
have here the status for that company for
the years 1861, 1862, 1868 and 1864, which will
show how it robbed the country by war
premiums and profits In 1862 the gross re-
ceipts of the Atlantic Insurance Company
were IS, lie, 900; its losses $4,000 900; it's ret
profits 81, $40 600; and its assets 81 600 600 In
1868 its gross receipts were 49, pa O00 its losses
S3,OO0,0O0; its net profits S2,63O,OOO; and its
assets were increased $2,000,000, In 1864 its
gross receips were &c. 1885, 600; its losses 81 1872
600; its net profits $949 900; and its al sets were
increased to S12,000,000 In 1866 its gross re-
ceipts were $5,000000; its losses LAS, 900; its
net profits 2,745,000; and its assets were in
creased to ST., SGT, 900. Let the reports put
that in so the country shall see who it is that
comes here asking 10 take away from the ship
ping interests of the country the poor remains
OF indemnity that belongs to them. This in
surance company comes here and asks for the
sum of 81 1888, 600 and interest-in all over 81
900, 600, to be added to that of which it has
already robbed the sailors and merchants by its
war premiums of 10, Is and 20 per cent | de-
Slre'to know if that is the entertainment to
which we were invited when we were asked to
go to war with England TO make good our
claims tor our losses suffered through rebel
cruisers
Mr.. Tremaine-None whatever
Mr.. Myers of Pa, asked Mr., Butler whether
under the Jay treaty with Great Baitain in
1884, and under the Florida treaty with Spain
in 1919, and under Che French treaty of 1881,
the insurance companies were not subrogated
and paid pro rata with other losers.
Mr.. Butler-Yes, sir! Now are you salts
fed?
Mr. Myers-I am. ~
Mr.. Butler-Now will tell you why, which
you never would have found out. Now listen:
1t was because in in jays treaty, and in the
treaty with Spain, private citizens were includ-
ed in the treaty and the insurance companies
were subrogated to these private claimants.
The difference is that there are no private
claims in the treaty of Washington. If you
down and give up to the insurance companies,
and that would be the worst punishment that
could be put upon me.
In the further course of Mr.. Buffers argu-
ment, Mr.. Tremaina asked him if he would al
low him to put question.
Mr.. Butler-Yes, if you will keep quiet af-
forwards.
Mr.. Tremaine-That depends upon whether
you tell the truth or not.
Mr.. Butler-If that is a good reason you will
keep quiet all your life and die with your
tongue dumb but the difficulty is that Tweed
was convicted and the lawyer who convicted
him cannot keed quiet ever since.
Mr.. Tremane-And you sympathize with
him.
Mr.. Buler-I do with such counsel as was
against him.
Mr.. Tremaiue-U Undoubtedly there is a bond
of sympathy betweenyou.
Mr.. Buter-I think such a man should be
hunted by lions and not by jackals. Laugh
ter Do you see the disadvantage of inter
rupting?
AT the close of Buffers speech he yielded five
minutes to Mr.. Starkweather of Ct, W ho argued
in support of Buffers substitute, remarking
that the losses in his own district were nearly
million dollars or about one fifteenth of the
whole amount of tie award.
The House then proceeded to vote on the bill
and amendments with the following results:
Mr. Frye's amendment, striking out of the
Butler substitute the provisO in favor of mutual
insurance companies was agreed to, yeas l37,
nays not counted The various amendments
offered by Mr. Treman to the Butler substi-
tute were rejected. Mr.. Poland's substitute
was rejected, yeas 49, nays al.
Mr. Eldridge of Wis, then moved that the
whole subject be laid on the table, remarking
that was bis amendment to the bill. Rejected,
SO to l07.
Mr. Buffers substitute for the Senate bill
was then agreed to, yeas 1872 nays 101
The bill was then changed so as to make it
read: "To provide for a just and equivable. dis
tribution OF monies paid In pursuance of the
Geneva award"
The House at 5 o o'clock adjourned.