New-York tribune., 1874-03-14
REGULATION or LIFE INSURANCE.

LLU Ii IIO-f Of LIfL INo CAjAl LIE
To the Edftor Of The Trt6une.
SIR: In your article on "Insurancc legislation
in The TRIBUNE of Mlrch G, YOU introduce q re-
mark in regard to the suTender-value feature OF
the bill now before the Assembly, "To simplify and
regulate the business Of life Insurance." which
seems to me worthy Of reicraton and careful study
You say
It would he cause for regret II the failure Of
popularity OF the sentiment which 1t represents u TO
compel the companies by law to DO that winch The
puc does not yet care Tor enough TO ask, may 90 OD
jcctcd TO as supeTseTyiccablc legislation.
Your remark implies that the public has not asked
for this bill and this is doubtless the fact. The pub
lie which takes any interest in the matter consists
Of those who are already and who are hereafter to
be policy y-holders. The former know very well that
the Legislature can do nothing for them. II cannot
impair the obligation Of existing contracts So far
as they are concerned the bill in question, which
does relieve them from the worst condition of the
bad bargains they have made, would not, If
passed, be worth straw in thu courts Hence l
cannot think they have asked for It, The policy
holders who yet to be have not asked for it, for
the plam reason that they are wholly unconscious OF
their interest in the subject 1t WILL of course,
you say be objected to legislation III favor OF such
interest that it is superserviceable." l do not
taken. And especially in view Of the fact, that
while the As life insurance companies doing business
in New-York in 1873 issued IN that year 1854
policies insurng S439 25 $50, they lost chiefly by
surrender and lapse 1 1Si policies insuring S3'3,-
372 pol These figures cannot signify much less than
this that in 1878 at least 100000 people walked up to
see or to think that they saw the fact that through
their ignorance or simplicity they had been enticed
into bargains not ft to be made and the sooner
they forfeited their selinsulance' the less costly
it would be. BY the same token, more than
100000 out of the 1854 who took policies
in 1873 will discover in year or two that their IN
dividual wits were not match Tor those OF the IN
surng corporations. 1t may be well enough for the
Legislature to allow the CGreGt empt0r principle to
have full play between individuals, they being re-
sponsible to their Maker who viii regulate them III
his own way In the long run But it does seem to
me that the Legislature, without asking, ought to
curb the use of this principle by creatures of its own
make when they practice 1t so largely to the disad-
vantage of those whom God has made
1t may be asked why, if those who have retired
from life insurance companies have suffered any
thing they do not ask the Legislature for just sur
render-value lawf The answer is, such is not hu-
man nature. They do not care TO agitate painful
subject for the benefit of other people This trait Of
human nature is said to have been well illustrated
once in the great insurance city of Hartford. a
Young Barnum advertised there wonderful show
of horse with his head where his tan should be.
Only one adult person could be admitted at once,
price dollar Each visitor entering saw the tail
of perfectly normal horse in the manger, and de-
parting much wiser took his revenge by keeping his
wisdom entirely to himself
Inasmuuh as the public cannot have asked for
this bill or rather for any OF the three bills now be-
fore the Legislature on this subject there are just
three theories left in regard to their introduction.
First legislators themselves may have introduced
them from sense of Justice. Second they may be
the handiwork of strikers" who know well enough
where the oil lies. Third, they may have been in
spired by life insurance managers who prefer
not to be held to any stricter account for
trust funds. and who, being sure that all
these bills can easily be defeated, think 1T Will
be valuable argument against any demand here
after for stipulated surrender value pohcies 10 Dc
able TO say This whole subject of fixed surrender
yalue has been adjudcated against by the highest
authority in the Empire State"
The crudty and variety of the bills are decidedly
hostile to the first theory, and also initiate con
siderably against the second the strikers" at
Albany are mostly veterans, and might be eX-
peeted TO make their bills harder to beat
The third theory suits the facts so well that the
life insurance companies that wish to retain and
strengthen whatever of public confidence is Ieit 10
them should lose no time in demonstrating to the
public that such legislation would be wholly super
seryiceable nasmuch they have resolved to offer
policies to the public with no large or surrender
value stipulated, as they would be compelled to if
this hill were law, ELIzUR WRIGHT.
Boston, March Q, 1874.