New-York tribune., 1875-01-22
LIFE iNSURANCE LEGISLATION.

We have recently considered at some length
one of the aspects in which the tendency to
combination among life insurance companies
presents itself Reserving the questions which
arise out of the new forms of application ana
policy recommended by the Life Insurance
Chamber for further discussion, we now pro-
pose 10 notice some other fcatnfes of the work
undertaken 4y that body. Adverse legisla-
ton. threatened or actual, varying in the diff
fcrent States of the Union, has been for many
wears the bane of life insurance interests. In
our own State the Winter crop of bills to
"rcgulate" the business OF the companies has
long been almost as certain of recurrence as
the season and the sessions of the Legislature.
These measures form no part of the excellent
system of supervision by the State. They usually
affected specious regard for the interests OF
the public, while in reality some of them were
mere devices of rival companies to hamper each
Others business and the great majority, like
hand-orga music, were ground out with the
hope that somebody would pay to get rid of
them. 1t was continual expense to the COM
panies to keep these ingenious projects from
becoming laws Insurance money was never
quito so plenty at Albany as Pacific Mail
funds at Washington the air was not thick
with it," and little of it probably went to
legislators but contributions from this source
had certainly come to be looked upon by
strikers" and the lobby, as part of their reg
ular income.
One of tho chief objects proposed by the
Life Insurance Chamber is to bring the COM
bined influence of the companies to bear
against hostile legislation. In this it has our
hearty good wishes. SO long as tho cCmpa-
nies were warning against each other they
were liable to become the prey of the lobby.
At other capitals they were even less fOrtu-
nate than at Albany. In Tany States acts
have been passed which seriously abrdge
their prosperity. These laws in general make
a distinction between the companies of the
particular State and those of other States, to
the disadvantage of the latter. Such distinc
tions are obviously contrary TO the spirit
of our National institutions, but they have
occasionally been carried so far as to make
the business almost impracticable; as, for
instance, in the case of California, where the
restrictions are such that now scarcely any of
the Eastern companies is willing to issue pol
icies there. In several States tax is imposed
mon insurances granted by corporations in
other States or what amounts to the same
thing, tax is laid OH the premiums which go
to make up the insurance. Pennsylvania,
Michigan, OHIO, and Rhode Island impose such
exactions.
When the true character of life insurance is
considered, tax upon it seems positively
odious. At present, the speculative kind of
insurance absurdly called " endowment" by
which the insurer hopes to receive the amount
of the policy during his lifetime, has almost
wholly gone out of fashion. The chief-al-
most the sole-object of policies now issued,
is TO provide for dependent relatives; most
frequently for wife or young children. The
money that q man puts In his profession, in
business, in house or lands, in social surround
ings or display, he hopes, in part at least, to
enjoy. But of the fund which he lays
up in such life insurance. he
can never hope to handle a dol
lar. Herein there Is no comparison
between life-policy and other forms of in
vested money: to tax it. is to take from those
who are expected to be without any other
support. How long would law stand on the
statute books of Pennsylvania which stated In
so many words, "widows and young orphans
"are hereby taxed three per cent more than
"any other class of citizens on all their prop
"erty IN Yet this is really what law of that
State amounts to. But The worst result of
syck Q tax u net in VIA. it takes. u iatiGts