The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1875-12-20
INSURANCE.
Editors of the Register:

l write for the purpose of calling atten-
tion to the two bills now pending before
the Legislature.
The feature most Objectionable IN Sen
ate Bill No. l28 is its provision for the
creation of an Insurance Department,
with its attendant clerkships and other
expensive parspherualia, and the new
office it creates 10 be filled by an lnsur-
ance Commissioner with his salary of
$1,000, and the other ct ceteras which
always attend such appointments.
These arc objections which must
go far in determining the
fate Of this bill, for although it is pro-
vided, in language more or less vague
and uncertain, that the salary of the
! Commissioner shall in no case exceed the
amount collected under this bill, yet ex-
perlence has always shown that, where
the means provided fail to produce
enough to pay the salary authorized, the
State Treasury is always successfully at
tackled to make up for the deficiency. In
proof of this We remind your readers of
the bill now pending for salary of the
| Commissioner OF Immigration, who, it
was supposed, was serving the public for
I.othing, but has, for the last two or
three sessions, besieged the Legislature
| for the payment of something on accoun.
OF salary, while his predecessor succeed
ed in getting untold appropriations for
similar claims.
That the receipts into the treasury,
| from the fees authorized under this bill,
will not be sufficient to pay the salary
and expenses to be incurred under it, is
apparent when we contemplate the prob
able results. Supposine that the lnsur-
ance Commissioner shall not be disposed
to exercise the unlimited authority given
him in the llth section by harrassing
foreign companies with examinations AZ
$40 tor each, but shall rely for the income
to pay his salary upon the ordinary fees
othcrwis. provided Tor, the fees which
will arise will not, in any event, amount
to more than 81 600, or 81 200 per annum;
because the number of foreign companies
which will romain here and pay, or
rather find agents to pay, ten dollars for
! tho privilege of serving them as
agents, will not exceed twelve-at
| least two thirds OF those now doing busl-
ness will leave upon the passage Of this
| bill, while the number of homo COM
panies is, say, seven. The fees from this
source vii. be: for agents, 5000; certtf.
Gates orauthority, $3.50; fling statements,
sg5. In all, $l,07j. This upon the sup
position that each foreign company will
have five agents, and the chances are
that they would not average that num-
Der. Now this amount Will be required
the first year topay for the furniture and
fixtures and stationary, including 6lankS,
for this new department, leaving nothing
whatever to pay the salary and other in
| cidental expenses of the Commissioner
and bis clarks. An entirely new set of
blank forms must be gotten up and print
! ed for the current use of the department,
! because those adapted to the Auditor s Of
tice must be thrown away, apt these
blanks alone may, at the present contract
rates, cost somewhere from 5000 TO Sl0,-
coo. There are other serious objections
to this bll-lndeed it is as iull of them
AS a cherry PIE is with cherries, almost,
as will be apparent to any one well post
ed in such matters, but | forbear to men
! ton them now.
The other bill known as House Bill
No. 126, is step in the right direction,
especially in that it provides that every
! Insurance Company, domestic and for.
eign, shall have 100000 of actual cap
ital, and for such official examination
into the affairs Of all companies will
give assurance that the company has
that amount, and this feature alone
should commend 1t to everybody inter-
ested in being insured in a safe
company. No company ought
to have the assurance to offer
to insure the public with II less sum than
this, bacause its capacity to insure de-
pends entirely upon the amount OF Its
assets, which is the limit of its ability to
pay the losses incurred. Bear in mind the
fact that an Insurance Company Is cor
porstion whose liability is limited to its
property. Then consider that almost
every company doing business in Wheel
ing. for instance, will carry from one
million to three millions OF dollars worth
OF property, and that the burning of one
square may entail loss upon the com
psny of 100000 or more, and the neces-
sity for this requirement will be apparent.
This bill also requires the companies to
publish copy OI their certificate of
authority, containing "A list of its assets,
from which the public can estimate
whether or not the company is a safe one.
This is not required by the Senate Bill.
1t also fixes the charge for ices at the
same rate as now fixed by law, except that
it authorizes the Auditor TO charge a
foreign company for examining and fixing
their charters (which i2 necessary in order
to show that the company is regularly
chartered by its State laws, and which Is
not now provided for in eur present laws
and that it reduces the fees for copies of
certihcatce for agents from five lthc pres
eLt fee to two dollars each. There are
many other improvements in this bill
over the provisions of our present laws,
which cannot find space here. Our main
trouble heretofore has been that
our laws did not require home COM
panies To have any definite amount
of capital, and this omission
has been taken advantage of by "wiid cat
companies" who have been organized In
our mid,t without any visible or invisible
resources. They were also secure from
any examination under our laws, and
could therefore advertise any amount OF
capital deemed necessary by them, with
out fear of being called to account. The
House bill covers both these points fully.
1t is hoped that the Legislature will pass
this hill promptly, and save us from
wild cats and companies without adc-
Quate capital, in the future. Has it ever
occurred to your readers thst one OF the
charges against the Auditor in the i'm.
peachment articles, is based upon what
seems to have been an effort upou his
part to withhold certificate from two
wild cat companies, and that 1t may
turn out that these seats have had some
thing to do with his Impeachment? Now
if the document shall show that the Audi