New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-11-02
rJrr JNSURAyCE TROUBLES.


LIFE INSURANCE TROUBLES
Unfortunately it is an easy matter to cast
discredt upon a life insurance company. Cor
porations have other Deficiencies besides the
well-known one of having no souls. They are
also incapable of sustaining actions for libel
in large class of cases where men or women
can bring suit successfully. Yet many of them
are more dependent for their very existence
upon their good name than are the majority
of men i'm business. Take that away from them
and they are poor indeed. Ever since the
creation of life insurance companies there have
been vampires ready to fasten upon them,
knowing their weakness, and too often success
full in sucking their life-bOod. Albany used
to be the place where these vampires gath
cred in this State, and the strikers bills, aimed
specially at the life insurance companies. made
their appearance regularly at every session.
Within a few years this class of bills has been
less dangerous, chiefly because the companies
have banded themselves together for resist
ance. But it is SAID that another kind OF vam-
pirc now does the work of destruction, ana
that the profit is no longer divided with legls-
lators.
The blacllmaer of an insurance company IN
recent wears carries on his business on larger
scale than of old. He is no longer satisfied to
operate by spreading scandal III obscure news
papers or through the agents OF rival con-
Germs He brings his action at once In the
courts; perhaps through some policy holder;
possibly through stakeholder. What Is the
alternatiye2 Perhaps it il that an agent OF
the company who holds a claim for commits
sions nos vet NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. on yearly
paymcns that may or may not be made here
after 10 renew policles-shal have that claim
discounted on his own terms, and that
cash be paid for it by the company.
Or perhaps he strikes higher and will
only be willing to withdraw the suit
that he controls, by being paid in the form
of salaricd position in the concern. There
have been instances where the presidency OF
the company was the tub thrown to such
whale There is yet another possibility. The
design may be to force company INTO con-
,ndation with another onc-a process known
in ENGLAND n amalgamation. There are tat
picklngs III that process. The policy-hoders
are the poor geese that are pluckcd. There
have been instanccs-many of thcm-"here the
officers of both companies. consolidation and con-
.odatcd. got hold of enough feathers to line
their own nests.
PERHAPS none of the foregoing sketches will
amply directly in the case of the Continental
Life Insurance Company. II Is, aS we nave
said. a very easy matter to bring some corpo-
rations into discredit and especially companies
of this sort where their assets do not meet
the technical requirements of our insurance
laws The chief source of trouble III that
company was that il had gone too largely and
too carclc,sy into the business OF absorbing
other companicS. When the assets that were
thus acquired came to be examined, they
proved ia MANY instances of less value than
had been calculated Some of the con
sDlilat"d concerns had been doing business
IN loose way, and their risks were
Of the worst. an honest endeayor was made,
too late, Ia make the best of a bad bargain.
The Continental set itself to work to buy out
and cancel these bad risks. For two or three
year. past the company did "A disproportion-
atcly large business in settling policies not yet
due. In more prosperous times the measures
which the company took to save itself would
have made it stronger; now they weakened 1t
by rc.!u ns i,s available means. Other cir
cumstlnccs were combined with these in pre-
cip;tating the result Consolidation was the
ulcer that had Slapped its vitality.
! ne case Is worthy OI NI''Lil H''' '''''"''
II i almost the first, certainly the most re-
markaolc one of the kind III this country.
English experience in recent years presents
some of the most fragrant examples OF the
kind, where companies that had absorbed
many others directly and indirectly were
thcmsclvc, ruined thereby. In American cx-
pcricncc the heavy loss has hitherto been
supposed to fall on the companies that were
ab,orbcd-tlat il, on their unfortunate policy
holders who were reinsurcd on far less favor
able terms than they had originally hoped for.
But if other absorbing companies have been
damaged as largely as the Continental by such
Transactions we may be only at the beginning
of the end of several tiourshing concerns. One
question naturally presents itself. If in the
case of an amalgamation, both concerns lose
money! evidently somebody makes what Is
lost The question for the receiver in such "A
ease is. Who were the bcncicaries in these
unlucky transactions In England it was
found that immense sums of money were pald,
sometimes through indirect channels, to the
men who effected amalgamations. Has any
thing of that sort been done i'll this country
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SOUTHERN DAY AT THE EXPOSITION.
When the South had her innings at the Ex-
positiop n fortnight ago, she chose IA peculiarly