New-York tribune., 1877-07-23

| The prime fault, as we have always understood,
in cases of shipwreck. is with the man
agement that throws the vessel into the
wreckcrs' hands, rather than with the fellows
who strip the wreck. This company was
wrecked before Furber and Wiggin got afoul
of il. and what chiefly interests the policy
holders and the public is to know by what pro-
cesses, whether by incompetent or dishonest
management, reckless speculation or shame
| less robbery the disas ster was Effected
The oflense has been sharply defined by the
newspapers. 1t is agreed on all sides to be
a great crime; worse than robblng Dank (;
| il is called the robbery of orphans and the
demand is made for additional legislation 10
bring the offenders to just punishment Tor so
| shocking and outrageous an oliense. III Is 10
be hoped that all this Indignation will not be
exhausted with the elimination OF FurDer ana
Wiggin; or if it is, that the pocy-holders VIII
pursue the matter still further. Through all
the insurance Investigations and ali the expos
ures of the past year the public has been
coming slowly to apprehend the fact OF radl-
cally bad management and unsound business
principles at the bottom of most OF the trouble
| Mr.. Furber as a "wrecker" differs from the
pilot and officers in his methods OF business
They are perhaps more open and coarse, as
they must be more rapid and effective In Their
oparation. The officers have had a long voy-
age in which to embezzle the stores and make
way with the cargo. The wrecker has only
II limited term in which to accomplish the
stripping and his processes must be more
open and uncOncealed az the work must be
more rapid. What the public is interested to
know, and what the State authorities ought to
find out beyond peradventure, is not now Mr.
Furber came in possession OF the wreck, or Dy
what means he was proposing to get ashore
with his punder but rather how the Com
pany came to be n wreck, and what part OF the
cargo and stores the officers had made way
with before the dis lster. There is an OppOr-
tunity here to discover how men, holding few
Thousand dollars of stock which Is by law
limited to s per cent. diyid ,nds, can accumu-
late large estates from that sole source OF
revenue. Also, to learn the secret OF an
per cent. stock bringing three and four hun
dred per cent above par, with few indIvid-
uals holding it so close that it cannot be
bought outside the ring at any price. The ex-
animation of the affairs of this Company
should 90 to these features, not particularly OF
this management, but of the management OF
number of companies. In a single word, 1t
should inquire into what are called the SOFT
"things," and how soft they are and how much
they cost the polcy-holders, and the orphans
of whom we hear so much.
This is a business that has always been han
died very gingerly by the press. But 1t is no
secret, of course, that the management OF a
great Life Insurance Company has great deal
more money in it than appears even III the
amazing salary lists of officers and employees.
That the system is hOneycombed with every
kind and degree of questionable practice III
money-making has long been something more
than suspicion. The salary lists themselves
are simply enormous. 1t is idle to say that
such financial talent az we have at the
head of some of our Life Insurance Companies
is worth TO any corporation the amount these
COMPANIES pay. The men who receive them,
were they to ask snch pay from any corpora
ton which they did not control, would be
either laughed at as simpletons or shown the
door as confidence men. The pay is absurdly
dispropornoned 10 either the quality or amount
OF service rendered. In the Charter Oak, and
perhaps other Companies i'll Hartford, the
process of "whipping the devil round
" the stump 50 as 10 aEolu luc ilihIt-
alton upon the stock dividends, has
been going on in ore form and another
for years, and the newspaper writer who did
not know it must have been deaf and blind.
Mr.. Furber's method of ''robbing orphans"
differed only in degree from this. He had less
time to do 1t in, and consequently no leisure
for pursuing his end by indrection so gradual
and remote. But it was the same thing In the
end He intended no "robbng." No more did
the respectable Hartford citizens who have
MIXED the vast resources of this Company to
their own profit. All the same, the ''poor or
"phans" suffered in both cases. What the
policy holders need to do is to show up the
past management, take steps to recover what
has been wrongfully paid out, and reorganize
if possiblein their own interest, and not that of
the stockholders exclusively.