The Portland daily press., 1877-07-11
boston Advertiser.l
The Charter Oak,

1t was stated last week that the manage
ment of the Charter Oak Life Insurance Com
pany was to be placed in the hands of new
board of directors, consisting of gentlemen hay
ing the entire confidence of policy holders and
the public Measures looking to such reor.
ganization were ON foot when the special legis.
lative commission threw their fre-brand into
the camp; and Mr. Furber, the much.abused
financial manager, who controls large part Of
the stock, seems to have done all that lay in
bis power to make the negotiations successful.
The effect OF this adverse report has been for
the time embarrassing, though, of course, it
could not defeat, or long delay, change so
clearly required by the best interests of the
company. For the present it is enough to say,
as there is the best authority for DOING that the
insurance commissioners of both Massachusetts
and Connecticut believe that the Charter Oak
is good for all its liabilities, and has before it
promising and successful future.
1t is no injustice to the members of the special
commission to say that they must now regret
the premature publication of their report
However well satisfied they may be of the &C.
curacy of their valuation of the company's
property, and of the truth of their conclusions,
they must have learned by this time that the
company was in no condition to be wound up,
or put in the hands of receiver, and that
such a recommendation from them was calcu-
lated to give shock to public confidence, to be
especially deprecated in these times. Life in
surance sympathizes with the fluctuations of
general business; and has besides had to suffer
much of late for the sins of defaulting COM
panies that have been forced to close their
doors. In the best times and under the most
favorable circumstances it would have caused
widespread anxiety and loss to haunt such
one-sided report before the public against
company which has so long enjoyed its conf
dence. 1t was much more reckless to do so
now when distrust is SO easily excited.
In the present case it is not the Charter Oak
alone that is hurt by it. The immediate effect
is to alarm policy-holders; and SO far as that
has been done the company is the immediate
the more serious consequence of such incon-
siderate action is to discredit all life insur-
anoe. This vast and complicated interest de-
ponds in a peculiar sense upon the conf.
dence of the public The savings of hun.
dreds of thousands of people are invested in it !;
the hopes of widows and orphans without
number rest upon it. While this fact makes
the most thorough and unsparing supervision
necessary to prevent unthrifty or dishonest per-
sons from taking advantage of its opportuni-
ties, it also puts upon superintendents and in
vestigators the responsibility of protecting
sound companies against hasty, groundless or
exaggerated accusation.
The Charter Oak is a rich and powerful com.
pany. 1t has had a useful and honorable histo-
~. The legislative commission has tried it at
time of extraordinary depression and uncer-
tainty in values, especially of real estate, APP
plying arbitrary tests against which the strong
est of trust institutions could hardly stand.
But we believe the company, under its new and
better auspices, will come out of the fire with
fiyinp cOlOrs.