The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1885-09-07

panies to pay the full amount insured should
! the absolute value be found to be only one
half of the amount, when the property is
| destroyed.
The company or its agents cannot go all
over the country every month or two in
order to ascertain that every piece of proper
| ty is not over valued or over insured. The
owner is presumed to be honest and reliable
when he gets insured, and it is not the in
tention of the company to insure exceeding
two-thirds or three-quarters of the fair
valuation in any case.
When fire takes place the inquiry is,
What is the absolute, not the presumptive
| loss, and when ascertained by proper
estimates, the company is ready to pay, and
| thus the insured gets his money for the loss
he has actually sustained, and no honest man
should ask for more. He should not turn
around and say: Why paid you for 5000
insurance and l want it; Notwithstanding
my absolute loss proves to be only $1,000,
you have taken my premium on 5000 and
that is your fault.
1t is not what man suppOSes or estimates
his house to be worth when insured, or what
the agent or the company may write upon il,
put what 1t may be replaced for, as good as
before the fire, giving him new for old, that
is to be paid. The value Of property is gov
Is, or should be, matter for inquiry, when
destroyed New Hampshire has been an
improbable field for insurance, and many of
the companies are largely "out of poke" for
their business there in the past, and with such
aalaw as that referred to, they cannot expect
any better results for the future, hence they
have decided to withdraw and issue no more
policies in the State.
AS to the matter of Lightning about
which q. G. III. complains, it is very evident
that he had not read his policy until after the
loss,) which stipulates as nearly all policies
do, that the company will pay all loss or dam
age 6y fire, whether Oecasioned by lightning
or otherwise, but does not say, that il light
ming occurs and no fire ensues, that they will
pay the damage That is liability compa-
nies do not assume unless lightning clause
Is granted or an extra premium is paid.
The company committed no fsaud upon
him by declining to pay his claim for simple
damage by lightning, without any fire in the
case, any more than if it had been by
cyclone and no fire, consequently he had no
legal claim and there was no quibble about
1t, 1t was simply according to the contract.
A similar loss in the same shower and in
the same locality, was paid by an agency in
this city, without any bubbles, thus showing
that insurance companies are disposed to be
generous as well as just in their dealings
with honest insurers, however ''iniquitous'
they may by some, be considered
The first section, as you remark in yours
OF the 9th inst, is ubiquitous" inasmuch as
1T prohibits the companies that are supposed
to have some rights which fought to be re-
speeted' from appealing to the United States
Courts, in case of litigation in that State,
and also prohibits them from fixing such
rates of premium as may be found necessary
to compensate them for the hazard assumed.
As well pass law that the assessors shall
not fix rate of taxation sufficient to cover
the expenses of the government, be-
cause it may bear hard ON somebody
that is, let every man fix his own rates. As
well say that farmers shall not combine las
they have) to fix the price of milk or butter
or potatoes or hay, or that traders shall sell
their goods for less than the cost, or shall
not fix price for barrel of flour, or a
pound of tea or coffee, or any article of mer-
chandise or that railroads shall fix no rate
but shall carry freight and passengers for
any rate the people may choose to pay.
More than $100,0O0,0O0 of property has
been consumed the past year in this country,
for which insurance companies have been
called upon to pay. Will sensible or reason
able men say that it is an outrage to charge
an adequate premium to provide for this inn
mense destruction and waste, and thus pro-
tect the capital these companies furnish for
the benefit of security to the public?
This law throws more than 800 men
(agents) in New Hampshire out Of business
and leaves the people of that and other
States owning property at the mercy of the
flames, with no means of protection, and all
for what Let Maine take warning from
their folly l..