Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-09-21

That MischievOus Insurance Bill.
There are few intelligent business me-
or other property-owners in Georgia that
are not Interested in fire insurance. ana
every citizen interested IN insurance
should jealousy watch the course OF In
surance legislation In the State. There
have heretofore been laws passed which
have burdened or hampered the insurance
business, thereby preventing our people
from having the benefit OF fun and fair
competition among insurance companies.
The MORNING NEWS has more than
once condemned the bill before the Gen.
eral Assembly to enact valued policy law
in this State. 10 mas been shown not only
/ how injurious such a law would be, but
I that it would beneftno one; that it would
either drive the better insurance
! companies out OF the State, or force them
70 evade the law by making contracts
with Insurers that would permit oflosses
being adjusted on fair and honorable
bases; that the tendency Of such law,
If IL could be enforced, is to encourage
fraud and ineendiarism, and that it would
be injurious to insurance companies and
insurers alike, forcing the former IN with
draw or to curtail their business, and
preventing the latter from getting any
thing ike tull insurance.
Every undue and unjust restriction
thrown around any business tends to
make it more costly to its patrons. In
surance rates in Georgia have been high
for several years aud they VIII be higher
yet, iiindeed an adequate amount Of first
class insurance can be obtained at all,
unless this bill to enact q valued policy
law Is defeated.
Attention has heretofore been called in
these columns to the trouble recently oc-
casioned by the enactment Of similar laws
in Texas and New Hampshire.
All that any reasonable and honest in
surer can ask is that any losses he may
Sustain shall be adjusted on the basis Of
the value Of the property destroyed. Com.
panies will not submit to any arbitrary
basis Of settlement. The threats OF the
managers Of several leading companies
doing business TO withdraw from this
State in the event the valued policy bill
is passed, cannot be regarded as an idle
one. They will certainly execute their
threat, or devise a form Of contract with
Insurers by which the law Will be nulh-
fed. Ii there is a chance that such form
of contract would be declared VOID by the
courts, of course insurers would have to
pay for such chance in higher premiums.
No department Of business in this
country is conducted on a higher plane
than that Of fire insurance. The better
classes Of insurance companies are
known to nearly all intelligent men in the
country, and are proverbially prompt and
Just in settling their losses.
There is not an argument that can be
used in support of this measure, except
the misleading, but specious one, that
insurance companies ought to be made to
comply strictly with their contracts. The
honest supporters Of the bill seem to
forget how prone some mon are to insure
their property for more than it is worth
and TO be extremely careless about fire
not only to the hazard Of the interests of
insurers, butOf neighbors whose property
is lightly insured, or not insured at all.
II is believed that a much larger proper
ton Of fires in insured property is of in
cendiary origin, even under present laws,
than is shown by statistics.
valued policy law is either mis-
chievous or useless. II 1t will not make
insurance companies pay more than prop
erty is worth in cases OF loss, the present
laws are good enough. II it will make
them pay more than property is worth, it
will encourage fraud and incendiarism,
and tend TO the injury OF every honest in
surer.
Insurance has become as much a
necessity in business as anything else.
1t must be governed by business princi-
pies, and not by any fanciful or imprac-
ticable ideas. The experience Of insur-
ance men and the observation Of business
men are better guides by which to regu-
late the insurance business than the alb
stract notions OF tyrOs and wild theorists.
This bill should be defeated, and we
hope and believe that it will never
become law in Georgia.