The Globe-republican., 1890-04-16
UNIQUE REPORT.


Scored.
TOPEKA, Kan, April. 12.-The twen-
tieth annual insurance report has been
received from the State Printer. Com.
missioner Wilder in his Introductory
says:
1T has been the providence o. nature"
saith the Brahmin Pilpay, speaking OF the
oriental cat, "to give to this creature nine
lives instead of one" This record was made
In the very dawn and infancy of the race OF
cats. II the history of the Kansas cats in
this series OF reports seems somewhat long,
repetitious and tiresome, the indulgent
reader will bear in mind this ancient saw
relative to feline longevity, and will brace
up when he remembers tnat, although bo-
gus insurance company has as many lives
as a cat, yet it l!veth not forever; it may
and surely will die when the nine lives are
ended; and moreover it can be killed.
The work of clearing the State OF fraUdu-
lent insurance companies was begun nearly
three years ago. and the Job is nearly
finished. 1t has been very unpleasant one.
Every company put an end to has had in
terested friends, persons drawing salaries,
to defend it and assail me. They have
spared no epithets; nothing that was false
and dirty and vile This was expected and
no comp amt Is made The danger was In
making the burden to the department
greater than It could bear and thus breaking
1t down. The months have passed, calumny
and bribery have done their work, the press
and people have sustained the departm
and the bogus companies are dead.
Every wildcat company in Kansas has been
organ Zed by outsiders; by professional in.
surance crooks and lawbreakers who came
here to " ork this field The insurance crook
Is a very sharp man he knows every trick
OF the trade. One OF his favorite sayings
for the past three years has been that the
Superintendent didn't know any thing about
Insurance. There was good deal OF truth
in this But technical insurance knowledge
was not the great need OF Kansas just then
We needed Inspector Byrnes The crock
dresses well and makes favor
able Impression. He selects his town
and makes the acquaintance OF
influential men; ropes them into his COM
pany far enough to get a charter and organ
IL zation. But the company consists of these
new comers, one or two crooks. They secure
the insurance, lie TO the department and
pocket the cash receipts The honest direct
ors, whose names have been used to secure
business, having no control whatever over
the company, keep dropping out The an
nual meetings are held by the crooks they
elect the q cfficers; they fix their own salaries.
Now they have things just as they want
them In their advertising they continue to
use the names of good men as their direct
ors: these are also displayed before the
Legislature when the crooks are buying
votes
After a lengthy review of events
prior and subsequent to the closing of
the Topeka and Kansas Home insur-
ance companies, the Commissioner con-
tinues, referring to the officers of those
concerns:
This is long story to be told of one set of
shieves l. is tod as n warning The record
is needed in the archives. Kansas has been
a safe field for insurance pimps. Every va
rieiy of fraudulent insurance has reveled
here. The tax levied on our people has
been a heavy one. The home burns; the
destitute owner RECEIVERS no insurance. al.
though e has paid for it The hesd of the
family dies; he has paid for insurance. but
his widow and children get nothing Hang
ing to trees and lamp posts would be none
too severe punishment for many a rascal
who has robbed cur people. To meet these
men, to listen to their falsehoods, to know
their work, may cause the most serene dis
cip,e Of sweetness and light to lose his
serenity. and to make official reports that
are wanting in dignity.
Three years of contest with outlaw insur-
ance men and companies are drawing near
companies, the dead bodies OF presidents
and secretaries, the fugitive forms of fleet
ing frauds making fast time out of our be-
1,ved State, one is already able to catch the
first bright light of rosy fingered Aurora.
daughter Of Dawn, as she gladdens the hill
sides along the Missouri. the Maras des
Cygnes and Marmaton, and joyful promises
TO bathe every mound and valley of kindly
Kansas in the glorious -ffulgence of midday
sunl ght. Let the glad girl come in! No
wild animals remain here to disturb her
footsteps il her chariot burns on the journey.
the last spoke in the wheels will be
paid for by solvent. authorized companies;
compan es that have been through Chicago,
twice through Boston, through Lynn and
Seattle and Spokane and paid every dollar
of los. The young won an will hear a harpy
hat pas ser hiss as he flies over New York
but will NOT wait to respond to Assessment
No. l5.9i3" She will save her best suns shine
for Kansas, where a trinity Of law. Supreme
Court and supervision guards The ,itiZen
from the alluring hallucinat on that a one
dollar fee pays for a thousand dollar policy
pays 1t sure and pays it quick.
Charles IX.-and Vitellius before him
made the cold remark: "The body Of a
dead enemy always smells we'll" When We
call to mind the men, women and children
robbed of many thousands by insurance
thieves in Kansas. We do not stop to shed
tears over the fallen frauds. Nothing so
well became them as their departure. their
presence here for many year has left so
many ruined homes that neither laws nor
officers will ever Permit their return. 40
pest in human form has wronged and
robbed our ate as the insurance dend. In
disaster and in death the dancing devil has
been present One of them testified in court
in Topeka last February: Il can get busi-
ness for a mpany that has no assets"
And he had often done so. He was the pres
ideut OF a Topeka wildcat
Whelps who have moral or politi ical
character were deeply grieved because last
years report lacked dignity. Hynes, Hack
ney. Fuller. Burton, Ormsbee, the whole
crowd Cf insurance ghoulS. had their sensi-
bilities sho ked by the Goa -seness of that
report Subsequent events, examinations of
companies and suits in court would hint
that the truth of the report may have been
the chief cause. with this class Of persons, of
its unpopularty. But dignity is the demand
of the d sgruntled; let them have it. These
persons and their friends in the Lsgis.
lature were also worried about the archives,
the public archives, the archives of Kan
sas, rs this undignided report to be
permitted to go into the public archives?
surely such an outrage will not be allowed"
II archives are "a place wherein al the
records are kept in chests and bcxes.' then
Kansas has none. But last years insurance
report is in such archives as American have
in most OF the States of our Union. The