The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-03-16
Som ri hing Alb ut Insurance

u hecpshlty Tor making tuo T6to no .nuOu A"i
single year A. 1t formerly was for hve year,
The stiff increase IN rates on business proper
= ty In towns like Greenfield and Orange
r without reason In any change In the cond
ti0ns. The unierwriters' board Is advanciD
so far IN It's arbitrary action as 10 inVI'e
D revolt, aud the invitation would he re s0r
> able one or business men to accept. Tner
ought to b. q protest against the unwarrsnte
crease In insurance charges.-lG i
g zstte.
The Gazette voices feeling that IL gettin
to be widespread. Still, in one view 1t Is ur
'asonable, for at old rates the companies ar
losing money at furious pace, because
the rapid increase of fire losses, and the taste
the rates Increase the faster tn
losses seem to come. The explanation is sim
Pile. The man who calculates 10 set his prop
erty afre is not deferred by high rates OF pre-
MUM, but the tendency IL to induce the hon.
eat man, lor whom insurance IL or ought 10 he
intended either to stop bis insurance or to re-
duce 1t to the lowest figure he can. So the
companies are bit with increased losses from
dishonest or reckless policy.holders and de-
creased receipts from honest and careful Ones
aud the result Is disastrous.
| The Insurance principle Is one Of diffusing
loss, and 1t Ia not legitimate complaint that
| iJsses have been light In particular locality
where rates are raised with the rest, for wide
and lor z averages have to be covered. The
trouble is farther back and a radical one, and
1t Is explained by single word, "overtnsur'
ance,' when stimulates dishonest and reck-
less losses. Some system must be devised to
do away with the cause before the disastrous
experience Of the companies and the copse-
quent rise In rates can be remadled. The first
to end the practice by which any
amount Of Insurance can be placed on
property and pay collected for 1t, Without the
cumpany's being held respo asible for any
thing more than the actual value. So long IS
this continues the competition of agents will
inevitably result In more or less overln.ur-
ance. AMI overinsurance will inevitably result
10 more fires, This IL undoubtedly difficult
phase of the question to deal with, but 1t
must be dealt with In some way to save the
insurance business from ruin. Perhaps the
hest solution is the employment of AGENTS on !
salaries rather than by commission; that is
matter to leave to the companies. But on its
public side the "valued policy principle
should be insisted On and made general.
Things that are wrong In principle cannot
fail to have bad results, and never was any
thing more wrong, more one-sided and IN.
equitable than the present insurance con-
rsct. The company sells q man say $1,000
If insurance and collects its pay for 1t. After
I 10 burned up 1t Is found that the property
insured was worth onl, $500, and the COM
,any saws and has reserved the right to say
hat 1t was only $500 Insurance that 1t sold.
I hardly ever, as matter of practise, what.
yer the Legal right may be, refunds the premi-
10 1t has collected for the cxtraS5n0, but while
Gliding that, 1t assumes to settle the loss for
be value as determined after the property |
a. disappeared. Having no responsibility
Or more than the real value, the strongest
,otive Is absent to be careful not to place t
lore than that amount Of insurance. The
lea Of the ''valued policy us that II the COM :
any is inf xibly and uuavoidably held to Z
~ the full amount it has placed, It will be .
'ore careful In placing, eten Il II has to re- !;
rganize Its Whole system of agencies to do a
J.. Thts is only human nature. 1t may be I
DIV, as the insurance men claim with refer. Z
ice to New Hampshire, that the "valued j.
,licy" makes no difference with their prac- o
So, that they simply recoup themselves by
ling on extra rates; but that wouldn't be
II the Law were everywhere applied. And o.
is remarkable fact 10 New Hampshire that %
Q losses are decreasing and the insurance D.
siness is prosperipg, while 1t is just the to
Der way elsewhere.
The companies position is that the whole re- 81
for getting over insurance should ht
placed on the 0wnar who gets It, that be ~ m
, best judge Of the value Of bis own prop so
y, and that to pay more than its value al
'uld De to reward dishonesty, to encourage lr
nd anu incendiarism. Eliminating the Ii
lctical difficulties that arise from the fact ev
It 1t is time of declising values, from pa
.tial Ere losses, and from the large lines OF sp
'perty. like stocks OF goods, where no such Ss
9 can apply, the fact remains that where gr
IRE is over Insurance, there are two parties he
FAULT, either 10 fraud or miejudxmeut, the mi
, who buys 1t and the one who purports to su
It, and the position of the companies ,and be
operation Of the present system, Is prscu- a I
y that one party, the insured, shall suffer ILr'
the conse quences of this fraud or mi.judg- a
ut, aud the other, the insurer. shall be &C th'
lily rewarded for 1t by taking and retain. ac'
pay for Insurance which 1t never fur. ~ ~,
ned. Since the world began there never rer
, and never could be time when euch . iu'
TEN would work we'll. Pr
% Intelligent advocate of the ''valuod ar
cy" prin iple, places 1t on the ground of COZ
'psthy for the man who has obtained over. nv
france, but on the necessity of making 1t cr,
ally an object for both sides to avoid the for
ing In the beginning. ers
be companies are pursuing the same short. sne
ted policy Of wrong and disaster In the er
scheme adopted by the New ore
and Exchange last year. 'Co Insurance, "a ~
e riglt idea, beyond ouestio q; but the dsy
hange has gone at It xactly wrong -end-to. am
means that the insu red shares Vue
risk with the insurer. and the greater the NJ
e be takes, the more careful he will be TO TOT
d against fire, the less the risk will be for var
ompa MES, and the less the rate ought to be-
instead OF thar, the less proportion of in. drs,
nee the insured takes,th more certain be and
ps 1t that there Is no moral hsz ,re !" no tne
Of dishonest or careless fires, the high r sn,
ste he has to pay. The Exchange scheme
" seeks to compel men 10 insure for so
per cent of the vaue of the property.
ming than at A proyress tyc rate for n king | w
W tion
sss. II IL simply pushing with oil the bias
r Of the organization Ia the direction Of feat
in.ursnce. The lie. a. thu, IN. hasa. disp