The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-02-14

G. A. Washburne, special agent Of
the North British and Mercantile In
.suranee company of San Francisco,
and r. G.. White, special agent of the
Firemen'S Fund, also Of san Fran
cisco, are in the city for a few days
attending to the interests of their
respective companies. The former
gentleman was seen Ky a Herald re-
porter at the hnutsford hotel last even
ing and asked as to his views Of the
present rate war which is being Waged
in Salt Lake and ogden between the
n0n-bodrd companies and companies
which are members sc the Board pf
Fire Underwriters of the Pacific. Both
the North British and The Firemen'S
Fund are board companies and Nj.
Washburne was careful 10 state that
none of the compantaS who are in the
union have any fight to make on any
other companies. The non-board or
non-uniOn companies are the ones that
are forcing matters and Mr.. Wash
burne is of the decided opinion that IL
! is a, very mistaken policy on their
part and one, which if pursued, will
lead to disastrous results. especially
for the policy holders. The history of
such tights in other towns shows that
to have been invariably the case, and
! Ogden is already experiencing some OF
| these results San Francisco has also
had an experience Of the kind and
| there the property owners will not
touch any insurance company Offering
! TO write risks at less than board rates.
| Some. or most of the non-board COM
panies, require the insurer to sign an
agreement not to cancel the policy
until maturity, and policies run usual
| ly from one to five years, while the
company reserves the right to drop
| the risk at any time it thinks proper.
Some Of the Ogden insurers have
been left in bad fix by the operation
| of this form of contract, especially In
view of the rule established by the
| board companies not to take any risks
| whatever on properties. which are in
whole or part underWritten on non
| board companies Thus, suppose a
merchant has a $40, 900 stock of goods
I or a $4,000 building and writes $4,000
| insurance with q nOn-b board company,
no board company will take the ball
ance of the risk, and he is compelled
! to carry $40. 900 insurance himself. or
! else cancel his noD-board policy. but,
| as he has signed the agreement not TO
| cancel his nOn-bOard policy until its
! term runs out, he is in a bad fix.
| The board companies have cancelled
their risks in Ogden. which are partly
covered in non-board offices, and as a
consequence. many risks are left 'prac-
! tically uncovered and without any way
of their being covered as long as the
present rules are in existence.
It is a situation which should be
carefully considered by the insurers in
! Salt Lake before making any more.
| The rates as fixed by the board Mr.
Washburn says. are as low as can be
made to enable the companies to meet
| their losses. The income of a COM
pany from premiums, must be d fair
average one to cover average losses,
and any departure from that principle
must inevitably lead to disastrous re-
suits.
The war is just beginning in salt
Lake, and if the board companies de-
eide, as they undoubtedly will to
cancel all risks in which non-board
companies have part, it would leave
the insurers in an awkward position.