St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-08-12
HAMLET LEET OUT.

Charles Acton Ives read paper
before the Business Mems Associa-
ton of Newport, r. l., on Fire In
surance by the State,' which has
been put into pamphlet form, and
copy is before us. Mr.. Ives
quotes copiously from the returns
made to the insurance commissioner
of that state by the companies doing
business in it, on property local to
the state. The premiums paid in 1893
by the insured of Rhode Island
amounted to $4,272, O49, and 81, 769, 1852
was returned in losses paid, making
a difference between receipts and
losses of $2,502, 267. The total ex-
pense of the state government that
year was $1,243,57 He then gives
the table showing the capital, the
amount received for premiums, losses
and dividends paid and the expenses
for salary, fees, commissions and so
forth, of all the stock companies do
ing business in the state. Without
quoting the figures they show that
the losses paid We're 81 per cent;
the dividends LA per cent, and the
expenses 80 per cent of the premium,
or an excess of outgo over income Of
13.4 per cent. Against this he sets
the report of the mutual companies
| of their state business, which shows
that the losses were So per cent of
the premiums; that So per cent was
returned in dividends, and that the
operating expenses were lis per cent
of the premiums, which makes an
per cent.
From these statements, without a
preliminary word Of argument, and
evidently assuming none to be neces-
sary, Mr.. Ives goes with hop, skip
and a jump, to the conclusion that
1.-THE dividends paid to the stockhold-
ers (of the stock companies would
more than cover the expense of con-
Quoting the fire insurance business
if it were carried on by the state,
and the whole of the loss represented
by Column 6 (the So per cent for
commissions, salaries and so forth)
would be saved" We have now and
then witnessed some long jumps
from conditions to remedy, but we
| recall none just now in which so
wide gap is SO easily vaulted over.
He accompanies his comparison
with draft Of bill embody-
ing his ideas. A tax is to be
levied on the assessed value of all
buildings and on the value of prop
erty in them as sworn to by the
owners, which tax shall form a fire
fund. The assessors adjust the
losses, and the treasurer pays the
award, with provisions for appeals
This has not even the merit there
would be in such a plan as an aid
to revenues were payments for the
losses limited to the assessed valua-
ton of the property, thus inducing
| full valuation for general taxation,
| instead of, as now, as full an evasion
as possible. But measures and de-
tails have no place in any considera-
| ton of this socialistic' scheme until
after the argument is made and the
! fact established that such is a
proper function of the state. To
omit that is to leave the coal out of
the fire box
The proposition does not come
within gunshot of that which
suggests that, where the bust
ness is either a natural or an arti-
fetal monopoly, it should be and
rightly can be taken on by the state.
| The very figures submitted by him.
the comparison he Institutes between
line and mutual companies, show con-
clusively that there is the widest
competition, and, where boards"
may check this, the field is open to
the easy formation of others when
| rates become so high as to invite
! capital and talent. No principle is
more clearly established than that a
! government, republican in form and
/. fact, should never enter the field of