The herald., 1897-07-14
OFFICE OF THE HERALD,
Los Angeles, July 10, 1S9'

aiding policy holders in knowing where
they arc at. According to published re-
ports, thirty-slx companies reported $751;
4s5 policies and $500 72S. COG of insurance as
having passed out of existence last year in
various ways, says American Investments.
OF this more than one-half, to be strictly
accurate 1925 policies, insuring s2SS. 10I.-
$40, fell down because the insured were I'M
able or did not care to keep up their pay
ments. There were surrendered 1850 pol
icies calling for $780, SIC, S09 and 1881 poll
Giles, representing $50, SIS, 4S7, were not taken.
These three items aggregate 2l7,349 poll
cies and S514, 264 1926 of insurance, leaving
but Al, 1l6 policies and STAG, 46S $50, which rep
resents the insurance that terminated by
reason of expires, maturities and deaths.
The talent controlled by these companies
is fine enough In quality to enable their
managers to tell what this vast amount
that has failed to pass into permanent in
surance has cost them, but there is no
probability the old policy holders will ever
know what it is. What troubles them is to
find some adequate remedy to stop the
drain. Protesting does no good, for the
stronger entrenched companies simply
laugh at you and go on in the same new
way. The mad rush after new business still
Keeps up, the companies evidently thinking
that they are in duty bound to show con-
tinued increasing business each and every
year. Somehow they have the idea that it
would be disgraceful to bring out state
ment that would show no increased assets
and SURPRISES, whereas, in several cases, it
would be a God-send to the families they
claim to protect, If they would cease to
be SO frantic in striving to be the biggest
frog in the puddle. OF course this would
mean grindingl off a goodly quantity of the
nickel plate now so prevalent in the man
agement of the leviathans. The simple
question is, is there not a legitimate limit
to the bigness to which a life insurance
company can grow? We certainly think
there is, and sooner or later 1t must be so
recognized To place any restrictions upon
the extent of the business means pro-
portionate curtailment of expenses of
management-a very unsavory subject to
presidents and other officers drawing sala-
ries from 100000 down. What the old
policy holders very much want is pre-
cisely what they are not likely to get, for
these great companies are not supposed to
be conducted in their interest at the pres
emit time. 1t is the late conner that has the
cinch on literally written life insurance,
and at the expense Of the early ones
Sooner or later there will come some
mighty change that will put matters as
they ought to be, for as it now stands, the
old policy holders are compelled to receive
reduced dividends, and watch the gradual
determination of the surplus which they
ought to have sacredly set aside for their
protection. Things are not right.
y + r
United States Consul-General DeKay, at
Berlin, Germany, writing to the State De-
partment at Washington. D. c., says that
bicycle makers in Germany are deeply con-
cerned at the now very large and growing
competition of American-made machines.
He says that the League of Industrials at
Bochum, an important manufacturing CEN
ter, has taken the matter up, and in a me-
mortal to the German government calls at
tention to the fact that this great indus
try is in imminent peril, owing to the RI
valry Of American bicycle manufacturers.
+ 4
recent find of copper in the Spokane
hills near the Missouri river, 20 miles from
Helena, Mont, gives promise, mining men
say, of being one of the most important
discoveries made in Montana for years.
1t had long been known that copper ex-
listed in that locality, but it remained for an
old prospector, who has lived in that vi
cinity for years, to open what seems to be
lead of fabulously rich ore. In the past
rich specimens of copper glance and pure
native copper were frequently found in the
Spokane hills. but no one had ever been
able to discover permanent lead. Rev.
Robert H. Shaeffer and another Helena
= man are interested in the recent find that is
causing considerable comment among the
mining men who have seen specimens of
the ore.
The New York Daily Stakeholder esti-
mates the dividends to be paid in July as
follows:
Interest on bonds... 1923, $50 800
Dividends on stock.................. 55, 062, 900
Total Observation-Disclosures. SIS, 122, 800
This is s., 500,0 900 more than for the same
month last year, and nearly IS, 900, 900 more
than for the same month in either of the
preceding two years. July is one of the
two heaviest months of the year in this
line.
Texas has passed q bond law, the sub
stance of which is, when the attorney
their validity, whether they be county,
municipal or state bonds, no one can have
occasion to dispute them. The result of this
will be large influx Of capital into Texas,
and the rate of interest for the leading
towns of that state today is Az to per
cent, against the former rate of to 10 per
cent.
In the matter of failures last year the
small traders were hit hard, furnishing SO
per cent Of the total number. Manufac-
turing institutions came next, with II per
cent, followed by general stores 10 per
cent, wholesale commercial houses, per
cent; industrial concerns, 4 per cent; finan-
cial houses, 2 per cent, and miscellaneous,
5 per cent.
+ + +
Owing to- the limited supply the price of
Virginia peanuts will be advanced shortly.
1t is reported from Newport News, Va,
that the stocks of sheled nuts in Virginia
at the present time barely exceed %, 900
bags as against $4,000 last year and 60 900
at this time in 1895.
y
metropolitan life insurance company
has made an $S00.0OO Az per cent 1O-year
loan on Chicago property valued at, land
$1.516440 and buildings $4,000. The loan
was taken away from another company