The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-06-15
MAY THE MINNESOTA FACTORY
OWNER HAVE HIS STEAM BOIL
ERS INSURED.
ONE COMPANY, WINDING UP,
NOW GIVES EASTERN CASUALTY
COMPANIES THE FULL FIELD
HEREAFTER.
LAW LIKELY TO BE AMENDED.
Insurance Department May Urge the
Change of the Arduous Limit
as to capitalization.

In spite of the struggle which the
state legislature made with insurance
legislation, it appears that it could
take it's 1913 members into an Anglican
chapel and repeat the lines Of the serv-
Ice: I'VE have done those things which
we ought not to have done and left
undone those things which we ought
to have DONE" Although the session
is barely two months back in history,
already there haye been found numer-
Gus blunders of the positive type, to
say nothing Of those Of the negative
order, which are slower in finding.
One thing, however, which now ap-
pears, is that the legislature utterly
forgot to remedy the situation which
has annoyed those who wished to
transact the business of boiler inspec-
ton insurance. The law as it stands
requires capital stock of $780, 900. The
business is small in proportion. The
figures Of the department show that,
while a million dollars or more has
been paid for premiums in this class
of insurance, the ratio Of losses paid
has been almost infinitesimal. There
is some difficulty about uniting the
business. If one company could get
all the business in the state, it would
pay a handsome profit even on a cap
ital of 100000.
few years ago there was organized
by number of Minnesotans the
Northwestern Steam Boiler Inspec-
ton company. A year ago, or more,
the then Acting Insurance Commits
sioner Lightbourn denied the company
a relicense on the ground that it's cap
ital was not large enough, $4,000 be-
ing it's amount.
The result is that, while the COM
pany is entirely solvent, it's losses fall
ing far short of it's receipts, it is prac-
tically forced out of business, being
denied permission to solicit more, and
as soon as it's promoters wind up the
business with which they are now in
volved they will go out of the business
entirely.
Meantime the people of the state are
expanding $25, 900 or more annually for
such insurance which goes out Of the
state, where companies which carry
boiler insurance as a side line have
enough capital invested in general in
surance to permit them to be licensed
under the general casualty insurance
law Of the state. The Fidelity and Cas-
ualty company, which insured almost
everything, did a boiler business in
Minnesota a year ago amounting to
practically half a million dollars in
risks on which the premiums were
$2.415.47, it's losses but $3.50, net
profit of over $1,000.
The Union Casualty and Surety COM
apny did a steam boiler business about
one-fourth that of the former COM
pany, but reports no losses.
The risks of the Hartford company,
one of the most vigorous campaigners
in the field, aggregated nearly 81, 600 900,
on which it received premiums within
a few cents of $1S,000 yet its losses
were less than $4,000, leaving profit
on it's business in this state alone of
between $1,000 and $4,000
Now there is no Minnesota company
in which boilers may be insured, and
the $4,000 now expended annually by
Minnesota manufacturers all goes out
of the state.
In his next message Insurance Com
missioner Dearth proposes to call at
tention to the defect in the law and
have it remedied. An effort was made
to have it fixed at the last session,
but it failed, the efforts of the lobby
backed by outside companies seeming
to defeat the bill.