The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-22

Deposits in Gold or BOnds-One
Would BE Stolen, the Other
Worthless, 1t Is said.

A coterie Of insurance officials, high
in the councils Of that class Of cor
porations, were registered at the Ryan
last evening, and will remain in the
city today to attend to various matters
of business relating to insurance i'll
Minnesota.
The gentlemen form the committee
on government or governing board
which takes the place of old Commits
sion No. g. which directed the insur-
ance business of the West. The head
quarters of the committee, as it is
called, is in Chicago. w. ]. Littlejohn
is the chairman of the new commit
tee. He was also chairman of the old
commission The other members Of
i the committee present are w. w. Dud
! ley, Eugene Cary, ]. S. Belden and h.
| M. BisselI Another insurance man
| registered from Chicago is ]. M. New.
berger. Mr.. Belden, speaking of the
visit last evening, said to a reporter
for the Globes:
1--WE are here purely on routine bust
| ness. This morning we attended
meeting of the state commission at
Minneapolis
HAS the state legislature meddled
with insurance companies much?" was
asked Of Mr.. Belden.
Not to my knowledge. We were
naturally anxious for fear the tax bin
would pass, but 1 understand it failed.
Some of the state legislatures in the
Northwest are attempting to pass the
most unjust measures against insur-
ance companies. We catch it in COM
mon with all other forms of corpora
tons For instance, there is a bill
before the Iowa legislature which is d
sample of this unfairness. This Is
what the bill provides. Suppose you
have property and insure it in six or
seven different companies for three
/ fourthS it's value, and trust the remain
| ing fourth to some cheap company.
| Your property burns and in the mean-
! time the cheap company has failed and
! gone out of business. The law pro-
vides that the six solid companies shall
! jointly pay the proportion of the bust
! ed company There is no justice in
! such a measure as this, and l hope
the Legislature will see the matter in
this light.
There are now six states which
have passed laws prohibiting insurance
companies to combine and maintain
] rates Virtually it might be called an
anti-pOoling law. The last state to
! pass the law is Nebraska. OF course
! this hurts our business. Minnesota has
! not set her foot down very hard as
! yet, and has been fairly reasonable.
! 1t is a hard matter to convince some
members of the legislatures of various
states that even corporations have
rights.
But probably New Mexico has
j passed one of the most unreasona biz
laws It's territorial legislature is evil
IDENTIFY composed of ignorant men. All
of the earnings of forty or forty-fVe
4 insurance companies doing business i'll
/ New Mexico would not be over $780,
/ 600 annually. But the legislature has
passed a law requiring a deposit Of
/ $4,000 by every insurance company do
! ing business in the state. This would
! mean a total deposit of over $500. 900.
! The law further provides that the de-
! post should be in gold or New Mexican
! bonds. Now we are sure that the
! first would be stolen. and that the
! latter are worthless, so it is hard
choice for us. I do not believe we
! will do business in New Mexico much
! longer"
w. H. Vosburg, of Owatonna. the
we'll known hotel proprietor, is guest
at the Merchants.
R. P. Whitney. of Ashland, Wis. is at the
Merchants.
S. F. Alderman, of Brainerd, is at the
| Merchants.
F. B. Saxton, of Ellsworth is at the Mer-
| chants.
Paul F. Markoff, of Grand Rapids Mich,
| is at the Ryan.
Albert Brayton and Burt Van Luven, of La
| Crosse, are at the Ryan.
E. A. Gray of Waterloo, is at the Clar-
endon.
w. F. Mcmahon of Faribault, is at the Clar-
/ endon.
VIM. Shelback, of Granite Falls is at the
| Clarendon.
C. A Ruffer, of Brainerd, is at the Wind
sor
| C. W. Allen and wife, of Saltwater, are
| at the Windsor.
D. W. Cowan. of Sandstone. is at the Wind
sor.
H. B. Tucker and George w. Hugg, Of
Fargo. are at the Metropolitan.
V. B. Merritt and Mrs. Anna Merritt, of
| Duluth, are guests at the Metropolitan