The herald., 1898-09-23
ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
CAUSES OF FAILURES TOLD AT
NATIONAL CONVENTION
ACETYLENE GAS IN FRANCE
The Bad Quality of American Calcium
Carbide-The Tea Tax-Unused
Policy Stamps
OFFICE OF THE HERALD,

OFFICE OF THE HERALD.
Los Angeles Sept. 70, 1898.
The assessment system in all its phases
was discussed before the national conven-
ton of insurance commissioners IN ses-
sion at Milwaukee the 18th inst. The pro-
ceedings were opened with the reading Oh
q paper by George ID. Eldridge or New
York on 1.-THE System of Assessment Life
Insurance; It's Beginning, Development
and Future" Mr.. Eldridge admitted there
had been complete failure during the early
days to recognize that life insurance was
the end and purpose of the assessment
movement. This was due in part to the
prevailing ignorance as to the nature oi
real life Insurance.; that it was simply
method or system OF distributing
over an entire community the mon
ey loss due to the death Of
one. The assessment movement came
into being not as the result of any
organized concert of action, but simply In
response to a commons movement having nc
recognized center, but many apparent CEN
ters, which at times affect the public. The
great weakness of the early system was
failure to provide security for the pay
ment Of cost; failure to take ordinary bus
mess precautions against the granting OF
credit witout security. Mr.. Eldr!dge said:
81 name this as the great weakness, for
however falacious was the Idea as to cost
distribution which originally prevailed, II
was bound to correct itself with little DAM
age to the body Of members had there ex-
listed security that assured the collection Of
cost and protected the mass of members
against loss by non-payment on the part
of any portion. The rules of proper cost
distribution won much earlier recognition
than is generally admitted, but when such
recognition came, there had already come
the pressing problem of insufficient secur-
ity which overtopped by It's ceaseless de-
mands every other requirement"
Mr.. Eldridge said 1t had been the fashion
to look to Massachusetts in condemnation
of evils ascribed to selfish management
(of assessment companies), but declared
that the law governing companies in that
state did not promote the building up of
permanent institutions. but it did make
possible, said Mr.. Eldridge, "for any seven
men who could raise S. for charter fee
and obtain credit for little printing, to
secure the authorization of the common
wealth to operate q competing institution
to underbid the one already established OH
death rate for the year or two or three
that the older organization annotated the
new" Mr.. Eldridge said it was not his
purpose to defend. but to call attention to
the fact that the assessment companies
had been thwarted when they attempted
to accumulate money. 1t had been looked
upon as n great concession when the ac-
emulation of single assessment to be
ha1 in, nj ci of doc =
ted. The fact was that the state (Massa-
chusetts) allowed the membership of es-
tabished associations to be undermined
by the specious offer of new and ire
sponsible organizations which it had char
tel ed to do a business under the very con-
ditions that time had proved to be danger
Gus and finally fatal.
l.. G. Fouse OF Philadelphia, in a paper
entitled Legislative. Actuarial and OHc-
ial Treatment Of Assessment Life Insur-
once" said that the word assessment
was often employed to describe practice
ra Their than a principle. Some contended
that assessment in life insurance meant
selling insurance on credit. Mr.. Fouse con-
sidered this erroneous. and defined an as.
sossment as "a naming by an authority
of an amount to be paid in exchange for
benefits in contradistinction to an amount
fixed or regulated by law" Legislation
affecting assessment companies was then
discussed at length, Mr.. Fouse saying that
no charter should be granted by state
until the plans on which the corporation
intended to operate were Endorsed by a
competent actuary and approved in writ
ing by the insurance commissioner. He
then discussed the actuarial problems con-
nected with the business, saying that the
assessment principle was in the concrete,
opposed to maintaining an individual pol
icy liability, unless the amount set apart
had been collected for a specific purpose
(and its use postponed far into the future)
and It did not form an essential part of the
current insurance fund. Insurance could
not be carried on without aggregate and
average. In closing, Mr.. Fouse pointed
out that no plan of life insurance ought
to be wholly measured or condemned by
past failures, and that instead of condemn
ing a system officials should study the
causes of past failure and suggest proper
remedies.
The paper read on Estate and Casualty
Insurance." BY George r. Seward of New
York, attracted much attention. Mr.. Sew
ard commended that there was ground for
the companies asking the state to refrain
a. from levying taxes on insurance; (2)
from limiting unduly charter powers; 90
from demanding unnecessary capitaliza-
ton: az from requiring special deposits in
other states; C) from debating the forms
of contracts; (6) from legislating SO as to
annul the clear Intent of contracts, and %
from refusing to the companies access to
the Federal courts. He thought that the
word "paternalism" fifty described the
practice Of the states in the matter of in
surance legislation at large. and in the
particular matter Of granting undue pow
ers to insurance commissioners
Acetylene in France
In reply to an inquiry from the editor
of New York publication in regard to the
production of acetyline gas from calcium
carbide In France, Consul Thackara, writ
ing from Havre, August 4, 1898, says, ac-
cording to the government consular reports,
as follows:
There are no official statistics bearing
upon the annual output of calcium carbide,
so that the amount furnished yearly by the
different manufacturers has to be esti-
mated. These estimates vary from 1000 to
5000 tons per year from each factory, de-
pending upon the demand and the number
ckoh1 81,