The herald., 1898-03-01
Los ANGELES. Feb. %, 1895.
He who ID never guilty of follies Is no
20 wise as he imagines."


There Is tendency on the part of all
municipal corporations to increase their
debts. Senator Voorhees, alluded pointedly
70 this fact in his address upon taking the
presidency Of the senate. The Newark Ad-
vertiser, in compiling statistics from the
World Almanac for 1898. finds that in the
last seven years Boston has added SIG, 500 900
to its bonded debit Baltimore, So 800, 900;
Chicago, $3.400,000; Cincinnati, 81, 900, 900:
Brooklyn I'll. 100 .oO0 New York city, SIC, 900, :
900. Philadelphia and st. Louis have de-
creased their amounts of permanent debt
In Q list Of 106 cities given there was a total
net debt In 1880 Of $lS0 900, and in 1897 this
total was increased to $521, 900 900. The total
city debt in the United States today is over
ySo0, 900. The cities in England had a
total debt Of $1,025 900 900 in 1892. In the
last seventeen years the increase for Amer
lean cities was $116 900 900. and for English
cities $565 .o00. 900, while the cities in France
ore bonded for $64o, 900 900.
o o O
The values Of the merchandise and prod
uce imported into and exported from the
United States for January compare as fol-
lows;
Exports .ss3, ,s51 1888 310S ,4Ss, ,455
imports ........!..... 5l,S54,01s 5o,sO2,9O9
Increase .:............$42,59 ,597, 1865 s57, 1885, SAC
This Is q handsome balance of trade in
our favor for a single month. For the seven
months ending January 81 the comparison
II as follows:
Exports .....*....... .$655, ,177127 Sis. .435 $50
Imports ......."..... 363,27S.O17 $40, 1889
Increase ........... .s2s1. .sss.11o ssn.si5.5si
o o O
All the electric light companies of Phil
adelphia have consolidated, with a capital
Of $15,000,000.
The senate foreign relations committee
reported favorably the bill Incorporating
the International American bank, with a
capital Of $5.oOO,0O0 and power to increase
1t to $25. 900 900. The bill requires one branch
- be opened in Mexico, one in the West
Indies and two in South America within
two years.
The state Of Kansas, or at least, the Off
cials of that stae, seem bent on having
trouble with all the great life insurance
companies and are doing their best to drive
them from the state The little fellow who
is rafting around in the shoes of the su-
perintendent of insurance in Kansas shows
says The Hermit in Leslie's Weekly, just
how much he knows by making this sort
of an argument: He says that the gross
premiums received by the New York Mu-
tual Life Insurance company upon policies
written In Kansas since 1892 aggregate over
~ 900. and that 1t has only paid losses
In Kansas to the amount of s677 500. This
wise calculator accordingly figures out
that the Mutual Life has made great deal
of money In the state of Kansas. Is he
such a fool as to not understand that the
death rate must increase as the age of the |
insured increases, and that death losses
must increase enormously with the in
crease of the death rate? In other words, |
suppose that 1000 persons were insured by
the Mutual Life this year for $1,000 apiece. |
That would mean that policies aggregat- |
ing 81 900 900 had been issued. If at the
end of the year no one of the 1000 Of the in |
sured had died, would 1t be fair to say that
all that the insurance company took In
during the year was profit? Kansas is try
Ing to kill the insurance companies. If 1t |
has any more such crazy notions 1t bids
fair to kill itself.