Omaha daily bee., 1900-02-11

'1'N NV ANAlbAihA SAl'NA isAbh Va
life insurance companies is the slogan OF
progressive insurance men. The diversity
o. state laws and the exactions Of the tax
gatherers check the growth Of the business
and Impose unfair burdens on policy hold
ers' These ana other arguments are set out
In the following paper, read by c. a.. Gould
at a meeting OF the local association of life
underwriters:
As no man is a law unto himself. but as
a member OF the social organization has
respect unto his neighbors. so have the diff
ferent states been organized upon the prin-
ciple that every citizen is not only a men,-
Der of his chosen state, whose law ha
obeys, but primarily a citizen of the United
States and subject to its general govern
mental regulation.
NothlnS, perhaps, could more plainly show
the respect we have for governmental regu-
lation than the unauimity and good feeling
with which we received the late internal rev.
enue laws which wero imposed soon after
the Spanish war had begun.
Everyone accepted the situation cheerfully
and paid the tax, feeling a personal interest
in the collection of a proper revenue for
wal expenses and indirectly having a
greater respect for a national government
which could so easily set the machinery in
motion.
II is thus that federal regulation Of in
surance would mme itself to the people
OF this country and by equitable laws create
Il respect for a business which now overtops
all others in magnitude and Importance.
AS TO the need of national supervision, no
ono who will consider the present magnitude
cg the interests involved will question its
advisabtlity. I'm its Importance insurance
is pre-emtncntly at the head of all our
great business enterprises. In finance. in
commerce it ranks among the first: in terri
torial relations it is national and interna.
tional. 1t represents in the life branch
alone over Is, 900, goo policy holders. mora
than three times the population of the coun-
try at the beginning of the century. In the
fire branch it carries $40. 600. 900, GOO. or more
than twice the debt of the nation"
However, the ideas now put forward on
the general subject of national supervision
are not new truths. but have been stated
over and over again by prominent under>
writer's and students of insurance laws and
apply not only to life and fire insul .nce, but
to all forms Of the gigantic business Of COM
mercial intercourse to which the general
name of insurance is given. What has been
said has not lost it's significance in the tell
ing, for these facts, like lamps replenished
with new oil, may light us on our way.
Among the NEST prominent writer's on
this subject in the past is Elizhur Wright.
tho father of state insurance supervision. In
1870 in the Insurance Times he said: "Ir
there is any possibility of securing to life
insurance the supervision and protection Of
national laws, wisely conceived and nation
ally administered the guardians of life in
surance must bestir themselves No one,
however. has done so much for furthprinp
national supervision as Max Cohen, editor
Of Views, at Washington, D.. c. His paper,
read before the national convention of in
suranCe commissioners at Detroit in Septem~
Der of last year. is one of the strongest ar
guments yet made and has been widely cir
culated. Other prominent opponents are
John NJ. Pattison, president of the Union
Central: X-Ccmmissioner William a.
Fricke and Robert E. Pattison. president of
the Security Trust and Life of Philadelphia.
From the taxation point of view may be-
mentioned Jacob L. Greene, president OF the
Connecticut Mutual, and Henry C. Lippin-
colt of the Penn Mutual.
Lnck of Uniform Laws.
Insurance suffers and must always suffer
from lack of uniform laws. How much the
business has been and still is harassed
must be plain when it is shown that fifteen
states have ~anti-compact laws; twenty-one
have anti-rebate laws; ten prohibit the CO.
clause; seven require a special
deposit from insurance companies; thirty
have resident agent laws; twenty have
valued policy laws, and thirty-one retaliatory
laws. Besides these conflicting interests,
twenty-eight states tax gross premiums;
seven states tax net premiums, while some
require special licenses. Municipal licenses
are also required in some cities.
1t is unnecessary to refer TO the numerous
and conflicting laws in many other states to
show the need of national instead of state
regulation, which would extend equal protec-
ticn to the corporation of each state.
No good can ccme from setting the in
terests of one state against those of another.
Under present state regulations one state
can exclude any company not accepting its
New York state recently refused
TO Prussian fire companies, and they
were obliged to appeal to the United States
before the matter was settled.
Nebraska does its share Of state SUI
pervision, and it was only last year that the
public was let into the secret methods OF
special examiners and their peculiar and
thrifty ways Of obtaining revenue for their
own pockets. Following this was the sorry
spectacle of the state of Nebraska hung up
to the public gaze by the creation OF two
departments, and only a ruling of
the supreme court knocked out one depart
ment by declaring the Weaver act uncon-
Thus did our legislative noun
tain labor to bring forth a mouse.
''Oh. Nebraska land, Nebraska land,
We look away across your plains and sigh
and wonder for our pains"
The Weaver act Is dead. 'Requiescat in
pace" that is to say, may it rest in pieces.
To keep the pot of state supervision boiling,
however, the attorney general of the state
is now to ascertain whether the S23,-
900 in fees and taxes paid to an eX-
state auditor Of Nebraska and never turned
over by him to the state treasurer can
again be collected from the companies.
Could anything be more iniquitous, when 1t
is plain THAI this double tax must come, II
paid, out of the pockets OF the premium
payers? AS Superintendent Anthony has
said in the Kansas report Of 1895: sup
pose that fees and taxes are paid from the
capital and earnings Of the insuring corpora
tions. is an absurd business fallacy. To
doubt that they are paid by the insured
and are an element of the cost Of insurance
TO each and every one who buys 1t in a
policy contract is to question an automatic
business proposition. The tax, then, paid by
the insured, as a class, for their sole benefit
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