The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-08-24
UNION OF POLICY HOLDERS.
ACTION BY LOCAL MEMBERS OF
 HARTFORD LIFE.
Membership and Dues Discussed at Meeting Last Evening Concerted Ac- ton, Rather Than lndtviu"ai EHorf- AIIPolicy Holders Invited to Join.

About thirty members os the Policy Holders Protective League, organized last week, was held at the office of kll- born Brothers, State street, last eVen- ing The league thus far is composed wholly of policy holders Ill the Hart ford Life Insurance company Among those present at last evenings meeting were policy holders from Hartford, Bristol, this city and other points, in cluding a man from Minneapolis, who is spending the summer at the shore hereabouts and who made 1t his es- pecial business to he there. There were several ladies also present The meeting adjourned to next Wednesday evening.
 The chief topics discussed last even- ing we-e membership and dues. On the former it was voted that any life insurance policy holder or proper rep resentative of a policy holder, except ing employees or agents of life insur- ance companies, may become members of tEe league upon a majority vote of the members. The dues are to be an admission fee of fifty cents and fifty cents per S1, ,000 on policies held by the members; that is a man holding $o- 900 policy in any company. and 1o'n- ing the league will lave annual dues of S2.5O These dues are payable in ad- vance.
 The benefits of the league as set forth at the meeting are many, one of the chief features being that in case ot the death os a member the league will oho or biG aSt1tp and settle if promptly and fully.
 Since organization last week the of- f1cers of the league have received large mail and many personal messages of encouragement. The league pro- poses to force the companies, by united action rather than individual effort, ln- to proper recognition of the claims or policy holders, and especially insist up- on representation in future legislation It is claimed that at present the com panies are always well represented whenever anything concerning their in terests comes up at the state capltol, and that the policy holders never hear anything about these transactions until they read the particulars in the news papers It is hoped to obtain mem- bership of 5000 or more for the league, so the officers say.
 A Hartford correspondent of the New York Evening Post gives this informa- ton.
 The aggrieved individuals took out policies when the Hartford Life dld business on the assessment plan, ana they went before the recent general as- sembly to secure remedial legislation, but that body decided that their griev- ance was not legitimate, or that, at any rate, it was not proper subject for legislation. In March, 1899, the eom- pany ceased to issue assessment poll cies, and since then all its new busi- ness has been taken on the level-pre- mium basis. The present controversy grows out of the system of assessment insurance known as the safety fund plan, which the company adopted in 1879. The fund Is made up of contribu- tions by safety-fund policy holders of s10 for each s1,00O of insurance The conditions are that the income of the fund be applied, pro rata, as credit upon the mortuary assessments upon the safety fund policy holders that if the company fails to pay any death loss admitted by it or4est ablished by valid judgment, then the fund shall be converted into cash and distributed among the existing policy holders; that in case all the policies of this class lapse, mature, or are otherwise disposed of, the fund becomes the property of the company The members have no present interest in the fund except in the income which is to be applied to- ward the payment of mortuary assess ments.