Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-09-25
LOCAL INSURANCE RATES.
Preparations for a Conference of Bust
ness Men and Underwriters.

Next Tuesday afternoon there will be a
meeting of the committee of the Business
Mems Association and fire underwriters at
141O G. street to discuss the subject Of rates
Of fire insurance in the District of Colum-
biz. The committee of the Business Mems
Association will show at this meeting its
reasons for believing that the District is
paying too high a rate for fire insurance in
comparison with other cities. Facts and
figures will be submitted to the fire under
writers to verify this contention.
THIS meeting was to have been held this
evening. but Mr.. Barry Buckley, secretary
of the Business Mems Association, has re-
ceived information that the president of the
middle states department of the fire under
writer's has been detained by a fire in Pitts
burg which requires his personal attention.
and for that reason the meeting here has
been deferred.
There VIII be meeting Monday night Of
the committee Of the Business Mems AS
ISOLATION to arrange for Tuesdays confer
ence with the underwriters. The committee
of the Business Mems Association is COM
posed of Messrs. William Hahn. chairman;
.. q. Staples w. s. Knox, A. E. l.. Lecke
r. P. Andrews. w. w. Danenhower, W. F.
Guide and Barry Buckley.
The local movement for lower rates is be-
Ing closely watched by fire insurance men
OUTSIDE OF washington, and the Weekly I'm
derwrter. of New York. an organ of that
interest in its issue of September 49, had
the following to say:
A recent paragraph in the Washington
ID. C., Star says: 1t is learned that Wash
ington business men are Of the opinion that
they are paying a higher rate for their In
Surance than conditions justify. In other
words. they believe that they are Indirectly
paying for losses by fire sustained by the
insurance companies in Pittsbs1rg, PhiIa-
deiphia and other cities True o most
wise discoverers! And you never realized
1t before? Have you forgotten the years
1884 and 1897, when the fire losses and ex-
pense of doing business In your District
were % and 1Oo per cent of the premium in
come? AS the surplus Of premiums re-
ceived from other sections of the country
then helped pay your abnormal loss so now
your District is called upon to reciprocate.
The pendulum swings with equal distance
both ways So in the fire insurance bust
ness. the equilibrium between income and
outgo is regulated by the principle Bear We
one anothers burdens But In one thing
you are wrong. The losses are not those
sustained by the fire insurance companies
They are suffered by your fellow merchants
in all corners of the land. The companies
are the medium for distributing this bur-
den, and the wider 1t is spread the less
heavily 1t weighs upon the Individual Here
lies the bottom principle of fire insurance"
The business men of Washington to
whose attention the above paragraph was
called, preferred not to discuss The matter
in advance of the statement of the assoc
cfatfon's committee on the subject which
IL Is believed, will attack the argument of
the underwriters as unsound, and the prin-
ciple OF high local rates unwarranted