The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-05

date for that Office before the coming an
nual meeting this month is II. H. Friedley,
Insurance Company of North America. Mr..
Friedley has many friends in the associa-
ton who are laboring for his election.
XXX |
The National Fraternal Congress-, which
met in Milwaukee last week, elected the
following officers: President, Edwin o.
Wood, Flint, Mich, supreme chancellor of
the knights of the Royal Guard; vice pres
ident, F. A Falkenburg, Denver, head con-
sui of the Pacific jurisdiction of the Wood
men Of the World; secretary-treasurer, NJ.
w. Sackett, Meadville, Pa, supreme re-
corder of the Ancient Order of United
Workmen. st. Louis was chosen as next
years meeting place, which will be held
the fourth week in September, 1904.
XXX
The Bureau of Forestry estimates that
the annual loss by forest fires runs from
SOS, 200, coo to $50, 100000 The government is
now conducting a comprehensive study of
the problem of reducing this waste through
a large number of deputy wardens scat
tered throughout the timbered districts.
These men are specifically instructed TO OBJ
serve methods of fire protection practiced
by railroads and other owners of timbered
lands, the fire warden system and the laws
now existing with the object of formulating
a fire protective code and such additional
legislation as may be deemed imperative.
y X X
The compilation of premium receipts and
loss payments by the insurance companies
in Indiana for the first six months of 1908,
as presented in Rough Notes, shows an
unusual condition in that the loss ratio of
companies foreign to the United States is
less than either that of the Indiana COM
| pamnies or of those of other States. The
foreign companies have proverbially been
carrying the heavy end of the general loss
ratfp and this fpmnOrary rpliQf ic very
grateful to the field men who represent
them in Indiana. The loss ratios were as
follows:
Indiana companies .............. So per cent.
Companies of other States...... 3S per cent.
Foreign companies .............. SO per cent.
Combined loss ratio............. 81 per cent.
1t thus appears that the fire companies,
even after allowing 40 per cent. for ex-
penses, make a good showing in Indiana
for the first six months.
The celebration of the Fourth of July
with it's accompanying loss of life and de-
struction of property, is bringing year by
year a growing protest from the public in
general and insurance companies In par
ticular against the dangerous forms of
patriotic demonstration. Among the COM
ments which the last independence day
with its long lists of casualties called
forth a paragraph from the Review, an
insurance paper of London, is OF interest.
1t says: 1.-The loss of life and destruction
Of property by fire, by which Ii is consid-
cred necessary to celebrate the glorious
Fourth, is appalling. We suppose there
must be something in American school lit
erature to account for this, though the
small boy will catch at any chance to let
off fireworks, and the small boy evidently
wants looking after over there. If these
small boys and their parents could hear
British military bands playing The Star
spangled Banner here in London on the
Fourth of July they would probably form a
new impression with regard to the sanguin-
airy despots from beneath whose iron heels
their ancestors so successfully wriggled
some hundred years and odd ago."
The Life Insurance Courant presents an
interesting comparison of the new business
Of life insurance companies for the first
six months of 1903 as compared with the
first half of 1902, as follows: