Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-07-21
TABLES ARE TURNED
Insurance Men Whom Curtis
Berated, Enjoy Chicago
Concerns Plight
STATE OF IOWA ENTERPRISES
Enormous Increase in the Telephone
Business of the State Calls for a
More Satisfactory Way of Assessing
Properties and Keeping Track Of the
Business Transactions.
to Times Republican.

Des Moines. July 21.-Insurance men
of Iowa are doing a little chuckling
| to themselves this week because OF the
unexpected turn of affairs in Chicago
company which has just absorbed an
Iowa company that was doing a ques-
| tionable business. w. e. Curtis, the
high salaried reporter of Chicago
paper who came here and made a bad
mess of trying to attack the rotten
ness of some business done under the
guise of insurance, virtually making an
attack on the state and state officials
and all insurance business In Iowa. bas-
| ing his criticism chiefly on the method
| of doing business by one company.
His comparison was naturally between
Iowa and illinois laws and methods.
but the one company whose business
! he criticised had just moved to Chicago
| to find a greener field and was absorbed
| by big Chicago company, the National
Life Insurance Company. The last
Inamed company has been paraded as a
paragon of perfection; but the state
auditor of Iowa, almost without legal
warrant, had compelled it to agree to
maintain its reserves in Iowa although
Ian outside corporation. Curtis gave
| Iowa black eye to the advantage of
1 Illinois. But now comes the informant ton
that the great company which absorb
/ ed thc t:tfle Iowa concern. is defending
! itself against an application for re-
ceiyer, filed by the former city comp
ltroller. and the accusation is that the
present owners of the company came
Into control of it thru fraud and de-
ception. and by working on the fears of
La sick man, unable to realize what he
was doing The bill goes on to make
| the most serious accusations against
| these angelic insurance men in connec-
sipn With queer transfer of building
Tin Chicago. and a receiver Is asked for
the building also. In short the COM
pany is in Il very bad muddle; and 1t is
! generally believed here that the Curtis
attack on Iowa laws and Iowa state
officials and Iowa politicians and Iowa
business was largely in the fancicd in
terest of rival business concerns in Chi
cago and elsewhere. Incidentally 1t
may be mentioned that Curtis has not
vet complied with the motion for
i more specific statement and that his
attack remains an attack upon leglt1-
/ mate as we'll as illegitimate business In
Iowa. He appears too cOwardly to give
as has been given in this CORES pond
ence, the names of companies and ex-
tracts from official reports directed
against the abuses of the law by specif-
lie companies.
| The telephone business has increas-
ed so enormously in Iowa the past few
wears that something will have to be
done to arrange for more satisfactory
way of assessing the properties and IN
keeping track of the business. Practic-
ally the telephone business is today
running wild in the state OF Iowa.
There is no regulation, and nothing to
bring about uniformity. The state au-
ditor. as clerk of the executive council
IN the matter of telephone and tele-
graph reports, has received reports
from over 1900 separate companies do
ing business in the state and probably
|not all have been heard from. This
work of securing the reports and ar
ranging the facts in some system, has
taken the labors of the clerk in the aud
itor's office for three or four months,
steadily. A list has been prepared by
the secretary of the executive council
showing at a glance what are the COM
panias and their mileage, and business
ON this there will be an. assessment,
but it is impossible for the state oftl-
: c,als to give any great consideration
To each individual company, when there
Of fn ha assessed. ana
then the assessments are to be sent to
the county officials to form the basis
of taxation. Most Of these companies
are local in their nature or private. and
will not be taxed heavily Some SIM
nlar way of effecting taxation is much
desired.
The question before the council or
how RI proceed to assess the interur-
ban trolley lines is one that Is causing
some worry to the state officials This
vear two interurbans-one In Des
Moines and one in Waterloo-made re-
norts to the council and these were the
tirst reports ever filed. Then the COM
panies made the claim that in the cities
they should not be assessed at all, but
should be treated as street railways,
for the act provides that within cor
| poration limits these rural troiiey
lines shall be subject to the laws and
, regulations governing street railways.
. The attorney general ruled, however
that this does not go so far as to stop
, the state officials from assessing the
; interurbans in cities as we'll as OUTSIDE
and treating the systems as units. But
, this does not settle all problems, fo;'
; the council has yet to decide on many
matters as to what part or the sys-
, TENS are in the cities and how TO
, reach cases where there Is merely
trackage arrangement. The managers
of interurbans do not want the coun-
ell to assess their entire systems but
prefer to deal with city councils
wherever the lines are within corpor-
alton limits They claim this is the
easier way to do the business, and
probably it is. Before another assess
' ment time comes around 1t is believed
9 there will be many miles more OF In