Hattiesburg daily progress. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 18??-1909, 1903-11-26
TO REVISE INSURANCE LAWS.
The Trend is on Strong, and There's
Gong to be Something Doing
When Legislature Meets.


There is dissensions aud pickering
all over the state ocoasioned by tb'
workings of the present insurance.
laws and from the trend of things
there ia going to be something doing
along this line when the Legislature
meets.
The New Orleans Times. Democrat
speaking upon this subject, in Its IS
sue of November % says:
From all the indications we see
there is likely to come in the next
session of the Mississippi Legislature
quite a rem odeliDg of the insurance
. laws of the state. Last year an
effort was made to induce Governor
Longino 10 call special session of
the Legislature to remodel or repeal
some of the existing laws relating 10
fire insurance, bur he oecllned 10 act
in the matter. 1t looks now rs IL an
active attempt will soon be made to
formulate the changes desired and to
impress upon the legislators when
: they meet III January the Importance
Of giving the relief asked for AS
rhe insurance laws of Louisiana are
-somew hat similar to these now IN
force in Mississippi, it cannot be out
of place TO di :cuss now ana hereafter
; some of the features of The insurance
laws and their bearing upon 'he gen
eral interests Of he publie at lag
:. "It is claimed that ghe "fa.uea
policy"law is unsafe and ulsouud,
and that in actual practiceit opefates
as a premium OH incendlarism. IhIs
law requires that the full amoart
named in the face. Of fire policy
shalt be bald in the event of the des-
truction by fire of the Insured prop
erty and it has peeu held by the
courts that where property is insured
for hale it's value-say 10000 on 500,
600 worth of property aud is dam
aged by fire to the extent cf half its
value-or $40 600 as written IN the
policy--then the company that insuT-
ed must pay the full amount written
in the face of the policy. IN this
way the insurance company IS MADE
TO carry the real risk o. $50, 600 wofth
of property when it receives IN return
a premium on but so, GO " Ofth. As
a consequence the insu rance ra,es III
Mississippi are said to be higher THAI
i'm any other state in the union except
Florida. An idea of how this val
ned policy" clause may be worked 10
benefit of the insured has been shown
by hypothetical case Of man who
stores in cotton wareh )use Il ~
bales of cotton, deposited at different
times III lots OF ten bales each.
Reaching the warehouse at dlffereu!
times they are perhaps stored in five
different fireproof Compartments.
Now cotton warehouses of the present
time are so we'll protected against tile
spread of fire that all Likelihood TIE
flames which might originate in Que
compartment would be thoroughly
extinguished before they could be
communicated to another. But the
owner OF. the fifty bales of cotton III
such warehouse might take out insur-
ance on but ten bales of cotton thus
stored and under the valued policy
law he would get the full amount
named in the face OF his policy, no:
matter which particular lot of his
five sets of ten bales each might be
destroyed by fire. Thus he woald
have practically an insurance on fifty
bales while paying a premium on
policy of only ten bales.
Those who advocate the reneal of
the valued policy law claim there
would be fewer fires if each person
who takes cut insurance should be
compelled to carry some palt of the
risk and bear some portion of the fire
loss.
There are various other features of
the insurance laws of Mississippi to
which serious objection is made, and
those who advocate the remodeling Of
same appear to make some pretty
strong points. One is that North
Carolina had vaiued policy clause
in her statutes, and the insurance
rates were very high and remained
high in that state until the legisl'-
ture saw fit to repeal the valued roll
icy feature. So soon as this was
done there was an immediate d. op III
the rates of fire insurance in North
Carolina, which the commissioner of
insurance in that state attributed TO
the repeal of the rest ictive laws
1t is pretty plain fact that while
the man who produces the otton may
not in the first instance pay the pre-
MUM on insurance, yet he certainly
does pay it in the long run For the
merchant or cotton buyer who pur-
chases his staple takes the cost of in
surance into his calculations, aud the
price he pays is as tnuch less as The
cost of insurance is in each cas-.
Therefore it is earnestly hoped that
our Mississippi neighbors will find
some solution of this question which
will bring them lower insn ance rates.