The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-23
LOWER INSURANCE RATES.

Mr.. r. WADE Vaughan, secretary OF
the Mutual Fire Insurance Company
of Monroe, is meeting with encourage
ing success in getting subscriptions TO
the fund for mutual insurance conf
pany to be located in this city. He
would meet with even more success,
| in all probability, if it were known
! who the officers and directors of the
company would he.
/ 1t is probable that there would be
/ no great difficulty in getting subscrip-
| tions to the amount of 100000, or even
/ 100000, if it were certain that bust
ness men of recognized financial abil-
| ity and conservative methods would
be put in charge of the company.
There is undoubtedly room for a
mutual fire insurance company in this
| city-a company that would afford re-
| lief from the existing fire insurance
| burdens, but those who have money to
invest in that or any other kind of To-
cal enterprises want to know into
whose hands their money is going.
Every business enterprise depends
for success upon its management, The
businesses which are carefully and con-
scientiously managed by men of bust
ness ability almost invariably succeed,
while those which are not so man
aged almost as certainly fail, no mat
ter how good the opportunities they
have may be. That this is true has
been more than once demonstrated in
this city.
We do not know whether or not 1t
would be advisable to organize the
proposed mutual fire insurance com
pany before securing the necessary
subscriptions, but it is a pretty safe
statement that the subscriptions would
he much more easily obtained If 1t
were known who would be the direc-
tors and officers of it. Some men are
valuable in one position and not in an
other. Those who have money to in
vest in new enterprises would be
much more ready to make such in
vestments if they knew that the direc-
tors and managers of them had made
successes of their own undertakings,
and had earned regulations for bust
ness sagacity and conservative bust
ness methods.
There is no doubt that good mutual
fire insurance company-a home COM
pany-would have all the business in
this city it cared to do. The rates of
the companies at present doing bust
ness here are altogether too high. They
are what might properly be called
monopoly rates. The city has a first
class fire department, and its fire rec
ord of recent years is of the best.
There is no reason, therefore, why 1t
shouldn't have as low an insurance
rate as any other city of its class.
1t is probable that there would be
but comparatively little difficulty in
getting all the money required for the
establishment of strong fire insur-
ance company provided there were
ample assurances that the company
would be placed under the control of
those in whose financial and business
ability the community has confidence.
-e-e-S------
In the Bechtsl murder trial at Allen
town, Pa, as our dispatches have in
dicated, much Importance attaches to
whether or not certain stains on pill
low cases, walls, etc, were made by
human blood or by tobacco juice. Both
the prosecution and the defense have
put up expert witnesses to sustain
their relative contentious. The experts
for the prosecution have declared the
stains to be those of human blood
and those for the prosecution have
been as positive that they were not of
blood. In so far as weight of num-
bers and professional learning are con-
cerned, one set of experts had no adj
vantage over the other. One set was
as worthy of confidence as the other
and yet they disagreed Numerically.
What is the nom professional juror to
think in such cases? The diversity of
professional opinion can only serve TO
arouse a doubt in his mind, and the
law says the accused must have the
benefit of any reasonable doubt. Elk
pert testimony seems to DC considered
essential in most modern murder trials,
where the direct evidence is not con-
elusive, and in the majority of in
stances 1t proves to be more puzzling
than calculating.
---S-e-~
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