The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-19

Subject these corporations to natlondl supervision. he said, and the eagle will keep the vulture from plueking the bodies of the dead"
 Bill Requires Reports.
 MT. Lands' bill provides for superin- tendent of insurance. It requires annual reports from all life insurance companies doing business in the territory described.
 This would" he said, disclose any scandalous perversion of funds"
 This would prevent for instance any life insurance corporation from holding $9O, ,OO0, GOO worth of securities marketed by J. P. Morgan & Go.
 This would supplant speculation with investment
 "These companies have departed from the original purpose of insurance and wan dered off into a maze of more than 200 forms of policy, puzzling the mind, and absolutely defraudng the people.
 This will direct attention to a field of fraud still growing The history of cond- tions that are misrepresented; of stipula- tons not understood; of obligations too heavy to be borne: of dishonest estimates of earnings, and 1t would warn the peo- pie against the most stupendous trick cry of our time, namely, the investment features of life insurance.
 This will disclose where the cold blooded robbery of the past Is being re- peated. Let us hope that 1t will explain to the inquirng policyholder why his divi- dend fell from S149 in 1876 to $7 in 1904, and why the dividends of his friend sank from $55 in 1876 to $3 in 1904; should let us also hope that such a provision would make it impossible for great corporation whose profits in 1904 were a million dollars greater than in 1903 to pay S200,000 less In dividends than in 1903"
 Mir J,ap6ig 6aGcrihpd ID salaries of lifo insurance officers as the touch of kin which makes the whole country a Christ mas tree
 These salaries he said were in the main dishonest. Touching on some of the re- ported transactions of insurance com panes, he said his bill would prevent "a future vice president or president of life insurance company from buying bad stock from J. P Morgan and later trans- ferring sS00,000 worth of stock, like Per lins did on December 13 1903 to J. P. Morgan, and buying it back the first of January, 1904 in order to make false report to the superintendent of insurance. It would prevent the transfer of a mill lion and a half dollars of stocks to a $400 ! year employe, in order to deceive the German empire. which forbids the hold ing of industrial securities. This will take them out of the saloon business, the hotel business, the banking business, the trust business. It will right the insurance business. It will dissolve the standing pact which MT. Perkins has had with himself for so many years. It will also prevent MT Cromwell the treasurer of one of these corporations, from continuing to be a member of sixteen different syn dicates, all of which do business with the insurance corporations with which he Is identified This will prevent Mr liar riman from borrowing s27 900 to cast into a struggle for the control of the Northern Pacific railroad.
 It Is Simply Plunder.
 This is plunder, Mir Chairman pure and simple One thing exceeds the perfiidy of these offenders, and this is their im- prudence. All but two or three remain in power. There Is not one of them good enough to wear the stripes of the felon. For them to remain in office Is unspeak- able, as unspeal1able for the home wrecker to complacenty sit in the ruin he has wrought, and calmly invite the American father to return thanks for divine favor. One of them has gone away He has gone to Paris I congratu- late him on bis conception of propriety. In the midst of all this brazenness. his flight is as noteworthy as that of the belated swallow back to the tropics. through the autumn sNy.
 
 as an ambassador thank God. not even in return for the straw which was packed around the body of John Paul Jones. And we might say to our sister republic that we will gladly exchange with her for an equal number of honest dead men to be selected at her own discretion. band of brigands
 Patient though the people be, I want to take away from the death bed policy holder the ugly faces of Hartman. Kuhn. Loeb & Co.,, the McCurdys and Medals, the Perkinses and Pierpont Morgan, the international kleptomana.
 'I want to say a word respecting the professional director in the United States. the embossed stationery director. the birdseye director. He Is usually a polit- elan who knows nothing except cunning and is used to deploy the men who have lifted him from obscurity. In business these men are universalists-tha is. they are directors in every institution within the zone of their notorietv Their souls are in pawn but their names are still for rent They plead financial success as a demurrer to the Ten Commandments and the sermon on the mount" MT. L.andis was applauded frequently. and when he had concluded the republican members surrounded him with warm con gratula tions.
 Mr. Butler of Pennsylvania, in the chair. finally appealed;
 "Will the gentlemen in the reception line please preserve order"
 Anes Has a Method NIr. Ames of Massachusetts followed Mir. Landis. announcing that he had method of federal control of insurance which President Roosevelt had endorsed. A code of laws is now being drawn. the work has been under way some weeks that will "embrace In it's provisions all that is best in the laws of the state of Mas sachusetts, Connecticut. New Jersey, New York. Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio. together with what additional safeguards and requirements are necessary for the public against the outrageous practices that have been brought out by the Arm strong investigation.
 Tt will prev ent any company from do- ing insurance business in the District of Columbia until 1t has compiled with the provisions of this code and has received a certificate to that effect. Ut will provide for the revoking Of their certificate of authority in case the insurance company does not comply strict ly with the provisions of this code in tli~ conduct of Its business through the sev eral states of the union.
 This last provision is the crux m the matter. and will in effect act as black list for those companies until willing to conduct a legitimate business" Crtcises Committee. Mir Underwood of Alabama. criticised the committee immigration for not bringing in a bill to restrict the entry of the pauper labor of southern Europe to this country.
 MT. Sims of Tennessee. discussed haz-