The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-18
Spirit of the Press
The Necessity for Insurance Regula-
ton.

Atlanta Constitution
The perennial recurrence of broils.
killhennycatiSm and frenzied duels for
power between the high executives of
one or another of the large life in
suTance companies of this country
points the way to the one ineXorable
sequel to these dangerous and compll-
Gated affairs-thorough and constant
governmental supervision of every life
insurance concern. mutual, old line,
assessment or otherwise. writing bust
ness IN the United States. However
level of head, steady of hand and
clean of purpose the men who engage
in these frequent dissensions the fact
stands out stubbOrnly that the untet-
tered personal license under which the
momentous details of these corpora
tons are administered constitutes to-
day an insidious menace that requires
federal attention
The most sinister phase of the peru
is that the bulk of its possible victims
is to be found among the helpless and
innocent widows and orphans of the
millions of the policy-holders of the
present.
The public demands regulation and
inspection of railways and trusts and
other corporations of a public and
quasi-pubic nature. They require
probing and regulation and rigid sup
ervison, too. We maintain scruDu-
lous system of inspection whereby we
keep the finger of honesty and sanity
on the pulse of our national and State
banks. Their attitude toward our COM
mon and Individual welfare is SO inti-
mate that we never let them stray far
beyond the Watchful surveillance of
sworn public officials and the amount
of havoc that may be wrought through
wild or dishonest methods is reduced
to minimum. All of which is most
appropriate and commendable.
Yet the corporations which are
holding in trust the bread and the
meat, the food and the clothing of our
children; on the fidelity of which we
are depending for the successful issue
of our loving and ambitious plans for
our sons and daughters and wives and
sisters and mothers; the influence Of
which dominates the railways and
| trusts and the banks, themselves. in
an overpowerifig proportion-arc OPP
Grated without the safety valve of gov
eminent supervision. They are al
lowed to pay eXtravagant salaries to
men who, as far as the public is def
nitely Informed, may be making a
more ornamental than useful return.
The way is open to corruption to
mercenary plotting to wild and disas-
trous manipulation.
naturalization!
Is naturalization more than a sound
ing and empty term, under the existing
system? If you are a holder of a
policy in any one of the mutual COM
panies, suppose, as an experiment, you
make a trip to the home office at the
next annual concave. Let us say, for
the sake of illustration, that some
policy is preached by the executive
6S 1tyh oh - rrl,I u
prejudicial to the interests of yourself
and the overwhelming mass of policy
holders. Very well Get to your feet
and oppose it with all the eloquence,
the fire. the earnestness at your COM
mand. Let us take it for granted that
you will carry with you the one or two
hundred other pOlicY-hOlders who may
be present on mission similar 10
yours You swell with triumph and
the very pardonable qualification that
you have been the means of safeguard
ing the welfare of q host of men, WO-
men and children whom you have
never seen. but whose interests are
identical with yours.
Not so fast!
At the very moment you consider
the fight is won and the congratula-
tons of your grateful -poIicy-hold-
ers arc showered on you, in will come
one of the duly accredited officials Of
the concern. With an absence of
buster and a calm and assured front.
he will flutter before your bulginp
eyes five or six hundred thousand
proxies CLEANED from the corners of
the United States. Where. then, is
your valiant interposition and the CO.
operation of the scanty two hundred
who voted to sustain your efforts? All
wasted, Just as fUtilely as though you
had never stirred from your desk some
thousand miles distant
naturalization is, of course, advis-
able but it is worthless without regu-
lation!