The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-12-16


today on the insurance question,
Mr.. Cochran maintained that the
power of taxation was a legitimate
weapon for the control of the privi-
Ieges Of commerce. The reason the
senate was steadily increasing in
power he said. was because it con-
stantly exercised every vestige OF its
power Emphasizing the relations OF
the houses. he asserted that powers
unused would decay. and that the
house now possessed all the power
necessary 10 establish its predOmi-
nance. Mr.. Cochran said:
viii Amount 10 Billions.
Within my memory the three large
Insurance companies have accumula-
ted a billion and a quarter of dollars.
and il will not be a generation before
this sum viii be five OF six billions.
The utter Yiciousness of this condition
s. that these funds are under the con-
troll of men who have no personal in
terest in them. This money is a trust
fund, and yet the persons who are the
Deneficiaries Of the trust cannot have
a word To say regarding them. This
system must be wholly uprooted To
effect a cure"
Mr.. Cockran's remedy was 10 con
line the insurance companies to the
state in which they We're organized,
the same as savings banks are con-
4 fined.
4 Believe me. he declared there is
|Nuo need of paying a salary of Sl50000
year by any Insurance company 10
protect its policy holders. but it is
necessary 30 get a man who viii not
swndie them"
Millionaire Cannot Be Jailed.
1t was an awful spectacle, ne said,
40 see these men mount the witness
stand and boldly confess their MISUSE
of the peoples funds. There is now
the spectacle in New York. he said, of
the district attorney working day and
might to prosecute those guilty Of Vio-
lating the purity of the ballot box,
which was cOmmendahle. But at the
same time The Insurance officers did
not go 10 jaii but back 10 their offices
after their confessions. He said il was
g. deplOrabIe confession 10 make. but
he would assert thst IL would bc absO-
lutely impossible 20 put the pOsseSsOr
of Sl,o0o.ou0 ina jail Ia this country.
Alr, Cochran described the method of
stock gambling practiced by insurance
companies and said that the thou
sands of successful instances left no
TecOrd behind. 1t was only the few
failures where the companies were re
quired 10 make good that a record was
made. AS a proof that no special skill
8 is necessary in insurance for insurance
purposes, Mr.. Cochran said.
Reorganization Methods.
We have but To look al the method
by which these three companies have
undertaken TO re0rganiZe themselves.
What is the first Thing they have
done, do they go out ANA look for in
stlrance experts? by no means. The
frst thing they did was 10 send them
q all away
The Equitable company has been
organized ON a somewhat peculiar
basis. \ very rich gentleman whom
& We all have the right, ] suppose, To
call "a philauthropist-f ne himself
has said il, ana i, Is sr5atly TO his
credit-Oa ughterl-purchased the con-
Jrnl Of this company, giving 81 900
Tor stuff that can pay him but $500 Il
year That is to say, through his
philanthropy he has given an earning
power of Sl25uOO for S3.50O He is too
good a business man To have done
,hat as a matter of course. There is
1lo explanation ion it except philan-
ihrony. UauehlerD
III Ryan's Trustees.
Now. in order To appease the pop
kllar mind ON the philunJhToUiC enter
u prise. what has hr done" Has he
stnc to the Insurance world To md
tbis talent that is worth Sl50,000 q
s. year or $75.00c year. BY no means.
Tie has gone outside and appointed a
kind of financial Vigilance committee,
and not one of the yigilautes has ever
had anything to Go with an Insurance
company except that possibly one Of
shem may have borrowed money from
Il a very eminent statesman, one OF
The most illustriou~ of our time has
been called trom The classic shades Of
Princeton, where be has been spend
ing the decliu, vf am iHuStrious life i'm
composing philosophical cOurribu-
ticns TO the thought o. the country,
and placed i'm the chair of an insur-
ance company with which, So far as
know. he has never had the slightest
Acquaintance whatever.
Another gentleman, who may have
borrowed money from an insurance
company, but certainly never had
anything 10 do with the administra-
sion of one himself. a fnanCier of no
81 mean distinction, is associated with
with him.
land the third is "a Judge. an emf
1ient judge, judge whose motives no.
body will ever question. but who in
AlAlllE til tAliT li'-N. tAllstl AAllttibll bi
Nieilante. has been compelled TO dis
qualify himself from sitting i'm great
number OF cases which the state OF
a New York had expected him 10 adju
II Eicate.
Morton and His Salary.
And in order To make effective this
81 reform a gentleman is selected who
may have been a good railroad man
] believe he Was-and we have the
authority Of the president for it that
DE was an excellent cabinet officer,
TOO good. in fact 10 remain daughter,
and this gentleman. who. in the walks
of life where he had proven mis- eff
cheney, ! do not believe could com
mand over $4,000 or $4,000 a year
gets $4,000 in a calling for which he
has had no qualification or prepara-
lion whatever Now that is reform as
a. insurance companies themselves
Nucede it.
In the Mutual We have the very
board OF trustees who had themselves
either beAn active agents OF business