The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-16
INSURANCE
 IS DEBATED House Hears Attacks on
 Companies. BOURKE COCHRAN SPEAKS A Severe Denunc.a .atiOn of the
 Grafters. RidicuIes the "Rcform" Which Has Taken Place in the Equitable and the Mutunl--Address
 of sherIey.

| HNdsHlnStoH, leC. iO.-lne ftouSe ito~
 day devoted four and three-quarters
 hours to lively debate on the possibili-
 ties of controlling insurance com panies. Two set speeches were the fea-
 tures One by MT. Sherley of Ken l lucky bore on the doctrine of States rights, and the other by MT. Cochran | of New York related to the actions of | the officers who manage the big life insurance companies of his State. MT. Cochran proposing that Congress, through its taxing power. should con- | fine all insurance companies to the State in which they are organized. Mr. Mann of Illinois outlined pro- posed means of control which he will | later present in the form of a bill, | leaving 1t to the insurance companies | to voluntarily submit to Federal exam ination and approval Mir. Williams. the minority leader. concluded the debate. holding that con- trol was possible. but not through the taxing powers.
 Dikressions were indulged in, first to send message to the Senate returning it's bill regarding canal bonds as an usurpation of the constitutional rights of the House to originate revenue leg islation and again to discuss hazing at Annapolis. No conclusion was reached on the committee reference of the in- SuTdlCS feature or tu0 FEGSkuSHt Aucc" sage, which Is the matter under con- sideration. and the debate will pro ceed tomorrow. | An effort was made when the House met today to limit further debate on the question of the committee refer- ence of the Presidents message. So many requests were made for a time that an attempt to set time for a vote was abandoned
 'sThiq fa a r00d lime a6 any tD get the speeches off," suggested Champ Clark, of Missouri.
 Representative Sherley, of Kentucky. began the discussion of the reference Of the Insurance recommendation to the ways and means committee. He had hardly begun when a message from the Senate was received annonnc- ing that the senate had passed 8 .sen- ate bill removing disabilities from the canal bonds
 Infringement on Prerosatiye.
 Mfr. Payne interrupted the proceed ings to offer resolution regarding the bill stating that the ''bill in the opinion of the House contravenes the first clause of the seventeenth section of the first article of the constitution, and Is an infringement of the prerogatives of the house and that the senate bin bc taken from the speakers table and be respectfully returned to the senate "teil 0 AhNoSdbS tHlS resolution"
 Mir. Payne explained that the senate bill was clearly a revenue measure and should have originated in the house. This statement was met with applause which continued when Mir. Williams, the minority leader look the same po- sition.
 without further debate rising vote was had. As everyone stood up in fa- vor of the resolution the speaker an- nounced, while the house burst into laughter. "3s6 members have voted in the affirmative" There were no op- posing votes.
 The Aggression occupied less than ten minutes when MT Sherley resumed. He opposed reference of the subject either to the ways and means or inter- state and foreign committees
 All of the startling disclosures re- garding life insurance, Mir Sherley said, had been made by State agencies and he favored emphasizing the importance of State supervision of such matters in preference to national. He said there was too constant tendency to- wards centralization of power.
 Announcing that on the question of States rights he was a Democrat, and had always been one, Mr. Grosvenor co. asked how two governments. State and National. could administer control pA thF oohiG HubJStt WltllOuL OliG DeCOm- ing supreme at the expense of the other.
 MT. Sherley said there had been noth- ing in the New York insurance situa- tion so far that New York was not able to handle.
 Crumpacker Takes n Hand.
 Mir Crumpacker (Ind. ) asserted that l Mir. Payne had raised an issue in stat | ing that the taxing power was the only | control Congress had over insurance. | For the House to vote to send the ques- tion of insurance to the Ways and | Means Committee, he said. would be to give notice to the country that Con- gress had decided 1t could not control | insurance.
 It was insisted by Mir. Mann mI) | that there was not a line in the Presi- dents message which referred to taxing insurance He opposed reference to the Ways and Means Committee.
 Mir. Cochran (N. Y. ) maintained that the power of taxation was q legitimate weapon for the control of privileges of commerce. MT. Cochran said:
 The gentleman from Kentucky wants State regulation; the gentleman from Illinois wants Federal Jurisdiction. I | maintain the remedy can be had with out either"
 Mir Cockran's remedy was to confine insurance, companies to the State in which they were organized. the same as ndFluSS 1Lt COHuIeu.
 It was an awful spectacle. he said to see the high salaries paid insurance officials who mount the witness stand and boldly confess their misuse of the peoples funds. There Is now the spec tacle in New York. he said, of the dis trict attorney working day and night to prosecute those guilty of violating the purity of the ballot box, which was commendable.
 Did Not Go to Jail.
 But at the same time the insurance officers did not go to Jail but back to their offices after their confessions He said it was a deplorable confession to make, but he would assert that 1t would be absolutely impossible to put the possessor of $10 900 000 in any jail In this country.
 MT. Cochran described the method of stock gambling practised by insurance and said that thousands of instances left no record be- lind,
 As a proof that that no special skill s necessary for insurance purposes ,Ir. Cochran said:
 I've have but to look at the method