Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-21
REPORT BY HENDRICKS
Feature of the Insurance
Hearing at New York.
CALLED AS A WITNESS
NEVER VERIFIED ESTIMATEa
SENT IN BY OFFICERS.
State Superintendent Detailed thA
Duties of His off1ce-Examina-
tions of Companies.
CALLED AS A WITNESS

NEW YORK, December 21-Severaf Oh
the officials of the state insurance departs
ment were present today when the insur>
ance investigating committee began its ses~
sion. Among them were Francis Hendricks.
the state superintendent, Isaac vanderpoel,
chief examiner, and Col Appleton the CHIEF
clerk.
Howard j. Stokes, third vice president
and treasurer of the Bankers Life Insur~
ance Company of the city of New York.
was the first witness before the committee
today. Mr.. Stokes was on the stand but q
few minutes
Francis Hendricks, superintendent of the
state insurance department. was called as q
witness. 1t was Mr.. Hendricks who laet
summer made an official report on the af>
fairs Of the Equitable Life Assurance Soc
ciety
Mr.. Hendricks presented a list of EN-.
ployes in his office, giving the salary Of
each. Among the employees is Kate Heu~
dricks niece of Superintendent Hem
bricks. as confidential clerk with salary
of $3.50 year. Mr.. Hendricks said th6
in 1904 was about $137 900. The department.
received in fees and payments S2S1. 1885,.
which was turned over to the state treas
urer
Work of the Examiners.
The division of work among examiners
WAS I'd eknup with superintendent Hen
bricks. None of these is confined to one set
of insurance. Three appointments as special
examiners by Mr.. Hendricks were gone into.
Mr.. Hendricks said they were appointed on
the highest recommended tions. Two of them
were recommended by Senator Platt
OF the appraisers appointed one was
recommended by ex-Gov. Odell.
Mr.. Hendricks detailed the practical duties
of his office. He said the necessity of an
eXamina ton of a company Is determined by
the companys report. In the ten years
from January l. 1895, there have been "a
In this time the Equitable has been exc
amined four times, New York Life twice.
Mutual three times, Mutual Reserve hve
times, Metropolitan one, Washington Life
Life Association of America three. Security
Mutual Life five and the Provident Savings
Life Association one.
Mr. Heidricks recognised the extent Of
his authority in exempting compa nies SO :
that In his report he may advise the legis.
lature as to necessary legislation.
Companies Reports Not Verified.
He had never taken any steps to verify
estimates of returns given out by COM
panies, nor had he ever made any COM
parisons of the various companies in this
respect. He has required the filing cf AZ
forms of policies issued by companies ana
they are always examined by the actuary.
Mr.. Patterson. The policy forms now ts-
sued by insurance companies have receiv~
ed Mr. Patterson's approval. Mr. Hem
bricks was asked to the agency commits
sions of companies, and IL they had ever
been considered by the department, and
he replied that the department did not un-
dertake to manage the companies.
Asked If he ever considered any appar~
ent extrava games in companies Mr.. Hen-
dricks gave the same answer. Asked if
he would do anything to correct extrava-
gances in the conduct of an Insurance.
company If he found them, Mr.. Hendricks
said the only thing that could be done
would be to have the department appoint
the officers of the companies.
Equitable Case Cited.
He said: mo amount of examination will
make men honest You take the Equitable,
for instance; unless we had had help from
the inside we never would have found any.
thing. We had gone through and examined
their books and found no irregularities"
Taking up the examinations of the COM
panies in detail, Mr.. Hughes called atten-
ton 10 the three examinations of the Mutual
Life in 1902 and 1903. this company paying
to the department about $4,000 for ex-
a.rlinations. These examinations were very
thorough, Mr.. Hendricks said, but he did
not learn of the salaries of the officers OF
this company of any extravagances.
He never learned of the agency con-
tracts with C. H. Raymond & Co, nor the
expenditures of the supply department.
He never heard of A. c. Fields. When the
report came in he looked it over, but never
saw that the expenditures for stationery
were larger than any other company He
looked only for the solvency of the CONF
Dany,