The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1905-08-10
FEDERAL INSURANCE CONTROL,
An Argument in Favor by a Former
Assistant Attorney General.

An Argument in Favor by a Former
Assistant Attorney General.
In timely article which he contrib
utes to the North American Review,
James NJ. Beck, formerly assistant at
torney general of the United States,
advocates federal regulation of life In
surance. Mr.. Beck points out that to
Alexander Hamilton and his e. con-
temporaries the regulations of all
forms Of insurance was familiar ex-
ercise OF governmental power. In spite
of this fact and of the immense growth
of insurance during. the nineteenth
century there was no federal legislation
regarding insurance until 1908, when
the Department of Commerce and La
Dor was created by an act, the terms of
which imply that Insurance may be a
part Of interstate or foreign commerce.
Mr.. Beck lays upon certain peculiar
reasons why insurance should be sub
mitted to strict governmental supern-
vision; its success depends upon a
multiplicity of contracts, so that it is
impossible for the policy holder to exer-
else any but an indirect control. over
the affairs of-the country. Many of the
contracts, moreover, are conditioned
upon the death of one of, the parties,
and the state ought to supervise the
execution of the contract by the sur
I'viying party. r. " .... ..,. .....
AS matter of fact, the United States
is the only government in which the
power of supervising insurance is de-
centralized 1t is probable that federal
regulation of Insurance would have.
been effected before now but for the de-
cision of the Supreme Court in a GER
tain case that Insurance contracts are
not interstate transactions. though the
parties may be domicied in different
states. This decision Mr. Beck criti-.
cises, and he argues that it has been
practically set aside by the decision Of.
the same tribunal that a lottery ticket
lis an article of commerce. Federal
supervision would effect economy. Mr..
Beck says: 49, - w.
!. IN the year 1902 twenty-eight states
received from insurance companies, ex-
elusive of property taxes, over S5,000,00O
in excess of the cost of such3super-
vision. One single state is said to have
collected more than the federal goVerri-
Inent requires to examine all the
national bankain the country !: and this
unnecessary BIrdef, 'aggregating each
year $10,0O0,o00 ultimately falls upon
the policy holder and is imrosed not
upon a money making, but a money
saving, enterprise, whose lofty purposes
and benefcent results ought to relieve
it of any form of license taxation, .,,
"a tax upon the moral obligations of
insurance is little better than a tax on
morality, It burdens the policy. holder
In the recognition of moral duty to
safegard those DEPENDENT upon him from
the injurious consequences of his death.
1t is certainly a tax on thrift.
The. arbitrary, expenses Of i'm
quisltorfaE examinations. of which too
often rest. as to amount, in the dis
erection of an insurance superintendent,
is a form of Turkish satrapy which is
utterly at variance with the spirit Of
our institutions, For nearly half a
century the insurance companies have
vainly protested against the intolerable
burden of such. yassalage to many
masters, and they naturally welcome
the declaration III President Roosevelt
that the time has come for the ederal
government to assume the duty of
supervising this important and hene-
ficent fundamentally of modern life,