The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-15
HE DENIED EQUITABLE
 HAD B|G CLAIM ON HIM
Child Insurance Is Taken Up By Com r,ittee-Mr, Fiskc Said That States Had Tried to Regu-
 late It.

New York, December l4.-DurlnB tho insurance investigation today Edward
 Scott. president of the Prevalent Life Assurance society, made an earnest ap- peal to Chairman Armstrong of the in- vestigating committee to exclude from the hearing certain statements bearing on ms relations with the Equitable Life Assur- ance society, of which he was formerly Australian agent Charles E. Hughes, counsel for the investigating committee, had asked Mir Scott whether the Equita- ble Life Assurance society had not claim of s10oOO0 against him. Mir Scott at first declared that there was no ~teh claim against him and then MT. Hughes
 presented letters that passed between MT.
 Scott and President Alexander on that
 subject in 1901, in which President Alex ander asked MT Scott to make formal
 admission in writing that his accounts with the society showing balances or sot- 933 due to the society, were accurate. In one letter President Alexander wrote that Mir Scott had accepted the accounts MT. Scotts letters to President Alexander pro- posed conference. but made no admis-
 sions as to the acceptance of the ac- counts.
 When these letters had been read, Pres- ident Scott made an earnest plea to the | committee to rule that this subject waa 1 foreign to the investigation. He declared that he had been pursued by enemies Tor l several years; that in 1900 he caused the | arrest and indictment of a man wno | had engaged with the Equitable Life As- l surance society to deliver 10 1t records | stolen from the Prevalent Savings Life | Assurance society, that a traitorous book | keeper who was in league with this man | was dismissed from the Provident so- ciety's employ and that 1t was in con nection with these matters. that hs rela-
 tions with the Equitable were reported to the committee and in spirit oi re yenge.
 Though MT. Hughes did not uncover
 inst what the Equitable societys claim against MT Scott was based on, ne brought out from him the statement that
 the Equitable society had made such claim upon him and that MT ocoll re- fused to settle It. Anctber incident in the testimony of Mr Scott was his statement that when
 he bought control of the ProVideh' sas- ings Life Assurance society s ne useo S-o'- GOO which had been lent by hat company to two of It's agents in order to enapio them to buy 100 shares of Its stock They
 
 ovar inc loan and delivered to the society n promise to turn over to It loo snares | Of its stock when he got the stocK. it ID now held by trust company to Whoi.
 he still owes s5O,oOo, which he borrowed | to buy it.
 Fiske First Witness. Haley Fiske, vice president ol the aeeio- nolitan Life Insurance company, was the | first witness to testify before the lhVesu-
 
 mittee adjourned yesterday, Mr blske was raadtnv n statement of the lapses In the industrial department of his companys
 business Mir Fiske made further sta.e- ,uent on that subject today. MT f1ske as- l serted that lapses cause no serious losses | to the insured as the average amount paio l m lapsed industrial policies In lyoo was l onlv 72 cents for which the insured show l ed nrotection for ten or twelve weeks. | T,be total loss to the company on lapses | in 1aoo Mir Fiske said, was $l.WoOVO, the number of policies cancelled was o'9''sH and the average loss to the company was sl ss on A policy Charles E. Hughes. the committee's counsel. then examined the method by which the company arrived al those figures.
 Mir Fiske said that several thousand agents left the employ of the Metropon- tan company in 19O4. It had about u'ow agents in its employ at the beginning ana about the same huiipei "e e"o SN VI the year.
 MT Hughes went into an exhaustive ex- anination of the items composing the cost of getting new business Tn lso4 m order to compare 1t with the loss esti- mated on new business in that year. The company estimated the costs of putting new policy on It's books at 2.U. Eacn Iholder of a lapsed policy paid an average of 72 cents to the company, making the net loss sl35 on each policy or SooS'oo To this the company adds an additiohai loss to the company of ol6 cents on eacn policy for carrying the insurance Ihis Mir F'iske said makes total JOSS 10 tne company of SlS6 on each of the oIo,Uoo nolicies. The company, he said, makes It's nremlums so high that the policyholders to persist in holding their policies cover this loss Mir Fiske said the expense of doing industrial business is high, but is un- avoIdable After twenty-five years of oper- alton 15 GOO 900 policies are In existence In the United States.
 MT Hughes said the argument that the insurance is widely taken, and therefore if fills want which applies with equal force to a lottery and he said 1t appeared that the speculative feature of industrial insurance appeared too prominent as large a proportion on policies lapse. Mir. Fiske said this Is offset by the fact that the people who lapse revive their policies, and that 1t is unfair to assume that they get nothing. MT. Fiske said industrial in- stlrance has secured the favor of the peo- pie and should not be disturbed.
 Mir Hughes asked what could he done to reduce expenses and Mir. Fiske said the salaries of officers is a small fraction of the whole. The saving. he said. must come by retaining agents in the employ ant I