Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1905-08-24

Iowa paid for life insurance in pre-
miums amounting to over seven mil
lion dollars. OF this amount little
over one million was paid to Iowa
companies Why do the people of
Iowa discriminate against their own
companies? Why do Iowa people pre-
fer to send their life insurance money
away from home, at lower rate of
interest to develop the wealth Of 9th.
er communities and other states rath-
er than to insure with Iowa companies
at q higher rate of interest and there
by develop the wealth of their own
communities and their own state? Is
it not because Iowa people have been
led to believe that size and enormous
assets mean strength and perpetuity?
If this is the reason, then surely never
were people of a state more greatly
deceived. Size does not mean strength
and perpetuity.
The Mastodon was once the auto
crat Of the American forest. but is
makes the Mastodon remarkable is the
very thing that ran him out! He was
too large for his environment. In the
struggle for existence his size was
against him. There were other ami
mails that kept right on in their APP
pointed ways, regardless of the loud
roar and the earthshaking tread of the
Mastodon. They have somehow man.
aged to keep alive and well. while the
dug up bones Of the Mastodon are
pieoed out by the scientist, and, aside
from these genuine samples, all that
remains to tell the story of the Mas
todon's decline and fall are counter.
felt skeletons Of the animal set up in
college museums, teaching the youth
Of the country that staying power does
not depend on size.
After all that has been written and
said relative to management or lack
Of management of the great Equitable
Society of New York, one is convinced
that the basis Of all the trouble lies
in the vast size Of its assets man
aged and controlled by one set of men.
It Is physical impossibility for man
or set Of men to live for a period of
years in the atmosphere of hundreds
OF millions Of dollars and still retain
the true standard of the value Of an
American dollar. It is physical i'm.
possibility for one management to in
vest carefully and prudently the enor-
NOUS sum Of four or five hundreds of
millions of dollars and have any kind
of personal knowledge that this mon
ey is safely invested. Four or five
hundred millions Of dollars under a
single management is the particular
bright light which will attract around
It the black swarms of financial bugs
that harass and sap its vitality.
For more than twenty years the
great insurance actuaries of this coun.
try have been calling upon the people
to enact laws to protect themselves
from the danger arising from the
ance company Nearly fifteen years
ago the insurance commissioner of
Massachusetts said in a public speech,
II think We are all agreed that the
enormous growth of life insurance
companies is one of the dangers of the
age. Something must be done to limit
this piling up of enormous accumula.
TONS"
The insurance commissioner of Con-
necticut at the same time said, at is
high time that we have some ,egisla.
ton in the line suggested"
The actuary Of the insurance depart
ment of the state of Missouri, Hon
August F. Harvey, one Of the greatest
actuaries Of the west, said. SIT is alb.
solutely time that something be done
in the way of limitation"
Mrs. David Parks Fackler, one of
the greatest actuaries of this country
said, MANY years reflection have led
to belief that dangerous overgrowth
could be practically and effectively
prevented by laws providing that
whenever and while the gross assets
of any life insurance company shall
amount to two hundred millions of dol