The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-21
TESTIMONY WAS TAME
WASHINGTON AND GERMANIA COMPANIES BEFORE COMMITTEE.
Tatlock Admitted Contributing to Fund to Beat Bill, and Doremus Char acterised American Business
 Methods as Wild,

saAc ohtSuNiou oI tHt leSlSldtINe ance investigating committee today.
 John Tatlock. President of the Wash ington Life. finished his testimony, which was begun yesterday. MT. Tat
 lock declared that personally he favor- ed distribution of earnings every five
 years. The witness took one occasion
 to say that Thomas F. Ryan never sold
 the Washington Life any securities,
 and that he never interfered with or
 suggested to the finance department
 what securities to buy. MT. Tatlock
 said he thought the insurance com
 panies should be run by men in touch with Wall Street because of their knowledge of the securities market He also favored the idea of insurance companies speculating in securities. Cornelius Doremum. President of the Germania Life, said that about one- 1 third of his company's business was
 done in Europe. principally in Ger l many, and that this business is better
 in many respects than that done in America. He declared it to be more | staple, there being fewer lapses, while | the cost is great deal less than in
 America. The medical direction is also 1 better in Germany, he said. He char
 acterized the American ways of doing
 business as wild methods" The only
 contributions of legislative character Pofo " thtS ConPdhy were SOUU LO d fund having for its object the defeat
 of the mortgage tax law and $250 to further the passage of the lien bill in Albany in 1904 No campaign contri- button had ever been made.
 F. Baylies, who collected the fund to defeat the mortgage tax law, said on the stand today that he secured fund of s22.o00 for this purpose. The examination of the Bankers Life will be resumed tomorrow.
 When John Tatlock. President of the Washington Insurance Company ap- peared in the committee room of the
 Investigating committee of insurance, he was accompanied by Paul D. Cra-
 vath, Thomas r. Ryan's personal coun- sel. MT. Tatlock, upon taking the stand. identified a list of collateral
 loans of the Washington Life which had been since Jan. 1, 1905. None of
 these loans had been made to or for the | benefit of any officer of the company. A statement of legal fees for ten years paid by the company was pre- scented. Mir Tatlock said he could find
 no record of payments to Andrew Ham,
 ilton or to Andrew c. Fields, nor any
 payment for legislative purposes. statement was presented by MT.
 Tatlock showing the outstanding insu-
 rance of the Washington Life on Nov ember l., to have been !12,33s.000 in an nual dividend insurance, and $45, ,440,000 in deferred dividend insurance.
 The earnings fir nine months of this year. witness said as far as could be
 calculated were s226,ooo of which s77,- 900 was paid as dividends to policy
 holders and $149.000 as surplus.
 The experience of the witness in handling foreign business was gone into. He was of the opinion that life
 insurance should be made in the coun- tries where the companies are domi-
 mated. His main reason Is because of
 the requirement of foreign countries | that liabilities of a company must be l covered by assets deposited in that country. He further said that Thomas F. Ryan never influenced any action
 on the part of the board and never suggested the purchase of any securi- ties. The purcahse of American to- bacco that came up in yesterdays tes- timony Mir. Tatlock said was suggested by Levi P Morton and was concurred | in by the board.
 Witness thought the investment in securities by insurance companies was
 a matter that could be safely trusted to men of good judgment It was his opinion that insurance companies in- vestments should be handled by men in close touch with Wall street. He said the Washington Life had never bought any securities from MT. Ryan,
 MT. Morton or any other officer, but
 had bought some from the Morton
 Trust Company.
 Mir. Tatlock just before leaving the stand said that the views on invest
 ments he expressed he understood to | be the views of his finance committee. DOremus Stand.
 Cornelius Doremus, President of the Germania Life Insurance Company, stock company, followed MT. Tatlock, IJ4 hoe fnr | eight years. His company was organ 1 ized in 1860. His company's stock was $200, 900. His company has out 63.000 | policyholders At the last election l 15.000 policyholders votes were cast by the President, Vice President and Treas
 urer as proxies. It has never made po- l litical contributions. In May. 1904, $25O was paid as a share in legislative work
 on the lien bill. The company also paid $500 for counsel fees in connection with the mortgage tax law. The company | has about $10.00O, 900 invested in nego- | tiable securities, nothing in stocks; $3, 000,00e in real estate; $500.000 of which is the value of the home building. An other building cost about $700,000. A building in Berlin cost $249,491 and an | other in Vienna $1S0,799.
 Mir Doremus said about one-third of l the company's business Is done in Eu rope The headquarters is in Germany | and the company's business in Ger | many. That business is in every respect | better than the business done in this country. This was because the German | was not educated to our wild meth | ods' of doing business. Wild meth | ods," Mir Doremus said, was paying too much for it..
 E. G. Potter, a real estate agent, took the stand and testified that he re- ceived the S250 contributed by the Ger mania Company in May, 1904, in con nection with the passage of the lien bill. Others contributed to the legal fund for this purpose, MT. Potter said, and in all he received about $2,000, | which was paid to William H. Buckley, an Albany lawyer. MT. Potter explain ed that his reason for employing an at torney was because he had been in- | formed that there was opposition to | the bill. Chairman Armstrong sug-
 gested that there might have been op- | position outside the Legislature, and
 witness said there might nave been,
 but so long as the bill passed 1t was | $2 ,000 well invested.
 | MT. Doremus then resumed the stand | and presented a scale of commissions | paid on policies by the Germania Life
 and a statement of legal expenses dur | ing the last ten years. According to
 the statements no payments were ever Epaid to Andrew A. Hamilton or A. c.
 fFields and nothing for legislative en- gineering.
 l John Fuhrer. actuary of the Germa- mia, said that the gain for the year is | distributed either in annual or deferred l dividends with the aycapt{op ne tn nor