The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-17
DEFENSE AGAINST BLAcKuArL


 It is probably true. as Mir. Mccall said to the Armstrong committee, that three-fourths of the bills relating to in- surance introduced into the state leg islatures are instruments of blackmail. The enormous sums entrusted to Mir. Hamilton and others by the insurance companies to defeat injurious Begisla- tion may have been considered by the managers necessary expenditure. Doubt less they did not want to bribe law makers to treat them fairly They would have preferred to be let alone, They were not to blame, they might say, if the people elected corrupt law makers; they had vast interests in trust, and if the people were incapable Of securing honest government for the insurance companies to deal with, then the insurance companies must perforce race actual conditions and protect themselves as best they could.
 It is plausible argument, and we are not disposed to call the person an abandoned wretch who makes it. Prob ably some men of excellent intentions honestly believe that they are doing their duty in following such a program. Indeed, if in a moment of weakness they have embarked upon it, it may appear almost impossible to stop. They are in the hands of the blacSmailers. and every strike bill bought off is an invitation for 8 new extortion under penalty of exposure. If the first mis- step had never, been made. however, the Insurance companies could have safely defbed strike bills. Their busf- ness is one which, if properly conduct ed, has little to fear from lawmakers, Of course, if they wish license for spec ulatiVe investment and for activities not clearly incident to conservative fn- surance, they are subject to attack But a company with a clean record need have no fear. A bill interfering with sound business would only need to be openly denounced and explained and 1t would almost surely fail, If bv chance it went through and proved harmful, it would be quickly repealed at the demand of the poIicyhoIders.
 Insurance companies which are act- ually concerned only to serve their poT- icyholders have not, like the railroads complicated business interests in riv- airy with popular interests or preiu- dlces. strike bill against them can not so easily hide it's character. A company with no skeletons in it's clos- ct would be almost invulnerable of such attack. But when the business becomes speculative, when syndieates snare the profits of insurance fund in- Vestments. when books are doctored by
 wash sales, when one ilIegitimate payment has beeh made in fear. then the lobbyist and the blackhnaiIer are masters. Suppose the stock exchange had followed the example of the in- surance companies last. winter when the stock tax was threatened. Doubt less some brokers thought it a strike. If they had put up money to defeat it. whether they won or lost their millions would have been at the Iobby's com mand thereafter. As it was, the bill went through, yet exchange seats are at high-water mark, business has not suffered, and the exchange is in a bet tCA pCSAIAOIl LIiclIl SNGA UG4UE6 Io ERIlI legislation which really is of a black mailing character.
 So 1t might have been with insurance. So it may be be even now. The ex- posures so far made have taught the public to be surprised at no revelation of abuses. It is time for confession and reform. The companies now have an opportunity to clean house, reorganize their business on basis which is be- yond criticism, put themselves in a po- sition to expose any attempt at black mailing, and lay their transactions be- fore the public in full confidence that the character of a strike bill will be evident. Then they can defy the black mailers, and the sums now devoted to the mysterious uses of the legislative agents can be saved for the widow and the orphan.--New York Tribune.
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