Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1906-01-05
MIR. Haskins said.

Mr. Chairman: The discussion which
the resolution now pending before the
committee has evoked seems to have
taken a very wide range, but in the brief
time shall occupy l shall confine my re-
marks to the question of the proposed
federal supervision of insurance. The
question as to whether insurance, life,
fire, or marine, can be brought within
federal control is not to be determined
upon the amount of insurance that has
been written in one state upon the appli-
cation of citizens of another state; nor is
it to be determined upon the basis of the
honesty or the dishonesty of the officers
and agents of the companies soliciting and
engaged in the business of insurance, but
for the reason, and that only, that the
constitution of the United States has
conferred upon Congress the power to
regulate and control the business of in
4surance. No one claims that federal con-
troll. can be exercised over insurance COM
panies that do business only within the
state where located under the terms of
their charter; the action must be justified,
e at all, upon the ground that they do
business in other states and therefore, by
reason of itf interstate character 1t comes
within the provision of the constitution
with reference to Interstate commerce. AS
yet no one on the floor OF this House has
advanced convincing arAumert nor cited
any authority to dem such
proposition to be true, nor has the Presi-
dent done that in his message. He sim
ply advises action in that direction, sub
ject always, of CO. Sc, to constitutional
limitations
1 do not think l msrepresent the
position of laymen in general when 1 say
that they are very apt to construe the
constitution and the law to be such as
they severally would like to have it, while
the lawyer, whether sitting as a court or
as a legislator. is, or at least should be,
governed in his construction by the evil
dent intention of the trainers of the
constitution, well-establshed presidents,
and the decisions of the courts.
Insurance rests in contract between the
parties thereto The life-insurance COM
pany. upon the application of the assured
and the performance of certain conditions
on his or her part, promises to pay upon
the happening of an event a certain sum
of money to be assured or to the benefi-
Charles named in the policy or contract.
The fire and marine insurance COM
panies. in case of loss by fire or water or
other casualties, agree to pay a sum of
money to the assured, ETC.; and although
the parties to the contract may reside in
different states involving sort of COM
mercial intercourse between two or more
states in the regular transaction of their
business. it is a bold lawyer who will con-
tend that these contracts of insurance
are merchandise or commodities of trans
portation that come within the provision
~ the interstate commerce clause of the
constitution.
AaaNS-beS true that such transactions
constitute Interstate commerce which
Congress may regulate, what may not
Congress do in this direction?, The saw
ings banks of the country. andNespecally
those of that section from which 1 come,
hold in trust millions of money, the prop;
erty to a very large extent of laboring
men and women and of widows and
orphan children. Millions upon millions
of this money has been and constantly is
being invested in real estate mortgage
securities in many of the other states by
the officers of these institutions. These
loans, like transactions of insurance,
constitute contracts between parties re-
siding in different states, and involve
transportation between the states by
means of the United States mail in the
transmission of letters, mortgages, trust
deeds, money, and checks. If the federal
government under the interstate com
merce clause of the constitution has the
right to extend its paternal hand for the
protection of the individual in the matter
of insurance, it certainly has the same
right in the matter of the savings banks.
The transactions of both alike rest in con-
tract and only in contract, and does not
constitute that kind of commercial inter-
course that does the sale of merchandise
in one state which to complete the tram
saction requires to be transported into
another state. Policies of insurance, like
the promissory note and mortgage, are
not articles of merchandise, but simply
the written evidence of a promise to do
something.
Great corporations manufacture COM
modities for sale and delivery into other
states as well as in the state of their
creation, and yet the supreme court of
fha TTOifad Gtafac has daNidad haf ho
affairs of the corporation can not be regu-
lated by Congressional enactment, but
that it is the manufactured article only
which Congress can interfere with when
it commences its journey across state
lines. The supreme court has solemnly
adjudicated in several well-considered
cases, cited by the chairman of the COM
mittee on ways and means, that the writ
ing of policies or contracts of insurance
and the delivery of them to parties in
another state was not Interstate com
merce.
The commissioner of corporations, In
his report, just published, says:
In view of the decisions of the supreme
court have not felt warranted in trying
to assume jurisdiction over insurance
companies for the purpose of investiga-
ton. The fact that state supervision has
failed to prevent great abuses in the
management of some companies does not
itself justify federal action. 1t must be
shown, first, that insurance is subject to
federal regulation under the commerce
clause OF the constitution; second. that