New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-01-20
TO MAKE LAWS UNIFORM
INSURANCE MEN CONFER.
REPRESENTATIVES of States and arm
strong Committee Discuss RePofF.

L
That the insurance laws of the different State'
might be made as uniform as possible was ~.
chief aim of the conference between liie a..
strong Insurance Investigating COMMIT
the insurance commissioners of seVefai oea''''
which was held yesterday at the Holei oau.t-1.
Broadway and 43d-st. AS the views ol l"o a. -
strong committee in almost perte
r,ony with those of the visiting commissioners
It is likely that in it's report on lessIalo'i eao
committee will set the pace not only for New
YORK State but for the entire country. When
the visiting commissioners learned yesterday Oh
tbe changes In the insurance code which the
committee will recommend to the Legislature
several of them declared that they "ouia al-
tempt to have their States take similar aeuon'
The full membership of the Armstrong conf
mittee and representatives Of the insurance os
partments of eleven States made up yesterday
conference This session was executive ana tiie
visitors were particularly asked to say nothing
which might be used 70 forecast the Armstrong
report At the close OF the afternoon session II
was said that, although 80 per cent Of the sug-
zestions which the committee has received since
its organization had been rejected on one ground
or another there remained fifty distinct topics
which were deemed worthy OF discussion fToHl
this it is evident that the Armstrong report
will be long The joint conference DIS
cussed about twenty-five Of these topics yester-
day.
The conference was called for the Normandie
Hotel, and met there early in the morning sen
ator Armstrong; suite proved too small. how
ever, and an adjournment taken to the
meeting room Of the Hotel Cadillac According
to one of the members of the committee. no time
was lost in forrualIties but the discussion began
Immediately under the leadership of Senator
Armstrong.
It was said before the conference that the
Armstrong committee would read to the visitors
It's forthcoming report. The report, however
has not vet been written. The committee VIII
spend another week discussing the evidence. ana
will then proceed to the writing OF the report
which will probably take about a week. The re-
port will be presented to the legislature ABOUT
February 1.
Senator Tully was asked to give some hint as
to the nature of the committees findings.
They will be drastic enough to suit the pubic
If not the insurance companies" he said IN
fact. II our report is followed you won't be able
to recognize tho insurance code Of this State
when the legislature gets through with It
Members of the committee declare that they
have received assurances from members or the
'big three" that there will be no lobbying at
Albany against the report of the commlttee.
Presidents Morton, Peabody and Orr are all SAID
to have made representations to this erect
They say that they realize the need of reform
and that they will abide by any legislation that
may be passed
Considerable time was given yesterday to the
subject of naturalization, R e. Folk, commits
sioner from Tennessee taking the lead among
the visitors Mr. Folk said that he had been in
communication with the Truesdale committee
and had suggested plan of bringing the policy
holders into closer touch with the affairs OF the
company. Mr.. Folks suggestions are: That the
polfcyhoIders of the various States should actu-
ally vote for the directors and that each State
should be given a representation proportionate
to the amount of business done by the COM
pany in that State
It IS certain that the Armstrong report will
recommend radical changes in the matter OF
proxies, though it is not likely that it will ask
their total abolition. Yesterday individual vot-
ing at the home Offices voting direct by using the
mails and the giving of limited proxies were
discussed.
f'You may be sure" said one of the Senatorial
members of the Armstrong committee, that
when the legislature gets through it will no
longer be possible for a company to hold $4,000
proxies in it's vaults and to turn them loose
whenever anything against the administration
comes up
A strong sentiment developed In yesterdays
conference in favor Of standardizing the policies
The insurance reformers seem bent on making
illegal all but six or seven standard forms OF
policies and on prohibiting the many extra in
ducement policies that some of the companies
put out 1t is said too, that deferred dividends
are coming in for hard raps. not only
from the Armstrong report but from the indi-
vidual commissioners.
The entire Armstrong committee, including
Senators Armstrong, Tully and Riordan and
Assemblymen Cox, Rogers, Wemple, Prentice
and McKeown took part in the conference. The
visitors were Zeno NJ. Host Of Wisconsin, NJ
B. Hadley of Michigan: r. Z. Folk, of Ten
nessee: Thomas Z. Drake, of Washington, D. c.;
B b F. Carroll, of Iowa; F. H. Harrison of
Massa chusetts: A. l. Vorys, of Ohio: Thomas
D. O'Brien, of Minnesota; ]. ]. Brinckerhoff of
illinois, and H D. Appleton, of New-York