The Topeka state journal., 1906-02-14
WROTE WILD CAT.
Charge Against F. H. Sutton, of
st. John.
Insurance Commissioner Asks
for His Arrest.
PENALTY is SEVERE.
May Impose a Fine Of Five Hum
dred Dollars.
Agent Must Suffer for Acts Of
Unauthorized Companies.
PENALTY IS SEVERE.

Because H. F. Sutton, young man at
St. John, STAFFORD county, wrote insur-
ance fer three wildcat concerns not
authorized to do business in the state,
Insurance Commissioner Charles E. LuI-
ing has notified Attorney General Cole
man to commence criminal prosecutions
against Mr.. Sutton, and the chances are
that he viii have a big fine 10 pay, and
possibly a jail sentence to serve.
Sutton was the agent for the Mer-
chants Fire Underwriters of Chicago;
the Western Union Fire Underwriters Of
Chicago and the Commonwealth Savings
& Insurance company of Richmond, Va.
Apparently these companies have been
doing q good business in Stafford cOun-
ty, and doubtless in many other poruons
Of the state. But it happens that Stat
ford county is the only one from which
complaints have come. Somebody had
loss in that county, and failing to get
any reply to demands for settlement,
wrote to the insurance commissioner.
This revealed the whole affair, and the
prosecution of the agent will follow as
soon as the papers can be drawn. 2
The penalty for acting as agent for a
wildcat insurance company is very se-
we're. The judge can impose a fine OF
$500 or u months in jail. or both, on
each count. and every sale OF pohcy
constitutes count.
The unfortunate thing about it is that
the agent is usually innocent OF lntell-
ton to do wrong, and is obliged TO sur
/ fer more severely than his victims when
the true state of affairs is revealed. In
/ this particular case, it is stated that MI
Sutton is a young man of excellent char-
/ acter Just starting out in business, ana
4 that he has never done anything which
would mark him as a party to a skin
! game" such as is the wildcat insurance
i business -
| Insurance Commissioner Luhng said
today in speaking of the case = ecr. IS
| 'These wildcat insurance companies
are q constant menace to the state
/ They usually consist of absolutely
nothing in the way of assets, except
/ a lot of blank policies. some letter
heads and a very limited amount OF
/ office furniture. They find out the
I name of some young man in town
some young man who is trying to
/ earn q living but who IS inexperienced
/ in business affairs They send MIN a
nice lot of printed literature about the
/ company. offer him a big fat commits
sion to work for them, and very often
are able to strike up deal. He IS
/ ignorant of the insurance business,
and does not inquire whether or not
+ the company is authorized to do busi-
+ ness in the state. Everything goes
along all right until the company has
a loss among his policy holders, and
then the trouble comes Then is when
! the state insurance department BelA
the first knowledge of what is going
I on.
''I had one of our examiners drop
/ in and examine one of this class of
wildcat concerns in Chicago some time
ago He found a table, a typewriter
and a big stack of blank policies. That
was all. The chap in charge of the
/ concern was doing a good business,
and dividing up even with the agent
who wrote the policies.
''It IS expensive business for the
agent TO get out Of a scrape Of this
! kind We had one young fellow UP
here arrested. and it cost his father
about 81. 500 to get him out. He had
to pay the loss and refund all pre-
miums collected.
"Tf the last legislature had passed
that bill leveled at the wildcat com
panies, we could protect the state. but
a certain senator who is attorney for
a wildcat concern. beat the bill four
different times when it came up. That
bill proposed that this department
should al certain intervals print in
some one newspaper of general circu-
lation in each congressional district a
list of all the known wildcat COM
panies. This would serve to put peo-
pie on their guard. A farmer who
was being solicited to take insurance
could look into this paper and gel
exact and reliable Information"