The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-04-08
ALLEGED VIOLATION OF
 THE INSURANCE CODE
Continued From First Page.)
is fixed at s25,O0o a year.

uleu LO-UlOrTOW Wlll the w lSCOIlSln leg
 islature by Robert Lynn Cox, who will appear as attorney for the Association of Life Insurance presidents. in oppo-
 sition to the bill providing for compul-
 sorry investment of reserve funds in the l state, largely increased taxation of pre-
 mium receipts and other subjects. After calling attention to the fact
 that insurance companies are private
 corporations, MT Cleveland says
 Whether these companies are class
 ed as stock corporations or mutual cor
 porations, in either case their business
 interests are confined to contract rela- tionships based upon the expectation
 of life and other incidents attaching { exclusively to the individual pollcyhold- CTS in each corporation. It has been 1 judicially determined, beyond the reach
 of controversy that in legal contempla- tion these companies are within the
 definition of persons, and, so far as | tkeir rights are concerned, they are on
 the same footing as citizens of the United States and of the several states. The fourteenth amendment of the fed eral constitution provides that no state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immuni- ties of citizens of the United States nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law
 Tt is clearly the intent and inevft- able effect of the contemplated legisla- ton to abridge these privileges and
 immunities of corporate citizens of the
 United States, by imposing upon them
 limitations concerning the compensa-
 tion to be paid their officers and elh-
 ployes, in the face of the law of their
 creation and domicile which makes
 them free from such limitation. A law
 which forbids the possession and enjoy
 ment of property by life insurance com 1
 panies, except upon a condition which |
 involves the abandonment of their 1
 right to contract for the equipment and |
 management of their businessa right |
 inherent to their organization, permit
 ted by the law of their creation and
 necessary to the protection of the im-
 pressive interests they have in charge
 and a condition which exacts as the
 price of doing business a surrender of f the guidance of sound judgment and safe experience in it's prosecutions, un l. der a penalty of forfeiture of interest to
 which In common justice they are en- titled, cannot be regarded otherwise than as bald, unequlvocal and unmit- gated deprivation or privileges, immu- mites and property, without a chance for escape.
 Legislation of this character Is so new and startling as to indicate q dis position to depart from all conservative and steady sentiment touching state supervision and regulation of life in- suranoe companies
 He then quoted from some cases in the supreme court O. the United States and goes on to say: Measured by the standards fixed by these ad5u- dications of the highest tribunal of the land, 1t seems quite certain that the legislation we are considering would I amount to an unconstitutional use of ' state legislative authority. Instead of , q fair, reasonable and appropriate ex- ercise of the police power of the state, It assumes the complexion of an un- unnecessary. and arbitrary ! with the rights of the in- dlvidual to his personal liberty, to enter e Into those contracts in relation to labor e which may seem to him appropriate or ! 
 He then takes up for consideration s salaries paid to presidents and first ? in twenty-nine leading e including the five large that pay fifty thousad dol s ars or more, and adds: 6
 From this examination 1t appears l that the total premium receipts of the .wenty-nine companies amounted to a ;440 665, 90S tIlat the percentage of these e 'ecepts paid to presidents and vice. O presidents by all the companies was a '9-100 of one per cent; that their per si 'entage of their premium receipts so appended by the twenty-four companies Il ,aying salaries less than $50,000 was D. 1-100 of one per cent. but that the " of premium receipts so ex- sl pended by the five companies paying tc o their presidents and presidents m 50O00 per annum or upwards amount d to only 19-100 of one per cent. In Iai | -ency and soundness of all companies I'M aying these larger salaries, no one can to ave tie hardihood to claim that the mall percentage of their premium re- tn eipts thus expended could by any pos Xxi ibility impair the absolute surety of heir polieyholders' contracts which a hase of the subject might properly be co onsldered legitimate subject of state of olicitude, and these considerations of "C olvency and absolute security gain in onclusive force from the fact that the U dmitted assets Of these five companies mount to more than one billion and T ve hundred million dollars.
 It is proper to emphatically disclaim T, t this point the least desire to defend ny particular salary paid to any rar- cular official Nor do we assume to etermine at what amount salaries tW nould be fixed by any given company. fr' UT insistence is that those entrusted hl ith the directoralip of the companies H. hose judgment is better informed WI Ian stranger can and should be al- Be wed to determine what these salaries no lould be, and in the matter of their alC ljustment they should be held to q tn, rict accountability. Ter Tt is witllin the Knowledge of every gil 'dy that the assumption of grave re- ou and the possession of nec- ly sary equipment legitimately com an and large remuneration. This is rec a Sntzed in the laws of our states in sta e compensation they allow for the att of estates and trusts. A Tt must be admitted that, in view of the the conditions surrounding these the rger cOnnanes they cannot ha ar nri