The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-06-11
FEAR COMING
 LEGISLATURE Insurance Men Afraid of
 Its Course. COMPANIES HAVE LEFT TEXAS Same Law is to Be Pressed Before
 Alabama Lawmakers. n Proposed Legislation Should Drive old Concerns From state, Results would Re Disastrous To
 Agents and Policy
COMPANIES HAVE LEFT TEXAS

The Alabama agents of the big in surance companies are very much alarmed in the fear that they will be driven out of the state at the ad- 5ourned session of the Legislature which meets in July. They are afraid that the bill which Lieutenant Gov ernor Henry B. Gray announces he will introduce and press will be passed by the Legislature, in which event they say old line companies will withdraw from Alabama, just as they have done from Texas.
 The announcement Suhday that the Mutual Life. one of the big companies, had closed all of its Texas agencies and was trying to find places in other States for its Texas agents. came in the midst of time in which the Ala bama life insurance men were keenly disturbed Extensive correspondence has been in progress between the Ala bama agencies and the home offices of the big companies In New York Sew eral high officials of the companies have come to Alabama to stave off the threatened legislation if possible, and it is understood that two of them called upon the Governor. At any rate the Alabama agents and employees of the large companies are greatly worked up over the prospect of the adverse leg islation. To them 1t means meat and bread.
 Lieutenant Governor Henry B. Gray announced in Birmingham that he pro- posed to have introduced a bill which would require all foreign insurance companies doing business in Alabama to invest at least half of their State reserve fund in Alabama securities or property. The Lieutenant Governors idea follows the law adopted by the last Texas Legislature.
 That law has driven twenty-one in- ,surance companies out of Texas. Those which retired from the State included all the old line companies, such as the Mutual, the New York Life, the Pru- dential, the Penn Mutual and others. An insurance man said yesterday that every big insurance company and in fact every foreign company had ceased to do business in Texas as result of the law which will be proposed in Ala bama. The press dispatches of Sunday carried the determination of the Mutual Life to withdraw and the efforts of the company to secure positions in other States for its Texas employees.
 The Alabama agents of the big com panies have been informed that should the Texas law beNadopted in Alabama. the companies would necessarily re- tire from the Alabama field. As re- suit every insurance man in the State is vitaliy interested in the coming ses- sion of the Legislature and the fate of the proposed insurance legislation.
 we are naturally very apprehensive over this proposed legislation" said B. G. Branch, of Branch and Powell, rep nfafs nf the old line companies '"The passage of the act proposed by the Lieutenant Governor would mean that every one of the old line companies would with draw from Alapama just as they have withdrawn from Texas The same law was proposed in Michigan and beaten. It was proposed in Tennessee and beat en. It was proposed in Florida and beaten only a Iew days ago. Texas Is the only State which has adopted 1t and in doing 1t, 1t has driven the in surance companies from Texas.
 Tn Alabama we are endeavoring to appeal to the fairness and justice of the Legislature. We are endeavoring to show them the injustice of such an act. The proposition of the Lieu tenant-Governor has come to us as a great surprise. We had reason to ex- pect that there would be no further anti-insurance legislation.
 'The Legislature at us winter SeS- sion passed an act increasing our H. cense tax from 1 per cent of our gross income to per cent of it. That doubled the amount of the tax we were paying the State. We had assurances that when this was done there would be no further legislative moves upon the insurance companies.
 We are now hoping that the Leg islature will be fair and just to us. for fairness and justice in this situa- ton means more to the citizens of Alabama who are engaged in the in- surance business than it does to the companies who have only small part of their interests in the State.
 "As a matter of fact our company has more than half of It's State reserve invested in Alabama, but we could not do business in the State when we would have to make all investments at the dictation of the Legislature and to the amount the Legislature direct ed.
 'If the companies are driven from Alabama like they are driven from