The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-01-25

good standng, and in estimating our membership do not count the Putnam association as longer being a member of the state association.
 In 1906 four officers, twenty-four di- rectors and 119 delegates total 147- were entitled to seats at our annual meeting, but to-day, without the Put nam association, that number is in | creased to a total of 164
 Certainly, gentlemen, we ought to be well satisfied and feel proud of the growth of our organization. We have, l think, had one of the most prosper ous years that the state association has ever known. More important matters than ever before have been brought to the attention of your state board of directors.
 The board meetings and committee meetings have been largely attended ana much interest manifested on each l occasion. Few of you are probably aware of the number of meetings that 1 have actually been held during the past year by your ocers and directors
 From the seeretarys report I have found records of the following meet | --Ae9ri ', ,'tiNti ''iputA w iilNCANpNlllS " SOu as delegates
 The state board of directors held l their first meeting on February 19 at New Haven, and twenty directors were present
 The second meeting of the board was held May 17 at Hartford and at that meeting there was also an attendance of twenty.
 The third meeting of the board was | held at Fenwick Point July IS, with an | attendance of gHNantppn5 I11aO1barg and the fourth meeting was held at New Ha- I ven, December II, with an attendance of twenty three members
 In addition to the directors meetings there was held a special meeting at Hartford November IS, of delegates from local associations, to the number of about thirty, to consider the freight | question.
 the appointment of a special freight committee, who met in New Haven three times previous to holding con ference with the railroad officials and | the special insurance committee, ap- | pointed at the meeting in July, at Fen wick, held six meetings in Bridgeport and New HaVen every member attend Ing each meeting.
 1 have submitted this record to-day so that you may see the interest that has been shown by those whom you have selected to represent you in the state board during the past year.
 You are all familiar with the work of the special committee appointed up- on insurance matters, as every member of this association had a printed report in full submitted to them by the chair man of that committee.
 The results to-day are very gratify- ing, but 1t is their desire to go further, and have the fire insurance business of this state put permanently on more | equitable basis.
 To bring about a change in this di rection they have recommended legis- lation along certain lines and your di- rectors at their last meeting unani- mously approved of their recommends tions,
 The committees aim has been to deal fairly with both sides and I think it's report shows such to be the case
 Several bills are in process to which am sure all will give their hearty sup panies tb coh6dct their business so that they will be able to meet their obligations, and not be wiped out by a disaster to any one city, and that board of appeal" be appointed to see the rates and conditions imposed on us are just as favorable as those accorded to others.
 The committee in reference to the freight conditions have also rendered u report to the board of directors, and the same has been printed and submit  In some instances already, about the ] state, good results have been obtained through the conference held with the railroad lscials, and 1 venture to say that your president for next year, and his board of directors, will continue the work along these two particular lines, until valuable assistance, and further benefits have been rendered to us all.
 The claim department at Boston has, since our interview, been the object of l n1rtip1IlqF atfpnfiO1 pT tbp JYa rt of eral Freight Agent F. $. Holbrook and l have had some very interesting corre- spondenee from him relative to this particular feature, and 1 feel sure that a new system, or perhaps an improved system, of settling our claim, has been tnaugurated. at Boston.
 In order that you may appreciate more fully the position which the rail- road officials have taken towards our association, l will quote a sentence from a letter received from one of them bv me this week
 It was as follows: We feel that our interview with your association did and will, bring forth very much closer re- lationshtp between our patrons repre- sented by your association and our selves, and that by working together we can save the members of your as- sociation and ourselves a great deal of 1 unnecessary friction, and the meeting for that purpose alone, was we'll worth many times the eoffrt involved in bring ing it about
 Just a word upon the telephone ques- tion, which no doubt to-day will form an important factor at this, our annual l meeting.
 AS an organization, during the past year we have taken no actiQn whatever upon the telephone question, This has ; been partly due to the fact that there 1 has been no session of the legislature and when our legislative committed met early in January we voted that in view of the fact that a special conn mittee was appointed to bring this mat ter before you to-day, we, as a commit tee, will offer no recommendations ! I do not believe, however that the telephone question is of the gravest inn portance to us all. and I think that We should seriously consider the question