The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-08-28
REGULATION
CONDEMNED
In a Report Submitted by the
Committee on InSur.
anCe Laws.
UNREASONABLE 8 UNMER|TEO
There Is No Occasion for General
Distrust of Life Insurance
Companies.

PORTLAND, Maine, Aug. ~
Too much regulation" of the insur-
ance companies OF America was
roundly condemned in a report sub
mitted by the committee on insur-
ance law at the annual meeting Of
the American Bar association in this
city. The committee found as a re-
suit of its exhaustive investigation
extending over a year, that much Of
the general, discriminating dis
trust of insurance companies and
their management" which followed
closely upon the heels of the Equita-
BILE controversy, was unreasonable
and unmerted, and due to the ignor-
ance of the public respecting the
principles upon which insurance is
based and the methods which should
be employed in supervising it, This
condition has made possible, the COM
mittee declares, the enactment of
laws ostensibly supervisory, but ac-
tually destructive in their tendency
and on the whole "a greater menace
to the interests of policy holders than
they nave suffered through the mis-
management and dishonesty of COM
pany officials and the incompetency
and unfaithfulness characteristic of
many state insurance departments.
There is no occasion for general
distrust of the life insurance compa-
nies of America" says the report,
Though it may well be doubted
whether all of the schemes of life in
surance which enjoy current popular
ity will bear scrutiny; and it is GER
tain that the sentiment of fraternal-
ism is widely prostituted by the dis
honest and eXtravagant management
of some of the so-called fraternal
orders. The individual who misap-
proprates trust funds deserves CEN
sure and punishment, but it is just
as dishonest to steal under protec-
ton of law as without it; it is just
as dishonest for the states to lay un-
holy hands on trust funds as for an
individual, and the states commit a
monstrous injustice when they seek
even partially to maintain themselves
by legislative raids upon trust funds.
"At the St. Paul meeting of the as
sociation, your committee met the So
called conference of state insurance
commissioners, attorneys general,
and governors who had voluntarily
undertaken to reform the insurance
legislation of the country. There
were many of the state commission
ers present, but your committee
learned of no governor or attorney
general who attended. Excepting
some. half a dozen commissioners,
who seemed notably fair minded, the
tha cSiO
peared to your committee to be one
of hostility to the companies, ana
their apparent general desire was TO
increase their own powers without
any corresponding checks upon them
instead of planning for more efhc1ent
supervision of the companies, or the
protection of the investments already
made by the great army or policy
holders. The bills submitted to that
conference had been prepared by a
previously appointed committee o1
fifteen. None We're approved by the
conference and the whole matter was
referred back to that committee oi
fifteen, which, as your committee are
advised, met later in Chicago, and
the insurance bills which have Hood
ed the legislatures in session during
the Dast winter under the professeo
endorsement of the insurance com
missioners of the United States II
conference with the governors anC
attorneys generals were. in some IN
stances, endorsed by bare majority
of minority of that committee OF
fifteen: that is, to be SPECIFIC, YOU
committee are informed that Dll
which with some notifications wa!
nassed in Missouri and introduced II
numerous other state legislatures
and which bars out of the state, com
panies which pay salaries to any OF
fetal exceeding a certain sum per an
mum, was prepared by commission
or from one of the states SOutn o
the Ohio river, and put through th'
so-called committee of fifteen by
vote of four to three. Such leglsla
tion yerges upon Mysteries and thos'
resnonsible for it must be actuatet
Inv an insane hatred of the few bls
companies whose presidents or man
againg officers receive large salaries
Rnt If does not follow that because
four ont of seven of the committee
fifteen regard $25, 900 or $4,000 pc
annum as the outside limit or com
nensation for man qualified to 1901
after the investment of trust fuho
amounting to hundreds of millions
, dollars, that the Judgment OF thes
few ought to control. or that the IN
terest of the policy holders in thes
great life insurance companies ough
to be placed in jeopardy because o
their implacable hostility. =,
Insurance supervision is not onl
demanded as public right, but con
ceded as such. The supervisor
should not entail financial burdel
upon the state, but neither shoul
the business of the state be conduc'
ed at a profit; when that occurs eltn
er one class of taxpayers IS Dem
robbed at the expense OF another, o
somebody connected with the stat
government has a graft. Statlstlc
furnished to the department or con
merce and labor show that tWent!
eight states in the year 1902 receive
from the insurance companies, eXclt
sive of taxes, over five million dollal
more than they expended in the IS. s.
nervision of these companies. In