The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1909-12-29
BIG INSURANCE PROFITS.
The Heads Of Insurance Companies
Await 1909 Totals AnxiousIy-
They Look for Big Profits as Peo.
pie Have Forgotten the Insurance
Scandals.

scandals.
New York, Dec. 22.-What will the
1909 totals Of insurance be- This
question, which is keeping heads Of
old line companies in the East OH
the tenterhooks right now, i. their
version Of the what shall the har-
vest be" brought up to date by Wall
street standards. It has in it the
makings Of more widespread inter
est but not everybody knows it. The
insurance totals Of 1909 will gauge
prosperity but also gauge the pub
lies memory concerning certain par
tial disclosures regarding its own ex-
pioitation as risks en- masse.
Whether the expected jump in
revenues Of the old line life and cas-
ualty companies has taken place per
schedule in spite Of certain changing
conditions in the insurance field will
soon be known. Last year January
reports showed totals which indicat-
ed subsiding indignation and return
ing prosperity-both Of which meant
big dividends for 1909. There was
then in force life insurance in New
York State alone that totaled ST.
653,311,894, in Illinois $813,954,120,
in Kansas $129,682,6s1 and in South
Dakota $S6,258,S7S exclusive of fra
ternal insurance. In the casualty"
field, which nowadays covered two
score new and ingenious underwrit-
Ing plans, the last January l reports
showed some stupendous figures, for
the premiums alone in Massachusetts,
were over $9,1S0,000, in Illinois $5,-
S3S.990 and New York $17,232,s10 Of
which the losses required on an av-
erage about 3S per cent. The 40
casualty" companies even in 1908
made gain, their surplus earned
above dividends being $10,234,972.
And the dividends were something
ornamental, as nearly everybody con-
tributed somewhat down the list Of
underwriting novelties.
The size Of the increase of reve-
nues and profits is what the captains
OF the regular 4" casulty concerns
are awaiting, not doubling there was
an increase as in every year since It
was begun. Also they are bothered
by an experiment in cooperative in
surance in Chicago which has made
revelations regarding the profits
made in their field. The older fra
ternal and mutual forms they had
competed with and still prospere ].
by charging high rates, but the Chic
ago project has let everybody into
the game Of exploiting themselves
ard~-t..eir frierrds and bids fair to
succeed because the big profits are in
the investments Of large sums and
not in the underwriting. Cutting the
underwriting rates to cost by mu-
tuals has not pleased the insurance
captain, but giving the public share
| of the investment profits '.is differ
ent," and far more serious to them,
the public benefitting.
The life insurance totals incre asei
in 1908 over 1907 quite sharply espe-
cially in the agricultural States like
South Dakota and Kansas where
good crops have been the rule during
recent years. In South Dakota the
insurance in force jumped from $685.
so4,s4s to over sS6,OOo,0OO and in
Kansas the gain was a larger percen-
tage of gain than was achieved in
eastern States, although the gain in
New York was about s65, 5000, 900 and
In Massachusetts about $4,000. 900
This rule held true in Minnesota also
the gain being from s187.5s7,530 in
1907 to s1S6,612,6S2 in 1908. Illinois
increased its insurance in force near
ly 25,OOO,000.