The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1909-05-10
WORK UNDER COVER
OF WESTERN UNION
Corporations Affiliated Are Non-In-
diana Companies, and Maintain an
Office in Each City, Where an In
speotor Looks Over Every Policy
Attorney Files Injunction Suit.
TIMES BUREAU
AT STATE CAPITAL.

a
y indianapolis, Ind, May 10.-Attor-
ney General Bingham has gone east to
get evidence to use in the suit which
he filed in the superior court in this
count Saturday afternoon to break up
the fire insurance trust He believes
he will be able to get valuable point
/ ers on the trip.
! OF Interest to Business Men.
The suit filed by Bingham is of great
| Importance to not only insurance peo-
pie of the state All of the 100 COM
panies against whom the suit is d.
rected are foreign companies, that is,
they belong in other states. No In
diana companies are included. 1t is
| charged in the complaint that all Of
these companies have entered into a
combine known as the Western Union,
| the purpose of which is to fix rates for
fire insurance. The Western Union has
it's headquarters in Chicago, and has a
state bureau in Indiana. with a branch
local bureau in every city in the state.
The branch bureaus are in charge of
some local insurance man who duty it
is to inspect every policy written by
any agent of these companies and see
that the rates fixed by the Western
!
cy is written at cut rates.
some Independent Companies.
Any company that writes a policy
below the rate fixed in the Western
Union schedule is liable to expulsion
from the union. There are a good
many companies that do not belong to
this union, and most of them maintain
the same rates that are charged by the
companies that belong to the union
hough some of them write business at
cut rates.
Use the Dean Schedule.
The complaint alleges that the COM
panies in the Western Union use what
is known as the Dean schedule in fixing
rates for insurance in Indiana, and that
Their rates are made uniform by that
schedule. It alleges that this schedule
enables the companies using it to fix
rates at an exorbtant figure In other
! words, it charges that the insurance
rates in Indiana are too high, and that
this condition is due to the fact that
he 100 companies have enered an IL
legal combine for the purpose of keep
ing rates up.
Mr. Bingham has been collecting evil
dence for some time to use against the
companies in this suit, and he says h,
is prepared to show a unlawful con.
spiracy among the companies.
Wants Trust Broken Up.
The complaint asks the court for al
injunction to prevent the companie!
, from doing anything under their com
bination agreement. If the permanen
injunction is granted at the end of tn,
trial it will mean that no company will
g., be allowed to compel its agents to sent
his policies through the local inspection
bureau for inspection and approval be
cause the inspection bureau is the rep
resentative of the combine. In tina
case an agent would send his report
r direct to his company. and no othe
company would know what rate h
was charging for insurance. 1t Nigh
y mtan a war of insurance rates. Blu
it would mean the breaking up of tn
- insurance trust that has held sway ii
Indiana for years.
r Rates Are Too High.
From every part of the state Their
has for a long time been a complain
! against the rates the insurance com
q panies were charging for their poll
e ! cies. The rates have been denounce
as entirely too high, but no relief ha
ever been given by the companies. I
was this general wall from over tn
the state that caused Attorney Genera
] Bingham to start his suit on behalf o
! the state to break up the fire insuranc
trust
e ON7tio Acid Rar4ouAe Irt~