Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1910-06-07
FRATERNAL ORDERS
TO DISCUSS
INSURANCE
NATIONAL GATHERING IN
NEW YORK CITY PLANNED
to Draft Uniform Bill
for Passage in All States Of
Country Regulating and Safe
Guarding Funds,

Chicago, June 1.-THE conference
in New York during June or the fra
ternal committee Of the National AS
ISOLATION of Insurance Commissioners
and heads of fraternal insurance So
cieties promises to be crucial in the
future of fraternal societies in that
the final draft win be adopted OF n
uniform bill for state regulation max
ing compulsory various steps To safe
guard fraternal insurance ag%gregating
approximately nine billion dollars.
The tentative draft Of a uniform
measure, adopted at the conference in
Chicago May Is and 10 and has been
considered by the insurance heads Of
all the states and by the governing
boards of most Of the fraternal socie-
ties since that time and to some eX-
tent by the memberships OF the So
c~ieties. superintendent w. ii. Hotch-
kiss OF the New York insurance de-
partment has said. " Unquestionably
the matter is a most important one"
The members who have refused vol
UNFAIRLY to accept establishments OF
rates to prevent disaster, which act
uaries and officers have warned them
is mathematically certain without re-
adjustment show little DISPOSITION as
yet to obviate state regulation. Th-
position of these memberships is char
acterized in ~EVerybody's Magazine for
June in IN article written by Judge
Harris Dickson and Isidore F.. Mantz
as that OF the ostrich which, with its
head buried in the sand does not see
the approach 81 danger II refuses 70
make itself safe in fact.
As to their warning in their article,
viii Your Widow Get Her Money
the weakness IN Fraternal insurance
n HOW IL May be cured, the Writ
efs say: Don cast lhls aslde az an
attack DN Ola Inc companies IL Is
no such thlns-lt comes from your
friends, who have taken great PANS 70
INFORM themselves They helleVe that
the old line companies cannot possibly
compete with you in your chosen fleld.
They are conducted for private profit,
which your organization Is not You
have the true ffaterhal spirit ana
above all, honesty.
IheY make thls startling statement,
however; "The "malsamat Amell-
can and Canadian Ostrlches-tha u.s.
the fraternal insurance orders-to one
of which you belong-are lnsolVent 70
the extent of -four billion dollars IN
round numbers.
THE 557 fraternal beneficiary So
in the United states and Can
have an aggregate membership 81
millions and represent insur-
ance to the staggering @ OF nine
billions OF dollars-yel' as q whole
would be able 70 pay less than
flfty cents on the dollar. True, these
prospective Liabilities are not due but
h e must intallibiy mature. You
plenty of cash FOR present needs,
but the cash does not belong to you 1t
IS mortgaged to "a future debts, year
pN year IN eVer-ncreaslng amounts.
As your order grows older, the menu
bers grow older, and the law of ma
IS that they drop Often today
twenty tomorrow, thirty the next day
Fhat Is a fixed fact, If You do not
eckon with 1t, 1t VIII reckon with
For 1907 You collected l26 mil
lions Of dollars, and paid ninety-four
millions in losses. Your expense ra-
no was surprisingly small, FOR your
officers are both honest n economic
l mean the genuine fraternal or
lers. not the fakes-of which there
ire many. Fol instance, the expense
rate Of different orders varies from
per cent to more than fifty per
ICY Q have assets aggregatinG 125
billions and present liabilities OF less
han IA millions. During the year
more than Il million members joined
ranks, taking out 1,27I millions
insurance. That is to say, you add
that many millions to a future debt
which Is already greater than you can
The New York conference of in
commissioners and fraternal
insurance heads is to consider the
proposed by the National AS
ISOLATION of Insurance Commissioners
@ compel the societies which have not
ct done so to restore themselves to
'olvency by various steps including
'aluation Of assets and liabilities, by |
publicity of those values and by re-
adjustment of rates to accord with
mortality experience of the societies |
covering a period of many years. |
million members insurance is
involved. the making certain that the
"a, 000, 600 widows and orphans of all
II them shall get the ace Of their
certificates, which have a total Of
5000, 600, 600. The writer's in Ev-
rvhOdy's conclude:
1T is well enough for an ostrich to
ook at every side. Since s. 1898. :
S99 and 1900, the managers of var
nus orders have moved heaven and
arth to bring about reform in their
financial systems. About o%ne-fourth
4 the orders have entirely succeeded.
nat with such a loss of membership
nd confidence that the end is not yet
Perhaps an additional one
hose % orders iSn a which m melode the he's great reat