The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-10-06
BARNES CAN'T co
Unable to Attend Insurance
Meeting, He Sends Speech.
Defends New Kansas Law in
Paper Oh Risks and Rates.
CLAWS NOT ODIOUS."
Challenges Company Officials to
Prove the Contrary.
Address Will Be incorporated
CLAWS NOT ODIOUS."
Address Will Be Incorporated
in Convention Report.

Charles w. Barnes. superintendent
of insurance for Kansas. was on the
program to deliver an address at the
annual convention of the National As
sOciatiOn of Fire Insurance Agents at
Chicago. but was unable on account Of
sickness to fill his appointment. Upon
request of the officials of the associs.-
ton he sent his address to them and it
will be Incorporated bodily in the re-
port of the convention.
Mr. Barnes has dealt frankly and
fearlesSly with many great problems
of insurance. The new insurance law
of this state is ably defended by the
superintendent and he has mixed a lot
of common sense with his discussion
of intricate questions of rates and
risks.
The address in part is as follows:
Kansas Is Progressive.
kansas is always progressive. In
social Or domestic, commercial or legis-
lative reforms, the state is in the fore
front. From poverty to affluenc2;
from a despised blot upon the map of
civilization to a position second t"
none in the union of states; a desert
transformed into a garden spot, has
been the record of half century.
Contemplating these achievements, the
skeptics and critics must admit that
Drawn and brain, that labor and in
telligence have been employed. Kan
sas, with half the record of years, has
surpassed in agriculture, commerce
and in other material respects, many of
the older states. In per capita, wealth,
taxable value of homes, educational
Institutions churches. public and pri-
vate schools, municipal properties, and
in all other respects, population and
area taken into consideration, Kansas
is the peer Of any state in the Union.
And lest we forget, Kansas, whose
quota of soldiers for the Spanish war
was more than filled in day, was the
only state in which the troops enlisting
for that conflict, individually; officers
and men alike, colored and white wrote
their names on the muster rolls. In
this particular, Kansas exceeded the
record of other states in all Of which
I am told, some signatures were His
Mark
I'm the political upheavals Kansas
has never been second in the procession.
The state was foremost in bringing
about the nomination of Theodore
Roosevelt for vice president; was
for him for president; was early in the
contest in behalf of Mr.. Taft. and last
week adopted state platform square
ly in line with the Roosevelt new poll
cies This platform was adopted after
the people of the state, at a primary
election. had mauled the political life
out of six candidates for congress who
had been supporters. of Mr.. Cannon's
policies. At this election the people
scared the two remaining congressman,
standpatters, to such an extent that
they have climbed into the progressive
bandwagon.
That "Tnsanity'' Charge.
st call these things to your attention
to show that the spirit of progress
which has made the state move always
onward and upward in the affairs of
men is the inspiration which is respon-
sible for the effort to solve the trou-
blesome question of fire insurance rat
ing. The management of the insurance
companies contends that insanity, the
lack of wisdom and the absence of
sense; an effort to destroy investment;
to drive out of business the corpora
lions, to take from individuals their
rights and liberties, are the motives I'M
DERIVING the enforcement of this law.
BY this acclaim some of our friends
seek to evade the responsibility OF
meeting and solving the problems of
fire insurance. If the state of Kansas
had attempted to destroy a condition
which contained regularity and fair
ness. equality and justice, then these
complaints would be proper. But 1 say
to the members of this association, to
the officers, managers and stockholders
of fire insurance corporations, that in
none of the states was the condition
connected with the business of fire in
surance companies so deplorable, so
necessary for attention, necessitating
Intervention by the state for the pur
pose of applying remedies and furnish
ing benefits which the wisdom of the
east had failed to recognize as neces-
sary.
\ Square Deal to Companies, Too.
Let it be understood that the peo-
pie of Kansas are for a legitimate
profit on all investments. Please also
understand that in connection with the
inviting field which Kansas offers for
Investments, and insurance the people
are alive; they are going ahead; they
want protection and are ready to pay
for it. But some of our friends are at
tempting to prove in the federal court
that the anti-discriminatiOn law is I'M
satisfactory. denying the right of the
state to police its borders. Where men
in politics have recently disagreed with
certain policies. it has been fashion,
able to invite them to retire from the
altar, and by the same sign compli-
ance with the law of Kansas is entire
ly voluntary.
The Kansas Laws Not Odious.
There is not a member of this Ma
tionaI Association of Local Fire Insur-
ance Agents who does not know that
if the provisions of the Kansas law
We're as odious as claimed, that not Il
single insurance company would re-
main within this state over night. And
Furthermore, it is true. and 1 challenge
manager or company official to
prove the contrary. that the general