New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-12-16
SUBURBAN FIRE RATES Up
legislative Committee Hears
Exchange Is To Be Blamed.
TOBACCO MAN TAKES STAND
Massachusetts Insurance Com
missioner and Former Mlch1-
gan Official Testify.

The legislative Investigating committee
continued it's inquiry into ire insurance
Yesterday and at the end of the afternoon
session the fact was brought OUT that III
the territory controlled by the SUBURBAN
Fire Insurance Exchange rates had ao-
vanced about 90 per cent by reason OF that
body's activities
In figures this percentage means ABOUT
$780, 900 q year, which the policyhoiders IN
Long Island, outside of Brooklyn, ana III
Westchester. Rockland and Putnam coun-
ties and The Bronx, east of the river, pay
now in insurance premiums over tiie
amount they paid before the Suburban Elk
change began to make rates in that terri
tory. The annual premium income OF the
exchange companies operating in that sec
ton is about s3,010oo0.
s. A. Reid the manager of the Suburban
Exchange, gave the committee this infor-
nation but he could give no estimate OF
the fire loss total to the same companies
in the same territory.
The fire insurance business in the sec
ton outlined above, said Mr.. Reid, had
been improbable before the entrance OF
the exchange as a rate making body, but
the committee was forced to take his state
ment for it, because he could give them
no figures to prove his statement.
His exchange had no statistics on that
point he said, though the company mem
bers of the exchange had such data, and
the best he could do was to request the
companies to furnish him with their fig
ures that he might pass them along to the
committee. To date the companies have
not shown any inclination to upset the
dignified routine of the committees work
~ xr-i~I ft,nca
figures.
Grievances of Tobacco Men.
Frazier NJ. Dolbfer, chairman of the in
surance committee Of the Leaf Tobacco
Board of Trade, took the stand to tell
the committee that there was great and
absolutely unexplained discrimination as to
rates by fire insurance companies writing
policies on leaf tobacco in different cities
and Mr. Dolber said he thought that the
committee could do something, he didn't
much care what, to end said discrimina-
ton.
The present specific rate on domestic leaf
tobacco. for instance. in New York City is
60 cents a. hundred. whereas in Boston it is
only 40 cents. The present specific rate in
New York City on hogshead leaf is 45 cents,
and in Philadelphia the rate on the same
commodity is 80 cents, said Mr.. Dolbier.
This specific rate, the witness ex-
planned. means the rate that is charged
for such product wherever it is stored
and which is the starting point for such
additions or subtractions as building con-
ditions, fire protection or any other matter
apart from the product itself may justify
Being such a basic and specific rate, Mr..
Dolbier intimated that the members of his
board of trade could not understand why it
should be higher in New York than it is
in Boston or Philadelphia.
It's the same stuff he said; leaf to-
bacco, shipped to these different cities, and
the differences in rates because of better or
worse fire protection. better or worse build
ings as to fireproof construction. or better
worse anything else, are figured up in
other schedules, but this specific rate,
which it seems should certainly be the
same everywhere, is different in various
cities
Rate Continually Increasing.
Incidentally, Mr. DoIbier testified that
the specific rate had been continually in
creasing everywhere for several years. In
New York, for example, domestic leaf in
1905 was 40 cents, and the first ratings OF
1910 showed it at so cents. which the to-
bacco men succeeded in getting reduced to
60 cents Almost every specific rating en-
tobacco is now quoted slightly lower than
it was at the beginning of this year. due
to a strong protest from the tobacco men,
In spite of it all, however. the witness
thought that the New York Fire Insurance
Exchange would be a good thing when it
became able to carry out properly all its
theories
7 V Barry former Insurance Commits
sioner of Michigan, and Frank N Hardi-
son. the present Insurance Commissioner
of Massachusetts, We're among the days
witnesses. Mr.. Barry thought that state
regulation of rates was largely political
proposition, and he was afraid that If a
state ratemaking body was established its
work would be political rather than sc1en-
tific.
Mr. Hardison told the committee that the
New England ''mutuals' are just as re-
liable and stable as the stock companies
Cornelius G. Kalff, of St George, Staten
IsIard who is a broker and agent there
for several companies, told the committee
that he at first refused to join the Suburban
Exchange. but was forced in under threat
that his agencies would be Withdrawn.
Then he went in, but on his application he
wrote the words under protest which oc-
rasioned some tart words and correspond
once. but it ended in the exchange accept
ing his application with the words still
On 1t.
AGENTS Commissions Lower.
Rates have advanced generally. and COM
missions have been reduced, since the ex-
,hange entered the field" was Mr.. Kalff's
summing up of the activity of that body
p d Herman. Of Albany, local agent