The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-07-02
NINE BILLION DOLLAR
INSURANCE HOUSEKEEPING

New York. July New York ha.
just established another record for in.
surance house cleaning, and although
this Is the second half in decade, II
seems probable that there will be nc
necessity of a repetition for a good
many years to come. When Governor
Hughes leaped into fame half a dozen
years ago by the manner in which he
Strengthened out commercial insurance
there seemed to be little need for fur
| Their efforts of the same kind How
ever, time has proven this assumption
incorrect. for 1t has been discovered
that something like $4,000, 600, 900 of
outstanding insurance--that of the fra
ternal orders--was without supervis-
lon and that much OF II was not on a
solid basis The need for houseclean-
ing In this case became particularly
evident since by the nature of things
the benehciaries would in almost all
cases be widows and children. 1t has
not been necessary to call in Governor
Hughes in this case, however, since it
has been successfully dealt with by the
| National Association of Insurance
Commissioners in a session held here
|
mercial organizations issuing life in
| surance are now under state regula-
ton in most parts Of the country, this
control has not extended to the fra
ternal societies and 1t Is said by the
insurance commissioners that many of
these have been conducted on a basis
of charges which win mean that they
will ultimately find themselves unable
to meet their obligations The remedy
proposed by the committee on fraternal
insurance of the Commissioners asso-
citation, Of which Commissioner Folk Of
Tennessee is chairman, is the recon-
mendation of a uniform measure to be
adopted by state legislatures which
will provide for supervision Of these
associations along lines sumilar to
those already adopted for other branch
es Of insurance., and which will result
in raising of the standard Of this
class Of insurance to the point of alb
solute safety. Strengthening out a
$9,000,o00,000 mix-up may seem q large
task, but from present indications it
will be accomplished effectively and
without confusion through the adoption
by the various state legislatures Of the
uniform bill perfected here this week.
That 1t is still just as possible to
sell in this city anything at less than
Its face value, except United States
currency, as in the days when the late
P. T. Barnum offered to bet that he
could dispose of worthless stocks in
less time than anyone else could sell
five dollar gold pieces on the streets
for one dollar each, has just been illus
trated here in a curious manner. A
large number of persons who seem to
believe that certain repudiated state
bonds still have value beyond their
merits as works Of art turned up at
downtown auction room this week to
bid vigorously when a miscellaneous
lot Of securities worth just the value
of the paper on which they were en-.
graved went under the hammer. Many
were the antiquated securities offered,
all of which combined would not seem
to justify the expense of an auction
sale. One person, when a block of
$4,000 of bonds of an issue long since
repudiated was offered pushed to the
front and bid $45 for the lot, getting
them without competition, since the
value as figured by paper experts was
not over ten cents. The bonds were
issued at six per cent interest to pro-
vide for the construction of a railroad
and bore interest coupons dating from
1863 so that the total amount due on
this account was more than two and
one-half times the total face value. An