The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-01-20

LOCAL UNDERWRITERS BAN-
 QUET-J. J. FISHER NAMED
 PRESIDENT.
 Opposition to rate making by the
 States was the keynote Of the meet
 ing Of the Bridgeport Board of Fire Underwriters, held yesterday at the Board Of Trade rooms. and concluding | With banquet at the Stratf1eld l The note of alarm was sounded by i E. G. Richards, United States manag 1 of the North British and Mercantile
 Insurance Company of Liverpool. Eng | land. and also president of the Com
 monwealth Insurance Company of New York.
 MT. Richards asserted it to be the oounden duty of every man in the in surance business to oppose the transfer or the power of rate making from the underwater to the State as has al- ready been done in Kansas and as some other States are threatening to do. MT. Richards also took a somewhat gloomy view of the future of the agency system of insurance, using the following language:
 T must frankly admit my belief that the tendency of the times is in the
 direction of injury if not eventual dis aster to the agency system and agency company in fire underwriting: for the present tendency of things, not only among ourselves but of the public as well, is toward paternalistic and social istic control by the State in what in
 times past has been rightly regarded as the personal and private affairs of the companies and their agents With the right of control of rates entirely removed from the conpa nies and the fixing of our process solely in the hands of those who admittedly are neither experts nor representatives of the companies interests, and whose , actions must be subject to the politic- Ian or political party who placed them in power, there may follow sooner than we dream in more than one State the State Fire Insurance Office (al- ready an established fact in New Zea- land), as a natural sequence of the State Rate-making Bureau and the in- l surance company will then be unneces- sary outside of large congested values. Strangely enough, much legislation
 which we regard inimical to our inter ests, and notably the State Rating Bureau, has been the result of the di-
 rect efforts or the logical outcome of the work of our own representatives, men engaged in the business of fire underwriting.
 T can but regard this whole ten dency as socialistic. The most cele- | brated advocates of socialism have de- clared that competition is it's greatest rOeS and SOc1aIlSm'S chief purpose is to destroy competition and place upon one level all human effort"
 Some 55 were seated at the banquet. Dorr- R. Whitney, the retiring presi- dent, was toastnlaster. Among those who responded to toasts were President J. W. Grover of the New England h. surance E-ehange; R. B. Ives of the Aetna, Hartford; and H. M Knapp of this city. R. H. Frederick of this city paid a compliment to Chief Mooney for his efficiency, and advocated the purchase of a second auto chemical for the East Side. saying that then 95 per cent. of all fires occurring in this city will be extinguished with the auto chemicals.
 John J. SFfsher was elected president of the board, and other officers were chosen as follows: Vice president, Will liam M. Blight; secretary, Alfred Griesinger; treasurer, Henry P Greene. The executive committee is composed of the president secretary, and treas urer and the following members: P. L.. Holzer, Zalmon Goodsell, T. B. War ren and William J. Nichols.
 The committee of arrangements con- sisted of J. H. Crossley Louis H. Lyon. B. J. Orton, Clifford w. Marsh. and Charles A. Nichols The reception committee included Philip L. Holzer, Zalmon Goodsell Lyman S. Catlin, William V. Garner. and Charles S. Cole.