The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1910-06-12
CONFERENCE IN NEW YORK WILL
DETERMINE UNIFORM lNSUR-
ANCE lLl-SAFEGUARD.
PROBLEM TO RESTORE SOLvENCY
Members Of Many Societies Refuse
Voluntarily to Readjust Rates to
Prevent Disaster and Insurance
Commissioner Takes Hand in Deal

Chicago, June 1.-THE conference
in New York during June Of the fra
ternal committee OF the National AS
sociation 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 will be adopted OF IA
uniform bill for state regulation max
ing compulsory various steps to safe
guard fraternal insurance aggregat!ug
approximately nine billion dollars
The tentative draft of uniform
measure, adopted a. the conference in
Chicago May is anu l9 has been con
sdered by the insurance heads Of all
the states and by the governing
boards of most of the fraternal soci-
eties since that time and to some eX-
tent by the membership of the soci-
eties. 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 readjustments OF
rates to prevent disaster, which actu-
aries and officers have warned them
is mathematically certain without re-
adjustment show little disposition as
yet to obvate state regulation, The
position of these memberships is ch.l-
acterized in Everybodys Magazine for
June in an article written by Judge
Harris Dickson and Isidore p. Mantz
as that of the ostrich which, with its
head buried in the sand, does not see
the approach of danger and refuses to
make itself safe in fact.
As to their warning in their artl-
Gle, ''Will your Widow Get Her Non
ey, the Weakness in Fratenal lnsur-
ance and How it May Be Cured, the
writer saws: Don't cas-, this aside
branded an attack by old-line compa-
Mes 1t is no such thing-it comes
from your friends, who have taken
great pains to inform themselves.
They believe that the old-line compa-
MES cannot possibly compete with you
in your chosen field. They are CON
Quoted for private profit, which your
organization is not. You have the
true fraternal spirit, and above ALL
honesty
They make this startling statement
however. The Amalgamated Ameri-
can and Canadian Ostriches-that Is,
the fraternal insurance orders-to one
Of which you belong-are insolyent to
the extent of four billion dollars, in
round numbers
THE 557 fraternal beneficiary so
cieties in the United States and Can
ada have an aggregate membership
of eight millions, and represent IN
surance To the staggering amount OF
nine billions of dollars-yet, as
whole. they would be able to pay less
than fifty cents on the dollar. True,
these prospective liabilities are not
due. but they must infallibly mature.
You have plenty of cash for present
needs but the cash does not belong
IN Won. II is mOrtgaged to pay fu-
ture debts, year by year, in eyer-in'
creasing amounts. AS your order
grows older, the members grow older
and the law of nature is that they
drop often today. twenty tomorrow,
thirty the next day. That is a fixed
fact. If you do not reckon with It, 1t
will reckon with you.
For 1907 you collected 1876 million
of dollars and paid ninetyfour mil
lions in losses. Your expense ratio
was surprisingly small, for your Off
GERS are both honest and economical.
| mean the genuine fraternal orders
not the takes-of which there are
many. For instance, the expense rate
of different orders varies from two
per cent to more tLan fifty per cent.
You have assets aggregating l25 mil
lions and present liabilities OF less
than Il millions, EurinS the year