Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-08-03
L, B. Leigh Thinks This Will Result ii Courts Up
 hold Insurance Suits.
BEFORE END OF YEAR
Says insurance Companies Cannot Afford to Pa, ) i-:, Per Gent fax
 to Do Business at Profit

Ii le R ck, Aug. 2-ln discussing the suit just filed by the attorney generals s deFartmeH against 130 cid line Insurance companies doing bus mess in Arkansas, alleging back taxes ot Sl,236, ,000 due the State. un. der the cpcra o@ of Acts of 1873 anC iSf3, affecting ins rance companies | l.. B. Leigh of the insurance agency of L. B. Leigh X O., Who handles 8 large sUmber Of fire companies. de- ela1es that the result If the suit, ii successful by the State, will be to drive the companies cut of the State
 He con eds that sho act of 1875 repealed the act of 1873, which, he insists, Was passed by ,carpet-bae Gisls ufe, and that the tax Of , 1-1 per cent on the receipts of insur- ance companies would be more than trey could pay Withou putting in- Sufa' ce fa es up to an abnormal fig ure
 h d interview F'r day morning Mir. I-el gh said
 "Th s act under Whica these suits are brought was enacted by the last Carpet-bag legislature that ever as sembled in Arkansas was living in Little Reek in 1873, employed as a c.erk 1T the insurance office of Fa= gan X TrezeF2nt, and remember much of interest about the condition of af- tair,, ot tn 5 Sta,e at that time.
 I @is State Was running on scrip basis and finances Were at a very low e5b, State scrip selling at about 30 cents on the dollar and county scrip much loNeG Pulaski county scrip falling as low at one time as F cents on dollar Lucien J. Barnes a Little Rock insurance agent Was insurance commissioner and was t2e feputed author Of the new act which, amlng other things, provided tha the insurance companies should pay the salary and expenses of the insurance commissioner office.
 Prior to that time the insurance companies had paid taxes on prem ium receipts in Arkansas as othel ] corporations and persons paid taxes on personal property under the State and county leVys, which in this coun- i ty announced to about } per cent When the new act went into effect calling for 3 per cent add .ti5nal making a to.al tax of about 6 pei oCpnt, he insurance companies be- came alarmed ard most of then i withdrew from the State, some o them cancaling all policies before l leaving. 4 few companies, however remained, relying on the assurance 0 i resident agents that the total ;aa of 6 per cent was payable in, scr.l and could be paid at cost less thal , per cent in currency, thus reducing i the actual cost to a reasonable figure i The insurance companies never pai( but ole tax under the act of 1873, al the first legislature which assembled under the Garland administration enacted the law of February, 1875 which supposedly repealed all o he acts on the same subject, and the n surance companies which withdrew from Arkansas returned to the State
 This act has been in force 3 years and the companies have com piled with it's provisions as constru ed by some nine CT ten different in surarce comm ssioners and as man. different attorney generals.
 Furthermore, the insurance com missioner has prepared and furnish ed the companies from time to time a digest of the insurance laws of Ark arsas, but the act of 1873 has neve- been included in such digest. The State also prepares the blanks an( interrogatCries upon wh h'ch return! for taxation are made and the com panies have paid all taxes eXacted o them by the Insurance commissioner
 Under these circumstances,
 think it is unfair for the attorne. general to allege in h's complain and publish 10 the world that tho companies have 'fraudulently evaded i payment of taxes under the act o 1873. Now, it is not for me to sa! that the attorney general is in elwo in assuming that the act Of 1873 wal net repealed by teh act of 1875 moi that the latter act is unconstitution, al; but, if his contention is sustained by the courts, in my judgment, th' insurance companies will withdraw from the State at the erd of th' present year, and fear that many o them will withdraw at once rathel than pay taxes on receipts only tht basis Of } 1-2 per cent No compan. having any reputation for the pay ment of losses will do business ir Arkansas, or any other State, on thu basis of such burdensome taxation The only alternative which car 1 think of upon which the companies might act would be to increase tho ! present rate of insurance to figure ] 1. q no oy