Arizona republican., 1912-09-22

ance Men" quoted from a so-called Phoenix insurance man. His avowed purpose is to organize western companies to work together on all matters whether Legislative or otherwise" etc The purport of his further statements indicates that the chief object is to influence legislation for the especial benefit of companies which he terms western companies" He states: The eastern companies have an association and further states, when the last legislature met
 in this state, the eastern association i brought a bill from New York which was introduced in the legislature and, 1 had it passed, would have put the 1 eastern companies in clover and the 1 western companies practically out" The principal mis- statements are four. l. The reference to the eastern as | sociation doubtless intends the As sociation of Life Insurance Presidents, l whose membership includes western | companies as well as eastern com | panies. Their purpose is to economize l effort and expense by gathering and supplying through one office infor- 1 nation that would otherwise need to i be duplicated by all of it's more than twenty members. The principal Cali | fornia company is a member of this 1 association and one of the largest eastern companies is not a member of the association. The association is 1 in no sense sectional. 2 The bill referred to is doubtless that known as the insurance Code, House bill 76 of the regular session, l introduced by MT. Rabbit. It was no secret that this bill was drawn and introduced at the instance of an Ari-
 zona fire insurance company to prove to patrons in other states that their patrons interests would be protected by the state of Arizona. Neither was it any secret that the life insurance part of the bill was adapted from the statutes of the state of Washington. 1 The passage of this bill or of any bill
 was not advocated by representatives of any association of life insurance cornnanies The representative of some companies opposed the passage of the bill and consumed so much i time in presenting their opposition
 that the legislators, busy with more work than could be accomplished in the session. decided to let Arizona wait awhile longer for an insurance code The objections raised, were
 chiefly that the bill prohibited rebat- l ing or discriminations, and that the . reserve required by the state to be | on hand to protect policies was too high. The spirit of fair dealing is l against relating The reserve pro l ' 11SiIallN
 quired in recent legislation. The pros ! pective organizer of the western as | sociation says this bill would have
 put the eastern companies in clover l and the western companies practically out" Does he assert that yves ter1 compani.., ,au rot ., t,siness wt1- out relating and can not maintain adequate reserves to protect their ob- hgatios to their policyholders? Some western companies certainly would not : subscribe to such a statement. Can not. should not, all companies, inde- pendently of where domiciled, be man. aged fairly and efficiently for helr patrons, the policyholders? 3. The passage of the code would not have helped any eastern company more than it would have helped anyl
 
 ! that the code was taken from thel 1 laws of the extreme western state,
 Washington. | 4, The passage of the code would not have put out an extravagant. dis honest, insecure, unfair western com Lany any more effectively than 1t
 would have excluded a like sort or eastern company. If it would, why
 was it adopted by the state of Wash 1 ngton? Now, I am not advocting the adop-
 ton of the code introduced. Its adop-
 tion is not essential to any company
 securing business in Arizona. Com
 1 paries represented in the Association of
 Life Insurance Presidents comply with
 codes of states requiring more safe
 guards to policyholders than would
 the code introduced here. Codes
 should not be adopted to help com-1
 panies but to protect policyholders.
 The companies do not need a code so
 much do the citizens of Arizona.
 The reason for an insurance code IS
 the same as for a pure food bill, or
 for a weights and measures bill,-to
 exact, by government regulation, hon.
 esty to the consumer which he can
 not secure for himself. All the people
 combined. through the government,
 can employ chemists to test foods and