Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1913-04-24
Bismarck, Thursday, April "a, 1913
ENSURE STATE AGAINST LOSS"

- ne - NNS'SSI 1SoS'
Under the above caption the st.
Louis Globe.Democrat calls attention
to the condition that exists in Missouri
where the fire insurance companies
are being lcgislated against, There Is
q good deal of food for thought in the
following article:
Fire insurance is not an available
asset of the rich only. A fire inSul
ance POLICY is not like a stock certin-
eAte1 holding out a promise OF defer
red SisiA 01ds to be realized by pay.
only wealthy holders can meet. Al.
tho the erection of a ten-story building
at Sixteenth street and Washington
avenue is now indefinitely postponed
because investors are unwilling to
advance funds for building a structure
which might become a total loss for
want Of insurance in solvent cOmpan-
les, still the question raised between
Missouri law and great fire insurance
companies which are threatening to
withdraw from the state is not one to
be answered only by big business in
terests. Primarily it touches the
small property owners more nearly
than it does the:--targe. Wealthy con-
Germs could, In an&remersency, carry
their own fire Insurance, that is to
say, holders of vast properties could,
out of the gross revenues of all their
concerns, set aside, and charge as an
nnal expense, sums sufficient to partly
reimburse a fire loss, on any one Of
them. Such apolicy would not pay
the owners of any property on which
rates are not proltbifOry, but il would
yield partial indemnifications, and
would, if safe insurance were made
impossible. be adopted by such as
could afford it.
THE great mass of property owners
could not afford it. The builders and
cccupiers of homes, the business men
and merchants of all sorts who have
acquired small frontages and erected
small buildings would be unable to
charge out Of their incomes, or out of
the receipts Of a single business en-
terprfse, sums sufficient to even par
tally offset total destruction of house
and furnishings, OF building and stock.
That is one consideration. Another,
and one perhaps more important, is
that the withdrawal Of solvent fire in
surance companies from a state means
a great restriction of credits. The
owner of a home. with good credit,
and holding under clear title, finds
now small difficulty in securing a short
time bank loan, provided that he can
show not only a warranty deed to the
property, but insurance policies on the
house. He can mortgage the entire
property, house and lot, at long time
and low interest, by showing that the
destructible part of the property is
well insured and agreeing to keep up
the insurance. Lenders invariably in
sist upon safeguarding the tangible
security of the loans they make.
1t is the plight in which the aver
age Missourian would be left by loss
OF safe insurance which makes neces.
sary some quick and satisfactory un-
derstanding between the companies
and the state. The great business in
terests would be heavy sufferers, but
they could more easily adjust them
selves to the changed conditions than
the small h%ouseholders and the small
er business interests. In the neces-
sary regulation of corporations owning
and operating public utilities it has
apparently been overlooked that a SOL
vent insurance company is not a util-
ity corporation, charging more for a
service, in every case, than it is worth,
but an association which, whenever
it renders it's prescribed service, re-
turns more money value than it has
received. For this reason and consid-
ering the cupidity of mankind, such
associations must avoid the reckless
competition which would lead to un-
safe risks with the certain result of
increasing arson, and the possible re-
suit Of widespread conflagration. This