The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1913-08-24

can rbe fixed absolutely for ten wears
As between the Agency company =
guaranty of 40 per cent for all ny
penses, md the 50.2 the Home Fire IS
paying, and which Mr.. Grant saws ;s
getting higher, in ten years the stoci;.
holders of the Guardian Fire will have
saved more than the 20 per cent
charged for promotion.
The inference from Mr. Grant, M
tacks upon the new organization leaves
the inevitable conclusion that his mis-.
sion In life is purely phianthroplc-
that his special call at this time is to
protect the public against losing their
money. OF course, when Mr.. Grant
solicits or sells insurance, he refuses
to accept any commission therefor
Surel Is il not true that his principal
business occupation in life has been
to take toll OH every dollar paid to him
for fire insurance or insurance OF any
other kind-and that toll is in tho
neighborhood OF so to 80 per cent
Why wonder at his wild and heated on.
position when one enters the domain
he has occupied exclusively for TWEEN.
tyseven years? But it may be said
with safe assurance that man who
has made money all his life by exact.
ing insurance tolls should be the last
to object to others doing the same
thing. 1t is true Mr.. Grant did NOT
assess anyone for organizing the Home
Fire. He protected the investors, but
he has always been willing to take the
highest commission from the buyers of
insurance and is today publicly in op.
position to reduction of rates in this
section Were Mr. Grant man with a
sane perspective Of this subject he
would be graveyard silent On the sub.
.icct of promotion fees.
And this brings us to his excerpts
from the address Of the Hon. Silas r.
Barton of Nebraska. who says, in one
part Of his speech. ''It is with the
important item of $116,900, ,4s3, under
the head of expenses, that we are con
cerncd." " In his letters and personal
Mr.. Grant never touches on this item,
though main subject of Mr.. Barton g
address. Whyf Because while his
average expense ratio for the ten years
ended 1912 was 467, it was 502 in
the year 1912, and, as he says. expenses
and losses are steadily increasing.
Mr.. Barton says: ''The besettinp
sin of the fire insurance industry is
discrimination and all the lesser evils
are the direct and natural result OF the
big SIM
As to discrimination Barton de-
clares: HSome states have shown
more than q normal profit for long
period-as long as thirty years-while
for the same length Of time other
states have shown corresponding loss
Let us face the question frankly and
fairly. The insurance companies can
reduce their rates In states showing
for n long period profit above the
normal It is fair to ask, when many
gentlemen he has endeavored to pre-
vent from taking stock in the Guar
dian Fire, why Mr.. Grant has not
called attention to the quotation in
questions
Mr.. Potter, insurance commissioner
Of the state of Illinois, beyond ques-
tion ono Of the most eminent fire in
surance experts in the United States,
recently declared that 1t takes the fire
insurance profits from ten states, in
cluding Illinois, New York and Utah,
to make up the FIRE losses sustained by
fire insurance companies in the state
the rates in these and other states are
kept higher than is right in order to
make up the deficiencies Of Missouri
and Kansas. Mr.. Barton says the same
thing, but declares the companies are
afraid Of those states whose rates are
too low. 1t is an undisputed fact that,
generally speaking, insurance rates
west Of the Missouri river are too high.
Mr.. Barton g own figures, in the speech
so glibly quoted by Mr.. Grant, show
that the insurance companies made
S32, 10000 in 1911, the dismal year
to which Mr.. Grant points; while from
the Spectator Year Book for 1913-l014
the following figures are taken: