The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-06-08
JULIAN DECLARES SOLICITORS LAX IN PROSECUTING Reports Inability To Con- vict Insurance Agents
 Although Guilty RIGHT TO REVOKE LICENSES SOUGHT Urges More Legislation Regulating Insurance
 Business
fstats Cauital Rareaul

MONTGOMERY, Ala, June 7.- Solicitors of Alabama have failed to O. operate with the state insurance de pertinent in prosecuting viOlators of in- surance laws, according to state super intendent of insurance, Frank N Juli- an. Reference, was made to this in the annual report of Superintendent Julian for the calendar year 1923. submitted to Governor W. W. Brandon today, the report stating:
 During the period covered by this report there have been many violations of the insurance laws and..-1 regret to say, in q number of instances licensed agents, having years of experience, have been among the violatOrs- In each instance the information secured by this dpartmnt has been forwarded to the proper solicitor with request that the viOlators be indicted and fined However, we have not had the cooperz- ton of the solicitors, and in fact, in at least two instances, we have been un- able to even secure acknowledgement of receipt of the files sent"
 Recommends Legislation / Superintendent Juliarn also called attention of the governor to -'the neces- sity of legislation for the better admin istration of the insurance laws" He earnestly requested that the following subjects be recommended by the gover- nor to the legislature, for enactment of suitable laws, at any extraordinary ses- sion or the next regular session of the legislature.
 Qualification of agents, and giving the superintendent of insurance power to suspend, or revoke, agents license for certain causes,
 More adequate supervision and reg ulatiOn of mutual fire and miscellane- Ous companies; better provisions for operation of reciprocal exchanges.
 Requirements for payment of pre- mium by mutual companies and recipro- cal exchanges, and compelling these or ganizatiOns to operate throughout duly licensed agents the same as other com panies.
 "That authority be given this de pertinent for meeting contingent ex- penses, by the enactment of .. law pro viding not less than $1 900 per annum be set aside as contingent expense fund, to be accounted for upon proper vouchers by the superintendent of in surance.
 'tA competent attorney, with the au- thOrity of an assistant attorney general. shoud be assigned to the apartment, and the compensation of such attorney should be paid as other expenses of the department are paid"
 Superintendent Julianis report showed that receipts of the insurance department for 1923 were S6IT. .TOO36. and disbursements S19,O23.S6. For the nine years beginning 1915 and ending 1S&S total receipts were $4,O56, ,27I. AS and disbursements $153, ,760.3S, show ing ratio of expenses to receipts of S.7S per cent.
 Public Saved
 Many. thousands of dollars of insur- ance were sarved to citizens of the state through the work of the depart- ment in 1923, the reports stated. More than $10,0O0 of life insurance was saved, several thousand dollars for industrial policy holders and several thousand on miscellaneous insurance policy contracts. These savings were effected without litigation or expense to the citizens. Mfr. Julian further reoov4- ed that in the operation of the work mems compensation law, by checking up on short payments, the departmenf has saved substantial amount for in- jured Workmen.
 Attention was called to the fact that birmingham has by improvement in rlre protection and prevention secured a new rating, effective January 1. I924. giVlng the city a reduction on homes of approximately 15 per cent. For the United States, from 1913 to the clos ing months of 1923 fire insurance de- creased in cost '71z per cent, the report stated.
 Reference was made in the report to nre losses in 1923 and to the activities Of unauthorized insurance concerns in the state. '-3 AA
 Alabama fire losses incurred in I927 equaled OO.52 per cent of the premiums received, adding an estimate of other Items Tn the cost of transaction fire in surance in this state, it was shown that for each dollar received for fire insur- anee premiums it costs the carriers $1O115. This was an improvement over 1922 when the same figures dis closed a cost of $1.O6 for each SI of premium.