Evening star., 1924-03-28
Rudolph Calls on Him to Re-
sign as Superintendent.
Denies Accusation by
BIanton in the House.
RECITES NEED OF LAW
AND LONG EFFORTS MADE
Documents Charging Fourteen IN
surance Companies Paid Official
$500 Toward New Law, Laid
Before Congress by Texas Rep
resentative, Following Report

Burt A. Miller, resigned today a
superintendent of insurance of the
District, at the request OF Commis
sioner Rudolph.
In statement issued by Superin-
tendent Miller, he said that while no
reasons were communicated to him
for the requested resignation, he as
sumed that the request grew out OF
the charges made against him by
Representative Blanton of Texas, in
connection with the efforts to have d
new insurance code enacted for the
District.
Supt. Miller tells the Commissioners
in a memorandum today that in so far
IS the charges impute any misfeasance
or malfeasance. they are absolutely
false. Continuing, he states:
The money received by me from
the insurance companies TO be used
in the preparation of the drafting
of the proposed code of insurance
law for the District of Columbia. has
all been fully and properly accounted
through my hands. A proper account
ing has also been made of all moneys
subscribed to the information bureau.
In this connection / wish to call
the attention of the board to the
fact that my action in seeking sub
scriptions for both of these purposes
was known to the board and no ob
lection was made thereto.
Says Legislation Need.
THE need of modern insurance leg
islation for the District of Columbia
has been apparent for many years
and various attempts have been made
to have Congress pass such 1egiSla-
ton. TO prepare a code of insurance
law which would meet the needs re-
quired a considerable amount of le-
gal research and of comparisons OF
the laws of the various states, such
as would be done by the legal re-
search bureaus established in the va
riouS states of the Union to assist of
ficers of governments in preparing
needed legislation for their depart
ments. No such help was available
TO the superintendent of insurance of
this District and in preparing legisla-
ton it was necessary for him TO seek
the help of others This of course,
required the expenditure of funds
Appeal for Needed Funds.
The department having no funds
"a 'S' t'S Pui IOG's II "dS
necessary to appeal to those inter
ested, and this appeal was only made.
as has been before said, as it had been
brought to the knowledge of the
board of Commissioners of this Dis
trlct Not one penny of the money
subscribed was improperly expended.
not one cent was used for the pur-
pose of influencing the action of any
member of Congress. either directly
or indirectly. Practically all of the
money contributed was spent for the
cost of printing and the legal
services.
The preparation of such Legislation
was matter of great interest to
me. ] took pride in endeaVoring to
have prepared and introduced what |
hoped would be looked upon as a
model code of insurance for this Dis
trict and [ have no apology to offer
for my action i'll seeking the aid OF
people experienced in the insurance
field and in insurance law to assist
me in that work
1T has been charged that I was in
debted to Mr.. Louis A. Dent, and il
was by reason of that Indebtedness
that he was employed to do the legal
work IN connection with this bill
The Inference sought to be conyeyed
is that 1 had paid my indebtedness To
Mr.. Dent hy employing him at a largo
compehsa ton for this work That
charge is absolutely false. 1 was noI
inocoted IN any way to Mr. Dent nos
1T has been charged that I tried
20 borrow $500 from c. C. Taylor of
the Federal Life Insurance COMPANY:
this charge is false. 1t has been
charged that / borrowed $500 from
Jesse A. Foster. vice president OF
that company; this charge is false.
Securities Turned In.
"It is true that 1 had in my possess
sion as superintendent of this de-
partment only 200 worth of secur-
tiles of the Federal Life Insurance
Company, which came into my hands
only on yesterday from the title
company. This is in the form of o
note on a mortgage secured by real
estate and the note and the mortgage
securing the same are transmitted
to you herewith.
'It is not true that collected tho
interest on this security; the only
basis for such a charge is that upon
one occasion an interest check was
sent to this department, which WAS
at once mailed to the Federal Life
Insurance Company. The lndnner in
which this incident is referred to IL
I had diverted this interest to my.
own use.
LAS stated in the beginning, feel
that / should have been given an
opportunity TO answer these charges
before your board before my resigna-
tion was requested, and / am submit
ting this resignation solely because
it has been requested and to save any
possible embarrassment to your hon
orable board and for the further pur-
pose that if my elimination will re-
move the opposition to the bill now
before Congress l am willing to make
that sacrifice"
Making good a former pledge to the
House District committee that he
would make startling charges in
connection with the legislation for
a new insurance code for the National
Capital, which has been favorably
reported to the House, Representative
CONTINUED on Page 2, Column 81