t3be Conservative.
million dollarsl ( ,700,000,000) , ) , on which
ho has received about fifteen million
dollars ( $16,000,000) ) , of premiums. In
that period ho has paid losses to the
amount of about two and a hnlf mil
lion dollars ( $2,500,000) ) , incurring ex
penses a little over a million dollars
( $1,000,000) ) , making an apparent profit
of the difference ; but as the company
is a strictly mutual company , that ap
parent profit of $11,500,000 has all been
paid back year by year to the assured
who have combined together for the
purpose of mutually insuring their fac
tories and workshops under his super
vision.
The main object of this system of
mutxial factory insurance in which the
writer is engaged is to prevent losses
by lire. Its purpose is to teach the
owners of large factories and work
shops tluil tlii'itrc the out/ ; men H'lio van
iiiKiirc their i ' ( ti < 'rti ( ( ititiiuitt / \ j fire.
This they can do by building safely ; by
protecting adequately with all kinds of
safeguards ; by providing themselves
with a full supply of water ; and by
watching and caring for their property
in a suitable manner. In that way
they can insure and have insured them
selves against nearly every kind of loss
that can bo foreseen. But there are
some unavoidable losses which they de
sire to distribute under a contract of
indemnity. They therefore combine in
nn insurance company , appoint certain
of fleers as their agents , pay in theii
premiums which far more than covei
the losses and expenses , and then re
ceive back at the end of every yeai
what is loft. At the present time they
are receiving back ninety-five per cent
(1)5 ( ) % ) of what they paid in a year ago
the losses during the last twelve months
on over ono hundred and ten million
dollars ( $110,000,000) ) of risks under the
supervision of the writer having been
less than fifteen thousand dollars
( ! j > l5,000) ) , distributed in about one hun
dred (100) ( ) claims of less than one hun
dred and fifty dollars ( $150) ) , each ; the
provision made by the owners and occu
pants to stop the fires having reducec
the losses to less than ono cent on each
hundred dollars of insurance carrier
for twelve months. That is a time
method of prevention and incidentally
securing indemnity. Any man who de
sired to take out a valued policy am
who expected to recover under it , woult
bo considered by the writer a man unfii
to bo trusted and ono who could not have
a policy in the company of which he is
president , at any price.
The trouble is that most people give
no attention to the nature of an insurance
anco policy. Very few over road theii
own policies and being thus incapable o :
talcing care of themselves they go to
the legislature and ask the legislature
to take- care of them by very ba <
methods.
I
In ono sensje every contract of indom-
lity made with an insurance company ,
vhether a stock company or a mutual
company , is a contract of inntnal hidein-
iitiIn the mutual company the lia-
jility to meet an assessment in case the
n-omiums do not suffice to meet losses
ind expenses , serves in place of capital.
.n ' the stock company the capital stock
s the safety fund on which the mom-
jers rely , making payments of prem
iums without liability to further assess
ment. Each is a combination of all the
members ; that is to say , of all the as
sured in any one company for mutual
support.
"When people want to bet a small sum
of money against a big one on a valued
policy they had better bo let alone. Let
them bet with each other as gamblers
do but let prudent people keep clear of
them , and if the law does not permit
prudent people to insure each other
under safe conditions , then it is better
to go without insurance policies and to
take care of the property , than it is to
attempt to cover the risk by taking un
safe policies of insurance.
Attention may be called to another
point. Insurance companies exist under
charters granted in their respective
states. If the state of Nebraska does
not permit an insurance company to re
fuse to issue valued policies there may
be more common sense in Kansas , Iowa ,
or some other neighboring state. The
insurance laws of these neighboring
states may bo safe and although the in
surance companies of these other states
cannot transact business in Nebraska
except under the Nebraska laws , any
citizen of Nebraska may go either in
person or by letter into any other state
and insure his property under the laws
of that state without paying any regard
to the insurance laws of his own state.
There are many very meddlesome insur
ance acts in some of the Now England
and Middle States and there arc many
persons in each of these states , especially
owners of largo maimfacturing pro
perty , who come to Massachusetts to got
their contracts of insurance , not being
willing to take the unsafe or valued
policies which under the laws of theii
own states are the only kind of policies
they can got under thorn.
EDWAUD ATKINSON.
Boston , Mass.
JUNK in , A. i ) . It is well enough tore-
i ifi. member that just 08 ! }
years ago on the 15th day of last month
King John granted the Magna Ghnrta to
the barons in the meadow called "Run
ning Mode. " It was the germ of the
English and the American constitutions
In fact , it was the first declaration lead
ing up to the popular forms of govern
ment by the English-speaking races. Ii
is the origin of'the modern trial by jury
Principal among its declarations is this
'Wo will sell to no man , wo will not
leny to any man , either JAUt-ico or *
right. "
And now after these ( I8JJ years & < bo- -
moves iis , as eiti/cns of the Republic rtf
the United States , to make careful siSl ! -
searching and see whether justice ever
is sold or ever is denied , or whether
right is subverted , within the limits of
our political regulations and existing
statutes.
Stiibbs says in his documents illustra
tive of English history that "Tho whole
of the constitutional history of England
is a commentary on this charter , the il-
Lus'tration of which must bo looked for
in the documents that precede and fol
low. "
The conference between the barons
and king John was hold on an island in
the Thames river between Staines and
Windsor. The king was encamped oiv
one side of the river and the barons hold' '
the marshy flat on the other side , which
is still known as "Runnymede. " There )
was an island in the river between the1
two encampments. Delegates represent
ing John on the ono side and the barons
on the other met on this island for the1
purpose of negotiation. Here the great
charter was discussed , agreed to and
signed in a single day. A copy of it
may bo seen in the British Museum , in
jured by age and fire but with the royal
seal still hanging from the brown shriv
eled parchment. No American or other
English-speaking person can ga/.o with
out reverence on this earliest monument
of English freedom , which wo can see
with our own eyes and touch with our
own hands this great Charter which
from ago to age patriots have regarded
as the foundation of civil liberty. Yet
the charter in itself was not a novelty.
It did not claim to establish any now con-
stitxitional principles. The charter of
Henry I formed its basis and the addi
tions to it are for the most part formal
recognitions of the judicial and adminis
trative changes introduced by Henry II.
Every approach towards the securing
of civil liberty since our race began a
historic career has been the result of evolution
elution from human experiences. It is a
singular fact that these fundamental
principles of justice and right wore first
breathed into words by unlettered in
stead of by scholarly men. It is a re
markable fact that the entire fabric of
solf-governmoiic was first founded and
its superstructure shadowed forth in the
minds of a stiirdy but unlettered yeo
manry.
That generation thought for itself.
The generations succeeding seem to
think that it also thought for them !
When the men of today read so much , do
they thijik as profoundly or reason as
well ? How would a class in original
thiulcing for each schoolhougo affect the
intellectual development of American
youth ?