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"6 THE MARINE RECORD. TAKING UP LAKE INSURANCE. A marine insurance agent in reviewing. the history of lake insurance has the following to say in the Detroit Free Press: “The invasion of the lake cargo and-hull underwriting field by the English Lloyd’s has proven the death of scores of reputable, responsible American insurance companies, so far as lake business is concerned; and the struggle be- tween two syndicates, both representing English com- panies, or insurers, rather, is the last act of the tragedy, the act which seems destined to witness the wiping out of pretty nearly all the Americans’ business. “Gradually the larger companies began to send _trayel- ing agents around with orders to write up the insurance that formerly was placed with them through the local agent. One traveling agent could take care of the busi- ness of several agencies, and this saving in expense at- tracted the attention of the other companies, and they fol- lowed suit. This did not drive the local agent out alto- gether, but he began to disappear entirely when the Eng- lish Lloyd’s took to the field. : “For a time the foreign insurers were unpretentious in their attempts to get some of the lake business. They made the same rates as had always prevailed with their agents from port to port ‘with orders to make rates that were considered unnaturally low by the American com- panies, and in this way they soon began to make the Americans take to the woods, or meet the cut with figures _that did not allow of a cent of profit should one or two large losses happen in the season. In Duluth the foreign- companies swallowed the local agencies, and then the for- eign companies swallowed the lake business of the Amer- ican companies. The great majority of the latter which once placed insurance on the lakes have abandoned and have turned their attention to fire and other forms of protection to the owner of property. The local agents have either closed their offices entirely to engage in other branches of business or are using the same offices for ‘any kind of business they could find. But the foreigners are also turning their attention to fire and other forms of insurance, and they are likely to play the same trick with the Americans in those lines. “The American insurers have not cast about for.a means of checking the encroachments of the foreigners, but they are talking of it, and it would not be surprising to see something done in that line before the nation is many years older. “The owners of the lake fleet will tell the inquirer for information that if the American companies will meet the rates made by the foreigners they will be given the call on the ground of patriotism, presumably. They have to meet these ratés to get business. But the American insurer finds that he cannot meet this cut and live himself. His backing is not heavy enough. Could be enlist the finan- cial aid of a Rockefeller or a Morgan or a Vanderbilt he might be able to accomplish something. But there would be little in it for the New York millionaire even at that. He would find himself confronted with a financial power equal to his own, and with him it would be years of a heavy drain on his surplus before he could finally conquer the Britishers and drive them back to their own land, even stirance and forwarded it to London. All the policies ar made out in the names of the New York people, whic are Johnson & Higgins and Peck & Peck. So lax ar the state laws that they do not take this into account; they are so worded that nothing can be done in the way of prevention so long as on the face the policies are made out in this country. This allows the agents of the foreign companies to go from port to port and cut rates in the different states, and there is nobody to say them nay. These circumstances have enabled them to cut the rates and drive the Americans out without compelling them to encroach on their own reserves. “Now "what I want to see is a national bureau estab- lished, with headquarters in Washington, that will compel these foreign companies to register in this country and do their business through agencies as is done by our own. They should be compelled to pay the state tax and in other ways live up to the requirements put upon the Amer- ican companies. This would bring them to an equal foot- ing with the American companies—an entirely just and equitable one at that—and would enable the latter to meet them upon equal terms. Then if the foreigners could still afford to cut the rates to get the business let them do it. It would certainly do away with the underhand methods of insurance that have been practiced by them so many years and give the American a chance for his life. He has none now.” “But is it not true that the owner of a large fleet can insure direct with the London people, without the neces- sity of placing it through the New York people?’ : “Yes, he could do it, but he is not going to. He = | ‘ nM rh MODEL OF AN OCEAN TUG Wf SR ‘als SE 2 SN A Wo aw ‘ an : a a is Which the firm of F, W. Wheeler &1Co.,{.West Pay City, have just contracted to build for W. G. Wilmot, New Orleans, a. She is to be 140 feet in length, triple expansion : engines, diameter of cylinders 20, 33 and 54 inches, and to have two boilers. ers found their most fertile field, and though they did not, do so well in Chicago, owing to the prejudice that exist- ed there in favor of the Americans, they still got some of it, and filled the old-line companies with alarm. In 1895 the rate of insurance was so low and the losses so heavy that the reserve funds held by the American companies were almost swamped. What the English suf- fered must have been also heavy, for they covered a large number of these losses. It was starvation for the Amer- icans and a heavy blow to the foreigners, and by an in- stinctive feeling both sides put the rates up in the spring of 1896, though not very high. Last year, with small losses, neither side made enough to counterbalance the losses of the year before. “This year the British companies are divided into fac- tions, each of which is knifing the other to get the lake business, and in the struggle between them the very few American companies left in the field are scarcely heard of, all the best boats going to one or the other of the syndi- cates. One of these is represented by Peck & Peck and the other by Johnson & Higgins, both of New York. The latter are the old hands in this method of insuring. It - was that firm that in previous years placed all the foreign insurance on the lakes, and it was that firm that was heartily berated by the American companies who were eompaied to stand by and see it gradually undermine em. “And thus has the battle gone on. First the American if he did finally succeed, of which there is some doubt. “The English companies are only waiting to clear the lakes of American insurers and then their rates will be raised fast enough—and if.any venturesome American dares come into the field with something lower they will as quickly drop them to meet the situation. “A well-known Detroit man, who formerly conducted a large local agency here, explained a plan he had to bring the English companies under the authority of the sepa- rate states, as the American companies are. Said he: ““We know that the English companies do not pay a cent of taxes in this country; neither are they under the heavy expenses of maintaining agents or agencies that has to be borne by the American companies. This tax amounts to 3 per cent of the gross amount of all the in- surance American companies placed, so that even though their losses are heavier than the total of their profits they still have to pay that tax. This is the law in every state. Were the foreigners compelled to pay this tax they would be placed at a great disadvantage—that is, they would be deprived of an immense advantage they now have over the Americans—would be brought to a common footing with them. “‘But this is not all. According to the laws of the sev- eral states bordering on the lakes no foreign company is allowed to insure American vessels. The foreign com- panies have gotten around this by placing their insurance in New York. The New York agencies have taken the in- would have to go to London personally or send a repre- sentative there at a large expense, for the law does not al- low the Londoner to come here and do it for him. Then, in the event of a loss he would again have to run back and forth or pay another large sum for the work, and all this would take away the saving he would effect in the difference between American and London insurance.’ ” a Towing barges from one part of our coast to another is so common nowadays as hardly to. bring forth a comment from shipping men, but the day of long towing, say from northern ports to Texas and the West Indies, will also soon be an established fact, and one of the possibilities of the near future will be the towing of oil-laden barges from the United States to Great Britain and continental Europe during the summer months. The device that will make the latter possible beyond a doubt is the Shaw and Spiegle patent towing machine made by the American Ship Windlass Company, of Providence, R. I. Some of the largest and best equipped tugs and towing steamers in the world have already been fitted with these machines and it is pretty safe to predict that no well-appointed powerful tug will be built from now out that will not be fitted with one of these devices. In fact such a new vessel without this machine will not be quite up to date. One ut the most recent boats to be equipped with the Shay aad Spiegle towing machine is the steel tug Catiwissz which was recently completed for the Phladelphia and Reading Railway Co.