OCR Text |
Show THE RISKS AND THE RATES. If the insurance companies of Chicago Chi-cago havo undesirable risks In unsatisfactory unsat-isfactory portions of that city, they are justified in raising the rates on Them, no doubt, as the dispatches Indicate that It is their Intention to do. But there Is no propriety in coupling that raise with the San Francisco losses. Still less should those losses be made tho occasion for an advance of rates "throughout the entlro district controlled con-trolled by tho Western Union of Insurance In-surance companies, extending from Pennsylvania to the Rocky Mountains," as tho report puts It. The losses of the Insurance companies compa-nies by the San Francisco fire are very great. They will annihilate the surplus sur-plus and the reserves of many companies. com-panies. But the companies should stand together and meet tho losses, paying them manfully and without quibbling or evasion. They combine for the purpose pur-pose of advancing rates and holding them firm, a combination that Is not viewed with favor by tho public; but If tho combination shall extend to the payment In full of the losses, the strong companies helping the weak, then an element of compensation will have come that will allay much of the antipathy an-tipathy now felt against tho insurance combine. But In no case is it appropriate or reasonable rea-sonable to raise rates elsewhere, because be-cause of the San Francisco earthquake and tiro. As each risk Is mado to stand upon Its own merits, so each locality should be accorded merit or denied merit In lnsuranco by reason of its conditions. Naturally, rates of Insurance Insur-ance in San Francisco will henceforth be high, until by the construction of fire-proof buildings and tho putting in of water supply to fight fire with, Independent In-dependent of the usual pipe system, aro completed. But It Is wholly unfair to increase rates in Chicago, St. Louis and elsewhere because the companies compute com-pute that the rates should be naturally advanced In San Francisco. It Is de cidedly unfair to the country at large to mulct other places for the misfortune of one. Tho companies should take their surpluses and reserves and pay their losses; that is what surpluses and reserves are for. And when they are drained to meet this emergency call, with proper management and a rational ra-tional decrease In expenses, the bins will soon begin. to fill up again. Insurance Insur-ance Is a just and business-like precaution pre-caution against loss; but it Is upart from Its true flold to enter the realm of "high finance." |