OCR Text |
Show U. S. INSORANCE FIRMS RETREAT Three Companies Abandon Business in Continental Europe NEW YORK, Sept 27. Three of the largest American llfo lnsu.anco companies tho New York Life, the Mutual and the Equitable have withdrawn with-drawn from continental Europe, tho New York Herald says, convinced that except for th.- British Isles Europe Is a hopeless field of business endeavor and probably will be for years to come The abandonment of a territory in which business amounted to a billion dollars at the start of the war, was decided upon, the newspaper states, nftcr months of In VSStlgation by the company's experts. Their once vast business has been re-Insured or transferred trans-ferred to newly organized native com-panles'wlth com-panles'wlth the consent of policy holders hold-ers and under laws which relieve the American companies of responsibility. This hau been dono In Europo Irom Scandinavia to tho Dardanelles, but In Great Britain, the three companies maintain old contracts and seek new ; ones, because of their confidence in I tho solidity of the British industrial, i financial and commercial recovery. The depreciation of money, execs- I sive taxes, constantly mounting salar- i les and waK", unfavoral .tlon and a wave of unfair lawsuit-, were given as contributing causes for tho (retreat. |