PRESENT PROBLEMS IN INSURANCE 



BY BALTHASAR HENRY MEYER 



[Balthasar Henry Meyer, Professor of Political Economy, University of Wiscon- 

 sin, and member of the Railroad Commission of Wisconsin, b. Mequon, Ozauhee 

 County, Wisconsin. B.L. University of Wisconsin, 1894; Ph.D. ibid. 1897; 

 Post-graduate, Berlin, 1894-95; ibid. University of Wisconsin, 1895-97. As- 

 sistant Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, 1897-99; conducted an 

 investigation on fraternal societies for the Committee of Fifty in 1900 ; prepared 

 a report for the United States Industrial Commission, 1901 ; expert special 

 agent, representing the Bureau of the Census and the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission, conducting an investigation on the valuation of railways in the 

 United States, 1904-05 ; appointed member of the Railroad Commission of 

 Wisconsin, June, 1905. Member of American Economic Association; Wisconsin 

 Academy of Sciences and Arts; American Academy of Science, etc. Author of 

 many papers and monographs dealing with transportation, special economic 

 and educational subjects.] 



PRESENT problems in insurance are both theoretical and practical. 

 In their theoretical aspects they have been treated in the address 

 of my colleague on the relation of insurance to other branches of 

 knowledge. This paper aims to deal chiefly with the more practical 

 aspects of insurance problems in which the policy holder and the 

 public -have an interest. The point of view will be the American 

 and only incidentally will references be made to foreign experiences 

 and conditions. Foreign countries offer much that has value for 

 purposes of study, and many an important lesson may be learned 

 from the manner in which the business of insurance has been con- 

 ducted in other countries and the relations which the various govern- 

 ments have maintained towards this business. Limitations which 

 must obviously be imposed upon this paper make it necessary to 

 confine the discussion primarily to conditions in the United States. 



In some respects the problems with which the insurance world 

 has been concerned ever since the institution began to assume 

 definite form and affect a considerable part of the population, are 

 also the insurance problems of to-day. Numerous transformations 

 and additions have been made since the first struggles of the experi- 

 mental stage, yet the problem of organization is still before us. 

 The perplexities and diversities of the rise of the agency system have 

 disappeared, but the agency system itself requires the attention of 

 the best minds of the day, with the view of bringing about adjust- 

 ments more in the interest of the policy-holders and of a sound public 

 policy. The gloom of wholesale failure has been dispelled by the 

 light of sound finance; nevertheless the wild-cat organization still 

 prospers and the organization which makes impossible promises is 

 passing from the scene with painful slowness. Policy contracts have 

 been made more uniform, but the multitudinous details of endless 

 options which are spread before the policy-holder befuddle even the 



