PARMEKS MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANIES UNION. 349 



Our company prescribes in its by-laws that when any insured property 

 shall have been destroyed or damaged by fire or lightning, tlie insured 

 shall forthwith notify tlie secretary in writing, giving a particular ac- 

 count of such loss or damage. But this requirement on the part of the 

 insured has never been fully complied with — and many times not even 

 partially carried out. So it is that our company makes these reports 

 through and in connection with the report made by a director, who adjusts 

 the loss. 



Tlie '.'report of a loss" is a very important part of the record and 

 work of a mutual insurance company, and should be as fu^ll and descrip- 

 tive of the circumstances connected witli the loss as it is possible to be 

 given. But probably no other part of our work is so often neglected, 

 especially when a loss occurs and is supposed to be an honest one — acci- 

 dental and unavoidable. In such cases it is more often thought not nec- 

 essary to give any particular account of the circumstances connected with 

 such loss or damage, because it was thouglit to be accidental and seem- 

 ingly unavoidable, and besides, tlie owner was an honest man. Neverthe- 

 less, it is almost hivarlably the case that when a loss by fire occurs the 

 owner or insured, however honest and upriglit may have been his past 

 record, someone is always ready to suspect and censure him for wrong- 

 doing. This more often occurs when high insurance is carried, but those 

 so disposed to be suspicious of nearly everybody are always ready to con- 

 demn the property and fix their own valuation at such figures as will 

 always make the insurance too liigh. So when the company neglects to 

 make full these reports of a loss, it gives those suspicious and fault-finding 

 members a sliadow of a reason for their complaint. When, on the other 

 hand, a complete report is made, full in all its details, the company has in 

 this particular done its best, and there is no shadow to serve as a screen 

 upon which to reflect a reason for complaint. 



We have reason to believe tliat few lines of business require a more 

 careful record and exact account of its work than does the business of a 

 mutual insurance company, because of the numerous individual interests 

 connected with it, which, in number, is equal to its members or policy 

 holders, each of whom is directly interested in the management of the 

 business, and should realize this fact with sufficient interest to post them- 

 selves from time to time in regard to the standing of tlieir company, and 

 the secretary should be prepared to lay before them such records and 

 statements of tlie business as they may wish to investigate for them- 

 selves. 



Therefore, because of these many interests involved, and the diversity 

 of understandings among them, makes it doubly necessary that many of 

 the transactions should be statements in detail, and to none other would 

 this apply more proper, and in place, than to the report of a loss. 



Blank forms should be supplied by every company for making of 

 these reports, and should be full and descriptive enough of the property 



