April I, 1907.] 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



217 



The Rubber Manuracturers' Mutual Insurance Company 



AND ITS ACTIVE HEAD. 



EARLY in 1884 the late Benjamin F. Taft and his son, Ben- 

 jamin Taft, at that time prominent in the Cotton and 

 Woolen Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Co., met in Bos- 

 ton certain leading rubber manufacturers to consider a plan for 

 a mutual insurance company that should consider tire risks in rub- 

 ber factories. At that tiine, be it noted, rubber factories were 

 considered so hazardous that fire insurance companies refused to 

 rate them at all, and if they insured them it was a matter of 

 special negotiation and rating. 



In November, 1884, the Rubber Manufacturers' Mutual In- 

 surance Co. was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts, the 

 following rubber manufacturers being the organizers; George H. 

 Hood, Isaac P. T. Edmands, Elisha S. Converse, Eugene H. 

 Clapp, Robert D. Evans, Wheeler Cable, Freeman Wight (tem- 

 porary incorporator and succeeded very soon by Henry L. Hotch- 

 kiss). Henry C. Morse, and James Bennett Forsyth, with the 

 very important addition to the hoard of two men not rubber 

 manufacturers, Benjamin Franklin Taft and Benjamin Taft. 

 Very soon afterward the late George F. Hodgman, of New York, 

 was added to the board. The company 

 started out with the very cheering pre- 

 diction from the Massachusetts insurance 

 commissioner that it would live about six 

 months. 



The first policy which the company 

 wrote was dated January 15, 1885, and 

 issued to the Boston Rubber Shoe Co., 

 the rate being $3 per hundred. It is in- 

 teresting to note ahw that about the same 

 time the Woonsocket Rubber Co. took 

 out a policy, the rate being $4 per hun- 

 dred, and the .A.etna Rubber Mills one at 

 $4.50 per hundred. .'Xs a matter of con- 

 trast it should be stated here that the 

 present rate is 15 cents per hundred, that 

 the company is still alive, as will be seen 

 by the annual report printed below, and 

 that it has .saved insurers thousands and 

 thousands of dollars. Beyond this, by 

 bringing together men who were prac- 

 tical rubber manufacturers, who not only 

 knew the risks in their business, but 

 could provide adequate remedies for them 

 and in nearly every instance remove 



them in building construction or in adapting processes, the whole 

 complexion of rubber risks has entirely changed, so that to-day 

 the old line companies are bidding for and accepting rubber risks 

 at rates that a few years ago would have seemed inipos.sible. 



The charter of the Rubber Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance 

 Co. specifics broadiy insurance on manufacturing property and 

 buildings and stock, especially rubber manufacturing property, 

 and quite lately this has been broadened so that property other 

 than manufacturing or in process of manufacture, that is prop- 

 erty in storehouses, may be insured. 



The directors of the Rubber Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance 

 Co., who meet once a month, have always been leading rubber 

 manufacturers, and these meetings have been most potent in 

 bringing together the leading rubber interests on a friendly basis, 

 so that an incidental effect of this association has been an ex- 

 ceedingly friendly and respectful appreciation by each other of 

 men who in business were naturally keen competitors. 



It is impossible to mention the Rubber Manufacturers' M\itual 

 Insurance Co. without calling attention to the Cotton and Woolen 



.Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Co., organized in 1875, and 'he 

 Industrial Mutual Insurance Co., organized in 1890. All tTie 

 three companies are run from the same offices at No. 31 Milk 

 street, Boston, and are very closely identified with each other 

 as far as policy, management and officers go. The present man- 

 agement of the Rubber Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Co. is 

 as follows: 



President — Arthur \V. Clapp. 



l''icc President — I'ienjami.n Taft. 



Secretary and Treasurer — Benjamin Taft. 



Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer — F. W. MosE*;. 



Assistant Secretary — \V. B. Bbophv. 



Directors — George H. Hood, Boston; Benjamin Taft, .\yer, Mass.; Marcus 

 Bcebee, Maiden, M.tss. ; Robert Batcheller. Boston; E. B. Page, Winchester, 

 Mass.; \. W. Clapp, Weston, .Mass.; C. C. Converse, Maiden. Mass.; E. H. 

 Clapp, Boston; M. V. B. Jcitrrson, Worcester. Mass.; F. W. Bitcher. East- 

 hampton. Mass.; W. B. Plunkctt, Adams, Mass.; C. E. Stevens, Ware, 

 Mass.; E. S. Williams, Maiden, Mass.; GcorRc B. Hodgman, New York; 

 Arthur H. Lowe, Eitchburg, Mass. 



The presence of some men who are not rubber manufacturers 

 on this board is otifset by the presence of rubber manufacturers 

 on the boards of the other two companies. For example, on the 

 board of the Cotton and Woolen Manufacturers' Mutual Insur- 

 ance Co. appear the names of H. E. Con- 

 verse, F. W. Pitcher, Arthur W. Clapp 

 and E. S. Williams, and on the board of 

 the Industrial company are C. C. Con- 

 verse, Lester Leland, Arthur W. Clapp, 

 F. W. Pitcher and E. H. Qapp. 



At the last annual meeting of the Rub- 

 ber Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Co. 

 the follow-ing financial report was made: 

 .\niornt at risk $5I,7SSi524.oo 



ASSETS. 



Bonds at bnok value $352,000.00 



Cash in bank and office 26,287.59 



Premiums in process of collection. 11,313.77 



-Accrued interest 5,672.07 



Gross cash $395,273-43 



LIABILITIES. 



Unadjusted losses $22,016.08 



*Unearned premiums on 

 outstanding risks 231,917.05 



Benjamin Taft. 



253,933.13 



Net cash $141,340.30 



Assessment liability 2,319,170.55 



Total amount applicable to pay- 

 ment of losses $2,460,510.85 



Average dividend paid in 1906, 85 per cent. 



* Unearned premiums only because due after 

 notice of cancellation of policies, and are even then deferred claims until 

 all losses shall have been paid. Add Unearned Premiums to Total Assets 

 and you have amount applicable to paying losses. 



As is indicated above the practical head of the Rubber Manu- 

 facturers' Mutual Insurance Co. at its inception was the late 

 Benjamin Franklin Taft, whose personality and work The I.vdia 

 Rubber World always appreciated. .\\. the time of his decease in 

 1901, his son, Benjamin Taft, who has been in the company from 

 its beginning, became its secretary and active head. 



Benjamin Taft was born April 29, 1852, in Northbridge, Massa- 

 chusetts, where his family had lived for many generations. He 

 was educated in the public schools in .^yer and Groton, gradu- 

 ated from Lawrence Academy, Groton, and later at Bryant & 

 Stratton's Commercial College in Boston. His first beginnings 

 as a business man were as a printer at Groton Junction. Later he 

 went into the manufacture of woodenware with his father at 

 West Acton, Massachusetts. Then he took a position with the 

 Boston and Maine railroad, and in 1877, at the earnest request of 

 his father, came into the Cotton and Woolen Manufacturers' 

 Mutual Insurance Co. as assistant secretary. Mr. Taft is a 32° 



