INFORMATION RELATING TO INSURANCE AND THRIFT 



Memel .... 

 Pregel . . . 

 Weichsel . . . 



Oder 



Elbe 



Oste .... 

 Weser .... 

 Ems .... 

 Vechte .... 



Rhine 



Meuse .... 

 Danube . . . 

 Kurisches Haff 

 Frisches Hfff . 

 Ostsee .... 

 North Sea. . . 

 Binnenseen 

 Wolkenbriiche 



UNITE)D STATES. 



MUTUAL INSURANCE AGAINST FIRE IN UASSACBUS^'I'TS. — Sixty- Second Annual 

 Report of the Insurance Commissioner of" the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, January 

 I, 1917 (Business of 1916), Public Document No. 9. 



From about 1895 until 1897 the organization of mutual fire insurance 

 companies in Massachusetts proceeded with feverish rapidity, more than 

 twenty new companies of the sort being incorporated and authorized to 

 issue policies. But of these ill founded and ill administered companies 

 not one has survived until the present day. 



This unfortunate episode led to the passing of three statutes, still in 

 force, each of which is intended to prevent certain abuses. By the first 

 any person whose dut}'- it is to determine the character of risks and decide 

 whether applications for insurance be accepted or rejected by an insurance 

 company is forbidden to receive as part of his remuneration a commission 

 on the premiums. The second law imposes a penalty on any Massachu- 

 setts fire insurance company which establishes an agent or appoints any 

 person to seek or to transact for it business in any State in which it has 

 not been lawfully authorized to transact business, or any such company 

 which allows a commission or emolument to any person for thus soliciting 

 or procuring insurance. The aim is to prevent unwary or grasping un- 

 derwriters from burdening the companies of Massachusetts with the poor 

 risks of other States. The third law enacts that no policy shall be issued 



