NEW YORK (STATE). 



645 



State, Jan. I, 1887, were $568,276,867. Jan. 1, 

 1886, they were $534.536,633, a net increase 

 for the year of $33,740,234. The growth of 

 the savings institutions of the State is shown 

 by a comparison with their reports made for 

 1870. On Jan. 1, 1871, the aggregate re- 

 sources of the savings-banks then in existence 

 were $245,091,177; the increase in the re- 

 sources of the banks during the last sixteen 

 years has been $323,185,690, more than 131 

 per cent, of the total resources of the savings- 

 banks of the State Jan. 1, 1871, on which date 

 147 savings-banks were in existence. Estimat- 

 ing the stock investments and real estate held 

 by savings-banks Jan. 1, 1887, at market values, 

 the surplus of the banks on that date was $85,- 

 623,329. At the beginning of the preceding 

 year it was $77,282,889. The dividends or in- 

 terest of depositors of savings-banks for 1886 

 amounted to $15,777,022. The amount due 

 depositors on Jan. 1, 1886, was $457,050,250. 

 On Jan. 1, 1885, it was $437,107,501, an in- 

 crease during the year of $19,942,749, against 

 $6,027,491 for the preceding year. 



Insurance Companies. At the close of 1886 the 

 fire, fire-marine, and marine insurance compa- 

 nies doing business in the State were possessed 

 of $227,848,545 of admitted assets, not includ- 

 ing assets held abroad, or premium notes of mu- 

 tual companies, a gain of $15,007,124, as com- 

 pared with 1885. The liabilities of these com- 

 panies, excepting scrip and capital, were $85,- 

 402,054, which was an increase of $4,779,963 

 over the return of the preceding year. The in- 

 come was $108,939,665, and the expenditures 

 were $98,423,011, an increase, as compared 

 with 1885, of $4,277,169 in income, and $1,- 

 782,532 in expenditures. The whole number 

 of companies reporting in 1886 was 186, being 

 10 more than reported in 1885. 



At the close of 1885 there were twelve life- 

 insurance companies in operation, organized 

 under the laws of the State ; aggregate capi- 

 tal, $1,915,000; number of policy-holders, 97,- 

 085 ; total premiums during the year, $10,520,- 

 000 ; other income, not including rents, $6,591,- 

 869; outstanding risks, $253,437,000. The 

 Comptroller urges some measure of taxation 

 for these companies in the following terms: 

 "There is no form of business in which such 

 great aggregations of capital have been so 

 rapidly accumulated; yet to the present day 

 they have paid no tax whatever directly to 

 the State t Treasury. Upon the great mass of 

 their pro'perty they pay no county tax or 

 town tax, or any form of tax. I do not refer 

 to fidelity companies or casualty companies, 

 or to co-operative associations or organiza- 

 tions. The business corporations organized un- 

 der the laws of New York, and engaged in 

 life insurance in this State, held over $287,- 

 000,000 of assets on Dec. 31, 1885. Those 

 assets increased by the sum of $22,000,000 

 during the year 1885. The aggregate income 

 of such companies in 1885 was $64,000,000. 

 The New York companies had accumulated, 



on Jan. 1, 1886, over and above the reserve 

 required by law, surplus funds of $51,000,000. 

 Surely, this sum ought not to be untaxed." 



Temperance. A State Convention of Anti- 

 Saloon Republicans was held at Binghamton 

 on September 7, for the purpose of choosing 

 delegates to the National Convention at Chi- 

 cago and adopting a platform of principles. 

 The following is the platform adopted : 



We, temperance Republicans of the State of New 

 York, in convention assembled, do make this decla- 

 ration of our position and our convictions : 



1. We believe that the traffic in intoxicating liquors 

 is the source of a greater amount of misery, vice,, and 

 crime than any other agency of evil in modern times, 

 and that the influence of the saloon in politics is a 

 chief cause of demoralization and corruption ; and we, 

 therefore, hold that it is the supreme duty of the 

 State to adopt such practical measures as shall abolish 

 the sale of liquors as a beverage, and sweep away the 

 saloon altogether. 



2. History has proved that the only efficient sources 

 of political power are the two great established parties, 

 and there is no ca'se on record where any reform has 

 been accomplished by a separate party organized i'<>r 

 that purpose, except as it combined with others ; we 

 therefore demand of the Republican party, to which 

 we are proud to acknowledge allegiance, that it shall 

 take a firm and decided stand in favor of temperance 

 and against the saloon, and that when in power it 

 shall adopt and enforce measures for the restriction, 

 and at the earliest possible moment for the prohibi- 

 tion, of the liquor-traffic. 



3. The fundamental principle of our governmental 

 system is that the people shall rule. It has also been 

 demonstrated by experience that prohibitory measures 

 can only be enforced when public sentiment upholds 

 them. We, therefore, declare, as our opinion, that 

 the best method of dealing with the liquor-traffic is 

 to let the public decide the question whether it shall 

 be permitted or prohibited, by the submission of a 

 constitutional amendment in the whole State, and by 

 local option in the several parts of the same. 



4. We pledge ourselves as Republicans to do our 

 utmost to cause the party to plant itself squarely and 

 boldly upon a platform favoring the submission and 

 adoption by the people of a constitutional provision 

 which shall outlaw the saloon and prohibit the manu- 

 facture of the intoxicating beverages in which it deals, 

 and to enforce, rigidly, the popular will when it shall 

 have been expressed. And we call upon all temper- 

 ance men, and all friends of humanity, of whatsoever 

 party or name, to join us in securing these objects. 



5. As the Republican party has, therefore, achieved 

 its great success by its advocacy of high moral prin- 

 ciple, and with the help of the moral and intellectual 

 forces represented in the churches, schools, and col- 

 leges of our country, we believe that it will win in 

 the future by the same honorable course and by ally- 

 ing with itself the same elements which have been 

 and are the secrets of its power and the hope of its 

 existence. 



Resolved, As the sense of this convention, that in 

 the nomination of a candidate for Judge of the Court 

 of Appeals, the only State officer to be chosen at the 

 ensuing election, expression should be given to the 

 pervading sentiment of the Republican party in favor 

 of temperance reform, in the person of the candidates ; 

 that, as the State Committee decided to make a nomi- 

 nation without calling a State Convention, thereby 

 rendering such expression by a State Convention of 

 the party impossible, this convention most respect- 

 fully and earnestly suggests and recommends the 

 nomination of that eminent jurist and life-long tem- 

 perance advocate, the Hon. Noah Davis, as the Re- 

 publican candidate for Judge of the Court of Appeals, 

 for whom all sincere temperance men should be proud 

 to vote. 



