THE CINCINNATI TIMES-STAR
December 6, 1904
NEWS.
scans from newspaper collection
of
Ruth
Adams-Battle
Transcribed by Dorothy
Wiland

WANTS A TAX ON INSURANCE
Board of Public Safety Member suggest
Retaliation -
Bitter Condemnation of Recetn Report.
The recent criticism of Cincinnati’s
fire conditions and her fire and police departments, made by experts
employed
by the fire insurance companies, had another round at the meeting of
the
Broad of Public Safety Monday, Vice President Max Burgheim was probably
the severest in his remarks, although Mr. Cushing and Mr. Faran did not
spare their denunciation. The discussion followed the reports of
the two chiefs-Millikin of the police and Archibald of the fireman,
regarding
the strictures (sic) of the insurance people. Vice President
Burgheim
said: “They want to milk the cow more than they have. They may
have
lost money last year, and may this year, but the figures for the ten
years
back will show they took out five dollars for every dollar they paid in
because of losses. We ought to resent publicly the charges made
in
the report. It is high time for the city to regulate foreign
insurance
companies, instead of letting them try to regulate the city. I am
in favor of a tax of from $500 to $1,000 against them. If they
don’t
want to do business here, let them get out. Cincinnati business
men
are strong enough to form their own insurance company. I think it
can be done and know that some people are at work on it now.
Mr. Cushing said if anyone
could find out who is responsible for the report and who ought to be
answered
he might answer the report. “But to answer under the conditions
might
mean simply to et into an argument with some blatherskite who should be
ignored.” He said.
Then pulling out a mass
of newspaper clippings, he showed them to the board, saying: “Recently
they have raised the rates 25 per cent in Pittsburg, (sic) Chicago and
Jersey City. Now they probably want to raise them here.
They
condemn conditions in the city in which they happen to be, then go to
another
city, praise the conditions of the city they just left and condemn them
in the city they are in at the time. They will probably go to
some
other city and praise Cincinnati’s condition while finding fault with
the
town they are in.”
It was finally decided
to refer the entire affair to President Faran.

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