Life Insurance Company, the Knickerbocker Life Insurance Company, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the Mutual Life Insurance Company, the New York Life Insurance Company, and the World Life Insurance Company, and require a statement, under oath, from each of them, as to the amount paid in salaries, fees, compensation or donations to their respective presidents, vice-presidents, secretaries, medical examiners, attorneys, counsels, and all other employes for the year 1876, and report the result of such examination to this House in ten days." The following explanation seems proper to be made: A resolution similar to the foregoing, but imposing the duty of eliciting the information sought upon the Acting Superintendent of the Insurance Department, was passed by the Senate, by the motion of Senator Bixby, in January last, and a copy addressed to this company. At that time, two minute and exhaustive examinations of the company's condition were in simultaneous progress at its office, one conducted by a committee consisting of six of its trustees, appointed by the board for that purpose; and the other by the said Acting Superintendent of the Insurance Department, aided by his deputy and several assistants. Oppressed by the arduous labor imposed on the clerical force by these two examinations, and the necessity of attending on the company's regular business at the same time, the officers asked that they be allowed to procure from the books a portion of the information called for, viz.: That respecting the amount paid to attorneys and to medical examiners, during the intervals of other labor, and promise to complete and furnish their report on receipt of notice from the acting superintendent of the time when his report to the Senate was ready for transmission. This was acceded to, but by oversight or inability to send a notice in time, the late acting superintendent presented his report to the Senate, no notice of his intention having been furnished to this company. The communication, which is hereto annexed, contains full and true answers to the questions contained in Senator Bixby's resolution, and by consequence to those contained in the resolution of the honorable the Assembly of this State; it was completed on the day of this date, and verified by the president on the date of the jurat appendant, and would have been forwarded to the late acting superintendent, except for the misunderstanding above referred to. All of which is respectfully submitted. RICHARD A. MCCURDY, March 17, 1877. Vice-President. CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW YORK, 88.: Richard A. McCurdy, of said city, being duly sworn, deposes and says that he is the vice-president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York; that the facts set forth in the foregoing statement are true to his own knowledge, and that the facts set forth in the statement hereto annexed are true to his own knowledge, except as to such as are stated on information and belief, and that as to such facts he believes them to be true. Sworn and subscribed before me this 17th day of March, A. D. 1877. RICHARD A. MCCURDY. } WILLIAM G. DAVIS, Notary Public. THE MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK, NEW YORK CITY, February 13, 1877. Hon. WILLIAM SMYTH, Acting Superintendent Insurance Depart ment: DEAR SIR.We are in favor of your letter inclosing the following resolution passed by the Senate: "Resolved, That the Superintendent of the Insurance Department be and he hereby is requested to obtain from the various life insurance companies incorporated under the laws of the State of New York a detailed statement showing the amount paid in salaries, fees or compensation, or donation to their respective presidents, vicepresidents, secretaries, medical examiners, attorneys, counsellors and other employes, in the year 1876; and that such information be furnished to the Senate at the earliest day practicable." We presume the Senate would deem it an incomplete and unsatisfactory report were we to give that honorable body, in response to that resolution, a bald statement of figures, limited to the points of inquiry which they have addressed to the different life insurance companies through you. This would not only be unjust toward that respectable body, but toward the companies reporting, as they embrace corporations of small accumulation and limited business, together with those which, by the force of circumstances, control large accumulations and extensive business. We, therefore, consider it within the line of our duty in the items requested, to give also such existing facts as will enable the Senate to judge of the propriety of the company's course in reference to its expenses for salaries with intelligence and full appreciation of the subject. This company has been in existence since 1843. It is without capital, and the first cash it received and possessed was the first premium paid on a policy, amounting to one hundred and eight dollars and fifty cents ($108.50). All of its accumulations have been from its premium receipts and the interest and income growing out from the same. At present it has in force ninety thousand one hundred and twentyfive (90,125) policies, insuring three hundred and one million two hundred and seventy-eight thousand and thirty-seven dollars ($301,278,037); and its business, specified in your letter and the resolution accompanying it, that is, the year eighteen hundred and seventy-six (1876), was the issue of eight thousand one hundred and twenty (8,120) policies, the receipt of fifteen million one hundred and thirty-six thousand seven hundred and three dollars and thirtysix cents ($15,136,703.36) premiums, the issue monthly of over twelve thousand (12,000) receipts over the country, and connected with the same and in addition, the mailing of a like number of, called for by the action of the Legislature, during the past year. It purchased for cash four thousand five hundred and seventeen policies on surrender, and paid for the same during that period $3,619,623.18 (three million six hundred and nineteen thousand six hundred and twenty-three dollars and eighteen cents). Its medical department conducts the necessary correspondence, with over six thousand physicians in different parts of the country, the examination of applications for insurance, the examinations into causes of death claims, and the collection of such statistics as will throw light on our business and benefit the community at large. In its law department it has examined and certified the titles to four hundred and seventy-one loans on bond and mortgage, amounting to three million six hundred and thirty-five thousand and four hundred dollars ($3,635,400) without charge to the borrowers, except the necessary disbursements for official searches. That department has the supervision and management of all foreclosure proceedings. and litigations in any way relating to the company. The company has also permitted during the year the use of two million six hundred and ninety-four thousand forty-three dollars and thirty-four cents ($2,694,043.34), being the cash value of the dividends standing to the credit of policyholders in the payment of their annual premiums, each of which required separate and careful estimate and examination. It has also paid, after proper scrutiny, claims by death under its policies, amounting to three million three hundred and eleven thousand six hundred and fifty-one dollars and two cents ($3,311,651.02), with the additions to the same of four hundred and thirty-nine thousand seven hundred and eight dollars and eighteen cents ($439,708.18). In its department of securities it controls and cares for twelve million six hundred and seventy-three thousand five hundred and seventy-nine dollars and thirty-three cents ($12,673,569.33) in stocks of the description approved by the State laws and the Insurance Department in the bonds and mortgages on the real estate, amounting to sixty million eight hundred and fifty-six thousand two hundred dollars and eighteen cents ($60,856,200.18). These mortgages are to the extent of about $50,000,000 upon property within the State of New York, and scattered throughout the towns from Lake Erie to the ocean in sums of $1,000 and upward. On these sums interest has to be collected semi-annually, and the sufficiency of the security examined from time to time, and, where necessary, strengthened. The loans are nearly all due and subject to the call of the chairman, and subject to the call of the company. The company holds, as collateral security to its loans, policies of fire insurance from one hundred and fifty (150) companies, amounting to thirty-four million five hundred thousand dollars ($34,500,000). Our loans during the year amounted to five million nine hundred and sixty-two thousand nine hundred and twenty-six dollars and seventy-seven cents ($5,962,926.77). The aggregate of the securities of this company, as stated in the recent report of the insurance superintendent, is eighty-two million seventy-six thousand seven hundred and six dollars and eighty-seven cents ($82,076,706.87), a sum larger than that of the capital of all the national banks of New York city, and, it is believed, the largest. sum owned and controlled by any moneyed corporation in this country or the world. The persons necessary to carry on its business, and officially connected with it, are, in addition to the president, two vice-presidents, two secretaries, one head of the law department, two medical examiners, one actuary and two assistants, and 110 clerks and other employes at the central office. This statement, in brief, will enable the Senate to judge intelligently as to the responsibility and extent of the business of the company, and whether the staff and employes who manage it during such times as these are either too large or are too largely paid. We believe its expenses, all told, are a less per cent of its present and future obligations than those of any similar institution. They are, for officers and clerks, thirty-eight hundredths (.38) of one per cent on the assets of the company which they have in charge. On the active business of the company in receipts, one and fifty-six hundredths (1.56) per cent; and in insurance, one-tenth of one per cent. We subjoin the answer to your question as follows: Amount paid, in salary, to the president during the year 1876.. Amount of salary paid to vice-president $30,000 00 18,000 00 Amount of salary paid to medical examiner. 9,600 00 Amount of salary paid to solicitor, attorney and counselor.... Amount paid to 110 clerks and other employes 14,400 00 191,463 61 No officer, clerk or other person in the company's office receives any fees, compensation, donation or perquisites of any kind, except the salary voted to him by its board of trustees in consideration of his services. Medical examiners residing in different parts of the country are compensated by fees ranging from two (2) to five (5) dollars for each physical examination of applicants for insurance. The amount so paid during the year was thirty-eight thousand five hundred and sixty-nine dollars and thirty-one cents ($38,569.31). The amounts paid to attorneys and counselors residing in different parts of the country, was seventeen thousand seven hundred and fifteen dollars ($17,715). All of which is respectfully submitted. CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW YORK, 88. : F. F. WINSTON, President. FREDERICK F. WINSTON of said city, being duly sworn, deposes and says that he is president of the Mutual Life Insurance of New York, and that the signature affixed to the foregoing document is the true signature of deponent. That said document, consisting of eight pages, contains full, true and accurate answer to the resolution of the Senate of the State of New York, dated January 16, 1877, and recited therein. Q. How long have you been connected with this company as actuary? A. I joined the company the 1st of February, 1871. Q. And you have since been connected with it? A. All the time. Q. Had you previously had any connection with it? A. I had on several occasions solved several difficulties for the company alleged by themselves to be encountered in the adjustment of their accounts. Q. You had no regular connection with them? A. No recollec tion. Q. You said in that statement you read that the company had, at the present time, 92,125 policies; in that did you include the number surrendered during the past year, or did you exclude them? A. I have given you the number which the company had at the end of the year. Q. The year 1876? A. The resolution calls for the information we had in 1876. Q. Then it is exclusive of the number surrendered during the present year; as to the number, have you any personal knowledge; mean for this year? A. Nothing more than I get from the books. Q. Have you personal knowledge of it from the books? A. Yes, sir; I want to state to the committee that it is utterly impossible for any man to carry with him all the numbers of the company so vastly engaged in business as this company is; when I want any informa |