SENATOR BELL.
Mr. Bell--It is not right to advocate or opppose this measure on the ground that it is being done in the interest of or in opposition to any newspaper. The only thing that gives us the right to require publication of the statements of the condition of foreign Insurance Companies doing businesse in this State at all, is that the people may know their condition--the people they have to deal with. If we have the right to require them to publish at all, it must rest upon that ground. If it is right to require these statements to be made, it is right that they be made in the papers having the largest general circulation in the State. The minority report of the Committee in which I joined would leave the law standing as it now is and has been since 1877, namely--that they should make these statements semi-annually; that they should be published in the two leading newspapers published in Indiana having the largest general circulation, and the substitute would also allow them to continue to be published as display advertisements. I believe this to be right, especially as they are published only once--a single insertion, not like other advertisements, continuing for three or four weeks in a paper. It ought to be published in such a shape to display and attract attention of the reader. I have examined this matter, and I find whenever Insurance Companies, in their own interest, have advertisements inserted, they universally display them at least twice, usually four timesthe extent that the Auditor requires these official statements to be displayed. I have not heard of a single Insurance Company that objected to the publication as now being done; but, on the other hand, I have conversed with some of the agents of the leading Companies; not only were they satisfied with the law, but so well satisfied with the publication, I learned they were in the habit of going to the newspapers and having them inserted of their own accord and paying for them themselves. I have in my hand (exhibiting them for the inspection of the Senators) four publications in the Indianapolis Journal of a recent date, where the Insurance Company have and paid for a large quantity of space to make additional display to that required by the Auditor. At least $25 is added to the four statements for the very purpose of giving display head lines, and paid for additional by the Company. To allow them to crowd such advertisements into small type in some obscure corner in the paper would be to allow weak Companies to avoid scrutiny, for such advertisements are intended to appear for the benefit of the people. Strong Companies, those Companies that the people would be sure in doing business with, are willing now and in the future to continue to pay for these as advertisements of their Companies I find that in Indiana there is less paid for the publication of these official statements, and they occupy less space than any other State in the Union, with the single exception of Ohio. In Illlinois the publication of such reports cost at least twice as much as they cost in Indiana. This is really a small matter to these Insurance Companies, but is of great importance to the public and the people. This, in no other respect, compares with the ordinary legal advertisement, Sheriff sale, or anything of that kind, in that such advertisements, as I said before, run through several insertions, while these pub1ications made at Indianapolis are of interest all over the State, and are for but a single insertion; therefore, it is of more importance that they should be displayed so as to answer the purpose for which they were brought into existence. It is not fair to discuss this as being in the interest or in opposition to newspapers. We should consider what is right to be done in the interest of the people, and until those who are called upon to pay for these display advertisements--namely, the Insurance Companies--at least until some one of the responsible ones can be heard objecting, we might well continue to publish as they are now, and it will be time enough when those parties object.
