Document vVNMKkR85DxBd85LK0jVgdqxY

Susies? ^<P /ysj /2 < // Bay State, Insurance Laboratory, campaign urging offensive operations against plant and home deterioration. Newspaper and periodical advertising is Tries Lower Rate, New -Protection being tied in with window displays in the company's owned stores, number ing more than 100, and in its 17,000 Ma s s a c h u s et t s most conservative of considered them too little. Neighboring dealer outlets. states, stands for the most radical of automobile insurance laws. In the old Bay State, the innocent bystander is watched over as nowhere else; since 1926 he has been protected by com pulsory personal liability insurance. No car can be licensed to operate without a certificate of insurance. The rest of the country watched the towns, which had received none, showed their resentment. Cities which had been reclassified objected. The public gen erally 'was ungrateful for what it con sidered a small favor. A Ford owner in the Boston district, for instance, felt that a reduction of $7 on an annual premium which had started at $29 and jumped to $87 was nothing to be satis The surface-saving industries have been hard hit in a time when many of their customers have found it difficult to save anything. Figures from the Census of Manufactures show that sales of paint, varnish, and related products by companies whose chief business is the manufacture of' such products totaled only $331,838,000 in 1931--a experiment closely, saw this proving fied about. ground of the insurance principle be And Another Law 37% drop from the $530,590,165 vol ume of 1929. During the first 6 months come a battle ground of rates and poli tics. All owners were required to in sure; likewise, all companies doing business in the state were required to write the insurance. The Citizenry Squawks Rates were announced by the Insur Insurance companies pointed to their losses, pleaded with the commissioner to consider the outstanding claims of previous years and take into account the difference between estimated and ultimate liability. . Coincident with a public hearing on of 1932 the gallonage curve slipped 10% to 15% under the level for the same period of 1931 and, due to heavy price cuts in May and June, dollar volume went off about 25%. As in so many other lines, dealer stocks have been allowed to slide to new lows. Best ance Commissioner. Based on limited experience, they climbed annually, amid the loud squawks of the citizens and the happy cries of the ambulance chasers. the new personal liability rates, another law was entered in the Bay State prov ing ground which makes practically compulsory the carrying of property sellers have been quick-drying enamels and ready-rriiked paints .for home use, though sales to factories are reported to have been picking up. Biggest slmnn Politicians denounced the insurance damage protection. a-", b i 1 the demand for painting companies, but the companies were as Under this law, unless he is insured, new structures. There haven't been worried as the citizens. Under the rates a Massachusetts motorist has 60 days many new structures. Sales to the paint arbitrarily fixed by the commissioner, in which to pay a judgment for prop makers' 3 largest industrial outlets-- they lost rather than made money. Some estimates put their total loss for the last five years as about $14 millions. erty damage. Then he is ruled off the road and his license suspended. When insured, the insurance company assumes actor- r-bi'e manufacture, the railroads, rid fie 1 j si'.i:n ; !r,v . --!. ,? nffieied 1 ."V y r'c.Y' i-.., < t /.>- -o j s reasons. In 1931, according to F. H. Chase, rep the responsibility of payment resenting 40 stock casualty insurance Rates, as yet unannounced, will pre companies, premiums paid came to sumably be based on the state's expe Turn in Soap Prices Is 517,780,467; losses- paid amounted to $12,514,568 and expenses were $6,- rience with personaI liability. The law itself aroused a storm of protest. 1 Toward the Big Companies 628,156. As in other industries, the small soap Claims reached - startling totals. It manufacturer has been cleaning up dur was almost as if Massachusetts motorists, Paint Makers Set Out having paid stiff premiums in order to register their cars, had said to them To Save the Surface ing the toboggan era of commodity prices {BW--full3'32). With the up ward turn, advantages are reversed. The selves, "Well, we've paid for it, so Pr o s pec t s of an upturn strong enough day of reckoning for the little soap we might as well use it." to put some "rejuvenation" money in maker may be at hand. Procter & Reductions--But Small! company and family treasuries has Gamble, giant of the giants, announces After a few years of this, the citi stirred the paint manufacturers into ac price increases on 2 important laundry zenry began to appreciate the arithmetic tion. They know that many a plant and soap lines--a rise of 12f% for one, of the situation, various civic bodies home has had to go without needed 20% for the other. organized anti-accident drives. Three paintwork during the depression. They Competition in laundry soaps has years of depression amplified the effect also foresee an opportunity to capitalize been savage. The profit margin was f painfully high premiums. on the current urge toward moderniza narrow or non-existent. With raw ma Announcement this month of rates tion as a means of making employment terials rising, profits at old prices were for next year touched off no immediate and speeding up the flow of business. impossible. P.&G. took logical action. explosion of protest, such as is cus First evidence of the turn in the in The increase is the first for a soap tomary on this occasion. Accustomed dustries devoted to the manufacture of leader in 2 years. Expectations are that to annual increases, the people were paints, varnishes, and related products the rest of the industry will follow suit. perhaps taken unawares. The office of is the announcement that Sherwin- On a falling market, big soap makers die Insurance Commissioner, usually be Williams of Cleveland, a leader in the suffer. They must buy huge supplies deviled with protests, began to breathe field, will guarantee prices against de far ahead; as quotations fall, losses easily.