AGRICULTURAL RELIEF 
100 
manager of the Cotton Fire and Marine Underwriters, of New York 
City, who is one of the most prominent insurance men in the United 
States. 
This letter was written on October 15, 1926, and in this letter, a 
copy of which I have turned over to your Mr. Fort, of this com- 
mittee, Mr. Seibles says: ‘It seems to me to be a fair underwriting 
proposition;”’ and further he says: 
This appears to me to be a sufficiently definite proposition to calculate a fair 
rate for the risk involved, and the statistics and records seem to me to be in better 
shape than a great many propositions which underwriters are willing to undertake. 
He further says: 
{ think the proposition is not only sound in itself, but it has a particular attrac- 
tion from an underwriting standpoint at the present moment. 
He further says: 
It will be interesting to know that the uniform trend of prices is found in wheat 
as well as cotton. This result, of course, is in strict conformity with the logic of 
the situation. 
I would like further to state that in October, 1926, I went before 
the Secretary of Agriculture, Mr. Jardine—— 
Mr. Hope (interposing). Who was the gentleman you spoke of? 
Mr. BrLepsoe. Mr. Edwin G. Seibles, manager of the Cotton, 
Fire & Marine Underwriters, one of the most prominent insurance 
men in the United States. 
Mr. KincreELOE. I wonder if he is writing this kind of insurance? 
Mr. BLEpsoe. No; it is not in the business, it has never been 
written yet. I will get to that later. 
I went to Mr. Jardine, Secretary of Agriculture, and put this 
proposition before him, and he took me to the Secretary of Com- 
merce, Mr. Hoover, who had this department go into it, and I was 
told by Mr. Jardine that they both found it to be a sound proposition. 
I also put this up to other insurance men in New York, and I 
have been advised that their counsel have stated that their charters 
would not permit them to write this insurance, and that the laws of 
the State of New York, which control all of the insurance business 
of the United States, would not allow the writing of this kind of 
insurance; that the laws would have to be amended and their charters 
changed so as to cover this feature of the insurance business. 
Mr. Houston. That is the obstacle in the way at the present 
time? 
Mr. BLEpsoE. Yes. My experience has been that a lot of things 
fre obstacles when it comes to getting those things written into the 
aw. 
I make these statements to give you a fair knowledge of how this 
problem is being treated by the business men of this country, both 
the business and insurance men. 
Mr. Jones. Now, let me sak you a question. I looked over that 
table you furnished yesterday. 
Mr. BLEDSOE. Yes. 
Mr. Jones. And I think this can be drawn from it. If I am not 
correct, I would like to be corrected; that if this plan had been in 
force for the last 20 years, covering all the cotton grown during 
that period, and $1 a bale collected, that the sellers of the cotton 
would have gotten the average price for the entire year, for the