UNION FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY (Mutual), Lincoln, Neb. Organized 1886. Joseph W. Watt, president; Willard Kimball, vice-president; J. S. Farrell, secretary and treasurer

UNION FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Paris, France. Starkweather & Shepley, Inc., United States managers, Providence, R. I.

UNION FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Buffalo, N. Y. Organized 1874; capital, $200,000. O. E. Foster, president; John H. Lascelles, vice-president; C. Lee Abell, vice-president and secretary; Harold L. Abell, assistant secretary.

UNION-HISPANO-AMERICANA DE SEGUROS, Havana, Cuba. (Spanish-American Insurance Company). Entered the United States in 1917. Walter D. Despard, United States branch, manager 66 Beaver Street, New York, N. Y. (Writes direct marine business and fire re-insurance business).

UNION INSURANCE COMPANY (Marine), Bangor, Me. Organized 1862; capital, $300,000. A. F. Stetson, president; W. S. Higgins, vice-president; A. W. Staples, secretary.

UNION INSURANCE COMPANY, Indianapolis, Ind. Organized 1849, reorganized 1918; capital $200,000. H. H. Woodsmall, president; Charles E. Henderson, vice-president; Eben H. Wolcott, treasurer; Colin E. King, fire underwriting manager.

UNION INSURANCE SOCIETY OF CANTON, LTD., Hong Kong, China. Entered the United States in 1917. Wilcox, Peck and Hughes, United States managers, New York, N. Y. For marine business. Also transacts surplus line business with Marsh & McLennan, Chicago, as attorneys.

UNION INSURANCE COMPANY, Pittsburgh, Pa. Organized 1871; capital, $100,000. A. W. Mellon, president; Thos. Walker, vice-president; J. W. J. McLain, secretary; Edwin J. Krueger, general agent. 316 Fourth Avenue.

UNION MARINE INSURANCE COMPANY, LTD., OF LIVERPOOL, England. H. K. Fowler, United States manager, 27 William Street, New York.

UNION MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Montpelier, Vt. Organized 1875. Harlan W. Kemp, president; Herbert F. Brigham, vice-president; Ralph B. Denny, secretary and treasurer.

UNION MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Providence, R. I. Organized 1863. Frederick W. Moses, president and treasurer; Charles G. Easton, vice-president; Clarence H. Cady, secretary; Carlos F. Hunt, assistant secretary.

UNION, THE, an association of officials of fire insurance companies doing business in the Western and Northwestern states, often called, for sake of distinctiveness, the "Western Union," has its headquarters in the city of Chicago.

The Union has jurisdiction over Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, except as modified or restricted by the laws of the respective states.

The "governing committee" is appointed by the president of The Union, and is composed of two classes, the first of members whose terms expire in September, annually, and the second of members whose terms expire in April, annually.

At the annual meeting held at Hartford, Conn., in September, 1918, officers were elected for the year as follows: President, A. G. Dugan, Chicago; vice-president, S. Y. Tupper, Atlanta; secretary, Edward B. Hatch, Chicago.

The following constitute the Governing Committee: C. R. Street, chairman; J. C. Corbet, A. W. Perry, C. R. Street, C. R. Tuttle, terms expiring April, 1920; George H. Batchelder, Charles E. Dox, Fred S. James, C. A. Ludlum, A. W. Perry, Wm. S. Warren, terms expiring September, 1919.

The following is a list of companies composing the membership, May 1, 1919:

Etna of Hartford.

Etna Fire Und. Dept.

Alliance, Philadelphia.

American Alliance.

American Alliance Assn.

American Central.

American Eagle Fire.

American National Fire, Columbus, O.
Atlas Assurance. London.

Automobile, Hartford.

Bankers and Merchants Fire, Arizona
British America.

British Underwriters' Agency.

Caledonian, Scotland.

Caledonian-American.

Equitable Fire and Marine of R. I.
Exchange Underwriters' Agency.
Fidelity-Phenix Fire.

Fire Association of Philadelphia.

Fire and Marine Underwriters' Agency.
Fireman's Fund, California.

Forest City Ins. Agency.

Franklin Fire of Philadelphia.

General Fire, Paris.

Georgia Fire Underwriters' Agency.
Georgia Home.

German Fire Underwriters of Omaha.
Glens Falls.

Globe Fire Und. Agency, So. Dakota.
Granite State Fire.

Great American.

Hand-in-Hand Underwriters' Agency.
Hanover Fire of New York.

Hartford Fire.

Hawkeye-Des Moines Underwriters.
Henry Clay Fire of Kentucky.
Hibernia Underwriters.

Home, New York.

Home Underwriters.

Home F. & M. of Cal.

Hudson.

Illinois Underwriters.

Imperial Assurance.

Insurance Co. of North America.

Inter-State Fire, Detroit.

Law Union and Rock.

Liverpool & London & Globe, England.

London Assurance Corporation.
London Underwriters' Agency.

UNITED AMERICAN INSURANCE COMPANY, Pittsburgh, Pa. Organized 1873; capital, $200,000. W. J. Patterson, president; W. H. Barker, vice-president; E. P. Niebaum, secretary.

UNITED BRITISH INSURANCE COMPANY, LTD., THE, of London, England entered the United States in May, 1918 to transact a fire and marine business. C. P. Stewart & Co., Inc. of New York being United States Managers. The officers of C. P. Stewart & Co., Inc. are Cecil P. Stewart, president, Gresham Ennis, Wade Robinson, vicepresidents, John Van Horne, secretary and treasurer.

The head office of the United States is with C. P. Stewart & Co., 56 Beaver Street, New York City and the Marine Department is managed by Wade Robinson of the same address.

The Fire Department is located with the New Jersey Insurance Company at 40 Clinton Street, Newark, N. J. under the management of Gresham Ennis, vice-president of the New Jersey.

The Company is owned by the Motor Union Insurance Company of London interests and its American statement, as of December 31, 1918 shows:

Its United States Trustees are the Guaranty Trust Company of New York and it is represented throughout the United States by the same special and general agency field force as the New Jersey Insurance Company.

UNITED FIREMEN'S INSURANCE COMPANY of Philadelphia; incorporated April 1, 1860, and began business on April 2, 1861; capital, $400,000. President, William H. Clark; vice-president, Thos. K. Ober, Jr.; secretary, M. B. Yates; treasurer, Jas. M. Canning; assistant secretary, Wm. G. Wible, Third and Walnut Streets.

UNITED MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, 141 Milk Street, Boston, Mass. Organized 1908. Louis K. Liggett, president; James C. Beady, vice-president; James C. McCormick, treasurer; Archie W. Campbell, secretary; Wm. H. Abare, assistant secretary.

UNITED STATES FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, New York City. Organized 1824; capital, $1,400,000. George R. Branson, president; Chas. A. Norris, M. L. Allen, Ernest L. Allen, D. J. Burtis, vice-presidents; D. G. Wakeman, secretary, 95 William Street.

URBAINE FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY, Paris, France. Organized 1838. Fred S. James & Co., New York and Chicago, United States managers, 123 William Street, New York, N. Y.

USE AND OCCUPANCY INSURANCE.* "Use and Occupancy Insurance," in the broad sense, insurance against the loss caused by fire in the way of interruption of business in a going concern, has had but a comparatively small development in the United States, and much of that development has apparently been in a wrong direction. There are two chief reasons for this. In the first place, in those states requiring or encouraging the use of a standard fire policy there is no separate provision for insuring contingent interests, such as rents. profits, use and occupancy, leasehold interest, etc., although these interests manifestly cannot be properly covered under the ordinary standard fire policy, with its express exclusion of loss due to interruption of business, its requirement for the payment of any loss in one sum and at one time, and its manifold minor provisions designed only for regular property insurance and losses. And in the next place, partly because a higher rate is ordinarily charged for so-called profit insurance than for so-called use and occupancy insurance, and partly because of the failure to understand and measure the real interest sought to be covered, the forms employed have been confused, evasive, or quite inadequate.

The first of these handicaps can be overcome only by amending or overriding the statutes enacting and establishing the standard policy; either greater liberty must be given fire underwriters by the law in the matter of insuring these contingent interests, or riders largely modifying the regular provisions of the standard fire policy for the

*By Willis O. Robb. Manager, New York Fire Insurance Exchange, New York.

sake of a clear cover for such interests must be employed and tolerated. The removal of the second handicap would appear to be mainly a question of education.

64

Strictly speaking, use and occupancy insurance, as was held in the well-known New York Court of Appeals case of Michael vs. the Prussian National Insurance Company, the so-called Buffalo Grain Elevator case, covers only the loss to the owner or occupant of the ability to use the property described in the policy. In the Tanenbaum cases in the Supreme Court of the same state, it was expressly, and no doubt properly, held that use and occupancy," as that expression is used in a contract to procure insurance which was described only by that term, was not and could not be profits from earnings, however ascertainable. Apparently, therefore, use and occupancy in its proper sense is substantially the same as rental value, and to be measured in the same way as to insurable value and recoverable loss. But as understood by American underwriters generally, use and occupancy insurance is a form of contract that promises to indemnify the policyholder (usually a manufacturer) at a certain rate per day, in case of total interruption, and at a pro rata of that rate in case of partial interruption, caused by a fire in his premises. Only the vaguest understanding of the proper method of fixing that per diem rate, or the total insurable value of the interest insured, is usually found among either underwriters or policyholders. That is because they do not clearly see, or (on account of the question of rate already referred to) do not wish to acknowledge, that what the applicant wants and the underwriter should furnish is simply and solely a form of profit insurance, not use and occupancy insurance at all, in the proper sense of that expression. In England, this kind of insurance has been for more than a dozen years more correctly handled as the profit insurance it really is, on a form specially adopted throughout to its precise purpose, with great resulting advantage to the public and to the underwriters, so that a really important new branch of fire insurance has been developed. A recent English writer on this subject is therefore quite justified in referring to the American practice in the following curt fashion:

In the United States of America, a scheme called Use and Occupancy is the system which is intended to compensate the insured for the loss of profits by fire. The company issuing a Use and Occupancy policy agrees to pay a pro rata amount of the sum insured for each day the business is entirely stopped, and in proportion in the event of a partial interruption. It is unnecessary to say that such a system cannot assess the loss of profits sustained, except in businesses where the turnover does not fluctuate. Such businesses are so few that a use and occupancy policy is of little commercial value."

It is true that this summary dismissal of the American Use and Occupancy policy does a little less than justice to it through failure to perceive that, however inaccurate a measuring rod a fixed per diem may be wherewith to measure a fluctuating rate of profit, it is, after all, likely to produce a fair average of result operating through any considerable period. But certainly the English method described by this same writer (Mr. Alex B. Wright, "Insurance Against Loss of