May 29, 1920.
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We beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of May 29th with reference to insurance to protect you against loss by reason of a fall in the market value of sugar held by you, and it is needless to say that it would be a great source of satisfaction to us if we could obtain this protection for you.
In response to your inquiry for insurance of this character in April we placed this matter before our London correspondents, who endeavored to develop a matter for this insurance with London Lloyd's, whom we know to be the only possible source from which insurance of this character might be obtained, but our correspondents were unable to secure any quotations at any rates whatever.
In our opinion the risk which Underwriters would take upon themselves in issuing such a policy would be so great that is could not be undertaken at even double the rate of three cents a pound mentioned in your letter. Indeed, considering the present abnormal price of sugar we do not believe that Underwriters would be warranted in writing this insurance at any obtainable premium.
We greatly regret our inability to be of assistance to you in this instance, but to the best of our knowledge and belief it is quite impossible to obtain the insurance which you desire.
Yours faithfully,
Mather & Co.,
Per Joeseph A. O'Brien.
Of course, the Refiner would be entitled to a fair insurance risk in his calculations, whether he covered it with an insurance company or assumed it himself; and as this can easily be ascertained to amount not only to more than the whole general profit, but to more than insurance, production cost and profit put together, it can easily be seen how correct Adam Smith and other economic thinkers are in stating that it is nearly al-
