SECRETARY-TREASURER OF THE LAW SECTION, AND GENERAL COUNSEL SUPREME PUBLISHED UNDER DIRECTION NATIONAL FRATERNAL CONGRESS AMERICA. PREFACE. The Law Section of the National Fraternal Congress was organized in August, 1901. Its active membership consists of the General Attorneys and General Counsel of the constituent Societies composing the National Fraternal Congress. The local Counsel of the Societies, resident in different parts of the country, are also affiliated with it and attend its meetings. During the last decade Fraternal Beneficiary Insurance has made rapid strides in development, and now about equals in volume the amount of old line or regular life insurance in force in the United States. It follows, therefore, that there has, in recent years, been a great increase in the number and importance of the questions of law affecting the Fraternal Benefit Societies that have arisen in the courts for determination. At the meetings of the Law Section. many of these questions have been discussed. The formal papers read and addresses delivered before the Section upon important legal questions have been published from time to time in the Official Procedings; and they are herewith republished for the benefit and convenient use of the members. It is sincerely hoped that this volume will find a welcome place in the libraries of all Fraternal Insurance lawyers and managers of Societies, and that it will prove of value to them in the prosecution and defense of the interest of the Fraternal Beneficiary System. CARLOS S. HARDY. Chicago, July 1st, 1907. MEETINGS OF THE LAW SECTION. Detroit, Michigan ...... August, 1901... . August, Organized. Milwaukee, Wisconsin ... August, 1903. September, 1904. Old Point Comfort, Va... January, 1905. OFFICERS. ..... · .... Special Meeting. .Annual Meeting. .. Annual Meeting. . 1901-1904 . 1905 1906 President, J. G. Johnson, Peabody, Kansas.. . 1907 HAS CONGRESS, UNDER THE CONSTITUTION, THE POWER TO REGULATE INSURANCE COMPANIES AND FRATERNAL SOCIETIES DOING AN INTERSTATE BUSINESS. An address by Hon. Olin Bryan of Baltimore, Md., General Attorney Mr. Bryan's address was as follows: Whether or not Congress has the power to regulate insurance among the several States, or, in other words, whether we can have national supervision over "insurance" is a question which opens a large field of inquiry. Section 8, sub-section 3 of the Constitution of the United States, provides that Congress shall have the power "to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States and with the Indian tribes." Article 10 of the Constitution provides that the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. That Congress has the power to regulate interstate commerce is not debatable, for this is not only definitely fixed by the exact language of the Constitution, but it has been confirmed by Congressional action which has been again and again upheld by the Federal Courts. It is necessary, therefore, for us first to know what is embraced in the word "commerce." Black defines commerce as follows: "The various agreements which have for their object to facilitate the exchange of the products of the earth or the industries of man, with an attempt to realize a profit; a general term including specific contracts of sale and exchange." In Welton vs. Missouri, 91 U. S. 280, we have this definition: "Commerce is a term of the largest import. It comprehends intercourse for the purpose of trade in any and all of its forms, including the transportation, purchase, sale, and exchange of commodities. |