New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1859-12-06

no' by a.d dividends sufficiently out OF wight
& IN quite solvent, in spite oI auenoey so,n
now Iren ,ras souandered. Bot we say a. Soul
mg ron var. ~ abIe TO show itself solvent without
Ieuy Outns y r.nnv of the excess or loahi sg. "
10 he alance.sbeet show anything % VIC ,erv
10 {, ,urany must discount us loaule, ueI ~, 81
hee' ;l :, fo comes in ought To understand InS, %
nc AZ 80 ~ the premium he engages 70 pay 70 aes
-, -, 90 yeturn 20 him again after some DAY Ous v
~ invested in the eompanys dead
Lei he mathenatcians speak TO TINS peciSc P''"''
they dare .. -arr;uns are the
,urev hypothetical, or, if Mr.. Woolnouse pre-
The "6ciitious ones which arise from Tue " s
Fxperenee" az four per cent, II IS hardy
ne 10 saw that we did not obtain them by snostrasne
anv rer cent ofloading from the actual premiums OF S
international Hence Mr.. Nelson has tnrowhaway al
the figures by which he demonstrates tuae ,ne Non;
missiouers are "blnd 10 certain very simple piln.iI
rle of arithmetic and have made the internauonai
10 suffer by blunder which any ordinary oielA "'u'N
a. have been careful to avoid
Az the English Actuaries totally misapprehend our
method of valuation and one Of them bases nearly All
he a. 10 cay on this nisapprehension, IL may oe PP
10 state that our method IL substantially the same AZ
Lat recommended by Mr.. FAR, in lrs celebrated elNr
amended 10 the Twelfth Annual Report OF the british
Registrar General. Each policy, with its ADDITION, Is
valued separately and always 70 the nearest mon'n;
In this method the are doubtless numerous ana
for that very reason and because they cannot be nd
ydnay large they must tend 10 correct each otner IN
the aggregate. But large or small they are open 70
the inspection Of all corners, and we shall be most
happy TO give the International the benefit OF all 1t can
detect.
As have already sad, the results Of the labors OF
Messrs WOOlhouse and Nelson do not when carefully
Intercepted differ materially from ours. Their gross
valuation could easily be reduced TO net one II the
actual premiums were loaded uniformly, and we knew
the rate But their premiums being cast according 70
their previous returns from the Carlisle rate OF NOR
tally at 81 per cent, they cannot be loaded uniformly
in regard TO net premiums at per cent, from any aie
of moraIity. As near as | judge from the three
different scales Of actual premiums which have been
ueed by the International, which / find are more
heavily loaded than | supposed they were when l
wrote The report their average excess over Carlsle
net premiums at per cent il II per cent for non-par
tcratne policies and AZ AZ per cent for those that
participaie From Mr. WoOlhouses figures II appears
that about 5S-6S Of the premiums are on the par1c-
patng scales. Surprising the two classes TO be DIS
rbued Unfortunately among the policies and policy
holders of different ages, we shall have the present
value 10y Mr.. WOohouse) of the participating
policies, f77S450, and Of the non-particpatng,
fj33g72 If we multiply the former by l00-l42,
and The latter by IGO-ll7 land here / beg Mr..
Nelson 70 notice the inverted ratios), and add
the products, shall have E66l 800 nearly, as the
present value Of the net future premiums by the Car
sle table st per cent and subtractpg this from the
present value Of the assurances and endowments, we
have E257 1877 or 81 7S5, the net value OF the
policies To this add s29l ABS the present net liability
on annuities, according TO Mr.. WoolhOuse, and we
have present liability Of 81 $50 90, which ought 10
premium. But according TO Mr.. WOOhouse, the net
assets are $544 $50, leaving deficiency of S99l 80
Mr.. Nelson's figures treated in a similar way, make
the deficiency about $50, 000 less. The policies Oper
aed on by them do not exactly correspond in number
with those submitted to us and may not have corre-
sponded exactly in value Allowing for this and the
different mortality by which they have valued making
the values of policies less and OF annues more than
our rate as il should and throwing out of the account
all excess over net premiums which common sense
and juetce require TO be devoted finally altogether to
Dividends less expenses and the results Of Messrs
WoOlbouse, Nelson and PeirCe are simply confirma
tory Of the unpleasant fact which 1t was our duty TO
report.
Mir. Nelson and Prof. PIERCE express the opinion
that the expense ofmanagng all the policies OF the
International from this time TO the termination of the
last policy may be reduced 10 a very triaing per
eeutage of the premium quite within The loading
which is yet unantcipated, although it has never been
less than 20 per cent of the premiums hitherto. have
only TO say, | should like TO see it done. Perhaps
it viii be- If So all the better for the shareholders,
and perhaps for the policy holders. We have not
looked at the future of the Company, or denied its
! present condition, and proved that, compared with
| any of the fourteen Companies now doing business
in this State, its fund of reserved premium is dehclen'
| by more than one million OF donars, and compar
| ed with some of the strongest Of them by a6ou
&l zoe 0C0. Though this deficiency is aseeTtained
partly by hypothetical means it is by no means by"
nothetical deficiency Every dollar of the million, OF
The principal which should amount to II, has been
actually Iaid the society in cash. assets better q
il than each, by the Tocyholders whose policies are
now in force in paying their net premiums and II
should be now among we assetsItne eASeSs oa pre-
MUM actually paid having been abundany sufficient
| TO pay all reasonable expenses, and the actua
dividends to policy holders, not to speak of BONN
to Shareholders whose risk is thus far all IN the future
IL was not for us TO show how the money went. Gu
duty ended with showing that 1t is not there. Ii canno
be asserted that too much has bs returned to policy
holders. The Society's cash dividends cannot hav'
been more munihcent than its reversonary ones
| fxuo taxi IN he
aged IS, one in the Mutual Life of New-York, an
the other on the participating scale In the lnternatona
Of London.
Date. Sum Ina Addition
Mutual LIFE No IOO4........ Dee. 5000 sI4Sl
international, No. 2,oes......Nov H.. $1,000 E92O
The present values Of these additions, calling tn
pound S. and using the Actuares at per cent
$3.50 s5 for the Mutual Life and $2l 6S for the Inter
national, though the actual premium paid by No. 90
10 the Mutual Life has been 81 per annum less thai
| that Maid by No 2C9S TO the International. do DO
select the Mutual Life because l consider II the bes
American Company 10 insure in, but because 1t make
| reversiOnary dividends.
am truly sorry for the shareholders Of the Intena
tonal who are much in the condition Of railroad capt.
alsts, whose managers have been amusing them witt
dividends out of the iron rails till they called upoI
to furnish several times the amount of them to relay
the track. If were in their case and rich they
are reported TO be, wond put my hand quietly in my
pocket and enlarge the SOcetys assets by at least
millions of dollars, calling II all premium reserve
before | would ask another man to insure fol
the benefit Of his family. But | shall no
fail whether il be in private or official capacity, K
express IN natural terms, natural Indignation a.
seeing mathematical dust thrown in the eyes of con
tdiug public, come from what source il may Ii any
mathematical gentlemen feel aggreved at such undig
niied remarks, shall be happy to show them great
many figures in this Office than dare ask you &c
publish, and viii talk the matter with them very
calmly But il, without confronting the figures, they
| continue 10 accuse me Of "fabricating" them. and
"tsmpering" with them, / shall take the liberty u
areta lrfr of 70
| that wishes 10 sell others. ELizUR WRIGHT.
Qoe Of InssTaHcs Con @isoners Boston, Nov IS 1883