Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1869-12-08

principle, human civiliz alton would now
stand where it did hundred generations
ago. We gratefully recognize and cheer
fully extol the widespread good that has
been accomplished by the venerable in
stitutions of different systems and OF the
days of other years. Indeed, we vene-
rate all that is great and good of the
past To us it is sacred. But that which
is greater and better nop is more 80.
Other companies have their merits, and
great onee. But in addition to these
same merits, we offer you other real and
valuable advantages, some OF which we
will evumer ate after giving you brief
account of the origin of this Company.
The Life Association of America was
formed aud organized in the month OF
June, 1868, by one hundred of the lead.
ing merchants, bankers, business and
professional men of st. Louis, Missouri,
who entered into an agreement to insure
their lives for $4,000 each, on the ten
payment endowment plan, and to pay IN
their premiums, which we're deposited IN
one of the strongest bankisg institutions
in St. Louis, before the Company should
be incorporated. This gave on the day
OF incorporation $l,000,000 insurance
and an annual income of ST. $40 10.
With this as basis, the Association
went into operation as PURELY MUTUAL
Life Assurance Society, the object OF the
company being
l. "To meet the great and increasing
demand for life insurance in the coun-
try, by furnishing system based upon
such principles of equity and liberality
as would be in harmony with the genius
of the businegs-a business at once the
most beneficeut and sacred.
2. To avert the disadvantages arising
from the system Of monopoly of man
sgement and oncentration of power in
cident to the IN utual plan OF insurance,
as prscticed at present in this country.
3. To spread the investments arising
from these insursnces among the several
States from which they are derived, and
thus to equalize the benefits of the busi-
ness between the different sections OF the
country, so that the company may be es-
sentially and truly national
To meet these conditions the company
adopted q system Of copartnery organiza-
tions, securing to che several States that
enter into the organization, perfectly
mutual and equal rights, subject only to
the authority of the General Board of Di-
rectors at the Parent Office in ST. Louis
By the comprehensiveness of its plan
and the manifest equity of its proposals.,
the company has already secured the un-
qualified approval, and to large extent
the cordial support of the best financial
talent of the country, and has achieved a
success absolutely unprecedented in the
history of life insurance.
1t will be readily seen that this system
is in every respect what the present state
of the insurance business imperatively
requires:
l. 1t is comprehensive, and ia designed
to be commensurate with the present
state and prospective increase of the
business in the country.
2. 1t is protective in its character,
securing to each State its own equitable
share of the net assets of the Company
for local investment.
8. 1t is just, in that its benefits are
not, as is the case with other companies,
concentrated and accumulated at the
home Office, but equitably distributed
among the departments. For this res-
son it can never become close corpora
ton, carried on at the expense of the |
many for the benefit of privileged
few.
Some of its advantages then, sum
msrily stated, are:
l. 1t is purely mutual Company, not |
having q dollars worth of stock or a
single stockholder in it. Every mem
ber, therefore, stands on the same plat |
form. All its assets belong exclusively |
to them, and all its earnings will be d. |
vided among them.
2. The system secures the greatest |
economy ever practiced by Life Com
pany, the average cost of insurance |
being thereby reduced.
3. 1t is the only Company that adopts
the plan of local investments. Most
other companies take our money away
this leaves it at home.
4. 1t offers a system, and the only |
system that can keep capital where 1t \
belongs-dt home Every State cannot
have its own Life Company. II it could
the remedy would be at hand. But the
very existence of such company de-
pends upon its having business suf-
ficiently extended, in point of territory,
to secure il fair average of mortality.
But every State may be made an integral
portion Of q grest copsrtuery system,
and may reap therefrom all the advsn-
tagss Of a local, with the security and
protection of national organization.
This is what the Life Association of
America aims to accomplish, and 1t is
precisely what the country needs. It is
founded, too, upon 3 thoroughly seien-
ufc basis, and is conducted by mrn who
are well vsFsed in the science. u, we'll as
in the practical working, Of the bu'i-
ness"
1t is under the care Of the sblest ard !
best financial and business men in s 1,
Loais-men who are entirely worthy OF |
public confidence and public trusts
and the solvency Of the Company is IS
wall established as that Of any moneyed /
in the land.
Aud in making these statements We
do so without local feeling or sectional 4
hostility, aud without mssaIuE 10 depre |
ciate the many strong, sound, merito-