The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1870-04-12
.HChcap John" Plans Of Life Insurance.

These two organizations--the first in.
corporated under the general Life Gnsur.
ance Law of the State of Connecticut,
attempt to introduce new plan of insur-
ance on lives. Both have such points of
coincidence that they may be classed to-
gether and yet each has special divergen-
cies which separate them The Farmers
and Mechanics is an out grow tn, or up
growth Of the Manhattan Cooperative
Relief Society," which hourished for n
brief period here about a year since, and
then skedaddled to Chicago where it pro-
baby shed its New York nomenclature
and expanded into western mammoth
of industrial benefcence. Nominally the
Farmers and Mechanics is Life Insur.
ance Company-it is chartered q such,
only-empowered to make assurances on
lives.
But practically the company is merely
a cooperative" insurance organization
and covers that scheme under its charter
ed title of Life Insurance Company
Now Cooperative Insurance is not Life
Insurance. Life Insurance in considera.
ton of fixed annual premium payable
during the continuance of life or for a
certain period, contracts to pay q fixed
amount of money on given event, 4. e.
either on the death Of the insured or on
his attaining specified age Here is a
definite basis for contract,-the ascer-
tanned average of human life warranting
the insurer to protect the insured against
the uncertainty of his individual duration
of lie but this new tangled cooperative
scheme discards all science and experience
inviting men irrespective Of age to pay
up common amount rs entrance fee, OF
fifteen dollars, and an equal sum of two
dollars year, with an additional obituary
contribution of one dollar and ten cents
on the death Of every member of the class
for all of which this chartered Life Com.
pany, covenants to pay to the heirs Of the
Insured, one dollar for each member who
may be in the insured at the time of his
death. Certainly this is not life insur.
ancc. Odd-felow-ship or friendly Socie.
ty-ship, or some such craft it may be but
it should not be hitchcd on to Life Ins,lr-
ancc-they make "a balky team"
The classes most likely to be hood.
winked by this scheme are the working
men Of the country and, it is from the
operatives in factories and mechanics gen
orally that the promoters of this company
expect to draw their supplies. The 500,
coo, deposited at Albany will not be re-
sponsible for the policies issued on thi'
Mutual Plan or "Tontine Plan" OF
Cooperative class humbug. That
fund will be security for Life Policie.
only as contemplated BY the law for the
organization of Life Companies. The
Insurance Code of this State has careful
ly provided that even Fire, Marine, OF
Accident Insurance should not be mixe(
up with Life Insurance, and certainly i
will not tolerate this Cooperative dodge
being tackled on to it. As well nigh
the Directors contend that they could un
der their charter carry on regular
Policy" business, and issue Gigs
saddles" and all the other slang.stlet
tickets Of lottery operation.
But the contemporary, and by a signl
Gcant coincidence, the close neighbor o
the Farmers and Mechanics the Hart
ford Mutual Beneft--aaunts its Ensign
upon more imprudent pretentions thai
the local hybrid. The Hartford paints
and prints up capital of 5000, 000,whicl
of course with very in6nitessimal ex
ception exists only on paper-It outbid
or underbids the other CHEAP John,
and offers to take nine dollars entrance fe
Instead OF fifteen dollars, &C., &c.
Amongst the names ofthe officers we NEE
one who is already known, to put it mild
ly, in the Insurance world, only for tn
repeated failures Of whatever he under
took five have an Attorney Genera
in this State, who cares to protect tn
public, he should take immediate actio
to test the right of this Hartford corpoi
alton to carry on its operations here an
also to restrain the Farmers and Mechanic
from carrying on the Cooperative schen
under the cover of Life Charter. W
shall see.
, The GREAT BIBLICAL WORK OF TIL
, NINETEENTH CENTURY. There never wa
time when the human mind was nor
active in its inquiry into the meaning an
, authority of the Bible; and there new
was time when crater help was give
: to the intelligent student. Take d
f Smiths Dictionary Of the Bible" fi
instance. Here is a book, which no OIL
man could have prepared, but which en-