The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1874-04-13
Life Insurance as Connected With
the Temperance Question.

Life Insurance as Connected With
the Temperance Question.
From the N. Y. DullGun.l
The two fundamental principles or
foundation stones upon which life insur-
Rnce Is based arc: lst. Longevity Of hui
man life; q. The rates OF interest which
can be obtained and maintained during
the lilo Of the insured. a mistake in eth.
er or both Of these, and, sooner or later,
failure or ruin comes. II is upon these
two points that premiums necessary and
adequate arc calculated and collected
Past experience, as found in the history
Of mortality, is applied 10 and found 10
be year by year practically uniform, and
10 prove its own record as such true.
Ono thousand selected men Of different
ages, selected, as 1t were, by one skilled
physician, have been found to live Ger.
tain number OF years, each in accordance
with his general condition at the time OF
the selection. That the company NAV
make themselves doubly safe, they prop.
erly deduct from the years left 10 the 10.
sured, rs found by experience, q few
years. In the matter Of determination as
TO the rates oil interest which can be OBJ.
tanned upon the premiums received from
the insured during the expectancy Of life
OF the insured, although the rates OF in.
tercst readily obtained in the city of Bos.
ton is seven per cent, and presumably
will be Tor years to come, still, for safety,
the commonwealth demands by law that
every company shall, Tor double safety,
employ four per cent-and no mOre-as
Its basis and expectation. This ia all
right, aud VIC referred to II in this In.
stance simply as an approach 10 the word
RUN as connected with life insurance, and
especially its immediate connection with
the just principleof life insurance, name.
ly, longevity Of lite and the selection OF
those TO DO and who are insured.
The basis upon which the contract
policy is issued is the application and its
truthlulness. If the latter contain but
one lie, the company land when we say
company we mean every other insured
member OF the company or association
Is in danger. II, for instance, q mother
has died with consumption, and the son
in his application to the interrocatory
answers mo" there comes danger to all
other members But there Is q greater,
danger lurking in and eating into the
heart OF our companies than all the acct.
dents and lies imaginable, viz, those who
tell the truth O in answer 10 the inter
rogatory OF "Do you use intoxicating
liquors." We have taken some pains to
investigate this rum question, and find
that in one hundred applications held by
one company, only one in ten answer
mo" or never" while nine answer
moderately" or occasionally" but not
one among either the rejected or accepted
admits that he is, or ever was, Q habitual
drinkcr.
Upon turning TO the death losses oil this
company, We find that six-tenths Of these
were FASTENED by rum, either direct or
from liz effect. From close observation
OF the law records, VIC find that more
than majority Of the contested cases, in.
VolVing litigation, are traced TO rum, and
TO the moderate and occasional drinker
mentioned in the application. Now, we
would ask tho managers and officers OF
our companies Il it is right in tho face of
these facts, when making these selections
Of lives and accepting members into their
respective bodies, to chain John Smith a
sober, temperate, careful man, TO the body
Of William Jones, moderate" or &C.
casionAl drunkard, whom experience
shows Is daily and hourly poisoning him
selfand limiting thereby his expectancy
OF life, upon which the company grounds
It's whole structurCP In other words
snail Smith live ten years beyond his ex
pectancy to make an average on Jones
who fell short temp
low many sober, temperate men have
co. 10y TO 10 stretch out their lives to pay The
&oOOO on one drunken bill-poster h
Philadelphia, who died Of delerium ire.
mems within nine months after paving iii
Al0-and whose application bore The
words, "drinks moderately"