The Portland daily press., 1876-10-20
Dividend. centage
Difference in Favor of the
Mutual Life. ....,...,..... $4,000 lg

Difference i'm Favor of the
Mutual Life ....,...,.... $4,000 ID
The object of the above is undoubtedly to create
the belief that the Mutual Life paid larger dividends
last year than the New York Life. AS knou this
to be untrue and presume that you have been led
unwittingly into the course you are pursuing,
propose to furnish you with such facts and figures
must undeceive you, and will, 1 hope cause you to
make the aende honorable, else accept the prop
ostion with which this communication will conclude.
have neither time nor disposition to enter upon
or carry war of words and as the pretentions q
your company about dividends are calculated TO IN
terfere njuriously with my work, have determined
to accept the issue you make and deal with it in
such manner as to speedily and definitely end all
further controversy between u.s.
Your statement is that on a LIFE POLICY for
S10O 900 your company's dividend for last year
equal to 80 per cent. the premium, while the
dividend Of my company similar policy was
equal only to II per cent thus showing difference
in favor Of your company of 10 per cent. My reply to
this is as follows: ~ I assert that the Mutual Life
didnot pay dividend of 80 per cent, all on any
considerable number of its life policies last year
~ assert that il 80 per cent. paid the policy
you refer to- the unnamed holder received more than
he entitled to, and that fraud thereby
mItted upon the other policy holders (3) / charge
that the result if not the motive of this unfair dis
trbution of profits is to deceive the public by induc-
ing the belief that the Mutual Life earns greater
profits and pays larger dividends than other compa-
mics, when such is not the case, and that by means
of circulars and publications like your advertise
ment this deception is used to induce persons to in
sure in the Company. ~ assert and undertake to
prove that making allowance for the relative size of
the companies, the earnings of the New York Life
for the last year exceeded those of your company by
nearly if not quite fifty per cent. and that although
45 per cent of its earnings added to its Sur-
plus fund" while the Mutual Life only appropriated
"a per cent to that purpose, nevertheless my Com
pany paid the largest dividend to its policyholders
These are serious assertions, and 1 have made
them after due delibeIation aid under a full sense
Of my responsibility. know that the pretence of
your Company to the payment of larger dividends
than are paid by mine, is unfounded, and that the
individual cases brought forward to support this pre-
tence, such as the one under consideration, must,
Gf they have any existence in fact be due to gerry
manderingsin the dstribu ton of profits
find by the sworn statement of your company,
made to the Insurance Department of Massachu-
sets for last year, that the number of policies in
force was 90 1893. The sworn statement of my Com
pany, made to the same Department, shows that the
number Of its policies 1861. As the interests
of the holders Of these policies in the assets and
earnings of the respective Companies vary accord
ing to their ages the kinds of policies held and the
number of years they have been insured it is evil
dent that any attempt to show which Company pays
the largest dividends by comparison of the sums
paid to individual policy-holders, would involve
such an examination of the books of both as would
probably occupy dozen or twenty experts for six
months But this labor is unnecessary for the pur-
u,t-x :-.I.
of Portland are not established by comparing the
sums paid to the individual stockholders The gross
dividend of each is compared with its capital, and
whichever shows the largest percentage is consid-
cred (a other things being equaD the most profta-
BILE to its stockholders.
The reserve ofany Mutual Life Insurance Company
is its capital and belongs to its policy holders just
as the capital OF Bank belongs to its stockholders;
and it is quite easy to make comparisons between
the money making capacity of the one class of cor
porations as the other.
According to the sworn statement of your COM
pany its "Reserve Fund" OF policy holders capital
at the beginning of last year $67 ,971, 1897 80,
while that of my Company was 1924 27S, 21O.51. The
net earnings of your Company for the year, shown
by the sworn statement of its officers, amounted to
$4668, 549.21. The net earnings of my Company for
the same PERIOD to 81, sos, 71442 Gentlemen so IA
miar with percentages your good selves will have
little difficulty in ascertalning from the above figures
that the Mutual Lifes earnings were 6s7 per cent.
on its Reserve or Capital, while those of the New
York Life were 1898. In other words, my Company
earned last year $1O33 every 800 Of its Reserve
or Capital, while your Company earned only $ss7.
Lest you should fit to cavil at this method Of
comparing the earnings Of the Company with its Re-
serve or Policy holders capital, and claim that the
true method of comparison is with the premium in
come will make such comparison: