Morning journal and courier., 1881-06-13
Monday Morning, June 1s. 1881.
SPECULATIVE LIFE INSURANCE !

SPECULATIVE LIFE INSURANCE IN
PENNSYLVANIA.
The failure of the Pennsylvania Legisla-
ture, which adjourned last week, to do any
thing towards putting a stop to the specula-
tive life insurance which disgraces the State
is severely and Justly criticised. bill di-
rectsd against the evil passed the Senate but
was defeated in the House. It is charged
that this result was secured by large cor
ruption fund, distributed by agents of the
assessment insurance companies.
Within the last year nearly 200 of these
speculative insurance companies have been
chartered in Pennsylvania. AS the profits of
the companies depend entirely on the num-
Der of deaths, it would be absurd to expect
that they would investigate any claim. It is
dead and that the assessments are due.
They experience no difficulty in collecting
their claims, as the holders of policies are
not willing to risk their forfeit by refusing to
pay the demands of the company. In some
of the counties. notably Dauphin, the craze
has 30 turned the minds of the farmers that
they have mortgaged their lands and houses
They expect to grow rich some day when
their claims mature, or rather when the old
people die upon whose lives they hold poll
cies. An old man named Perry has had his
life insured for $4,000 by the speculative
sharks. He is so years old feeble and sick.
He is considered the best subject in the
State, and has more money on his life now
than any other man in Pennsylvania al
though he is a mere pauper. A correspond
ent of the New York Times speaks thus
strongly of the system that makes such
things possible:
This system has gangrened the entire COM
uunity. 1t is brutalizing fathers, mothers.
brothers and kinsmen. 1t encourages muir
der and has already killed several persons
The idle the vicious and the unscrupulous
are its agents, and even the wealthy and the
respectable, allured by its temptations are
drifting into the business The older and
more infrm the subject the more eligible he
is for insurance, and one of the first ques-
tions an agent asks on entering a strange
town is, Have you any very old people here
likely to die shortly ?'' The agents make
'fat thing" of it, as they receive fifty per
cent of the initiation fee and certain por-
ton for collecting assessments and assigning
policies. The initiation fee is 80 and poll
cies are sold at from $50 to $500, according
to the condition of the subject In some
counties, where the business was begun ear
ly, every available old man and woman is in
sured, and the agents pushing the bust
ness into all quarters of the State. So eager
are they to take risks that they have even
invaded the poorhouses to write policies on
the lives of the paupers This scandal be-
came SO notorious in some quarters that Poor
Directors in several instances have adopted
-
entering such institutions ION business"
Several old persons have recently died sud-
denly and mysteriously soon after having
been insured, and the cruelty of sons and
daughters to their aged parents is too horrible
for recital. A Trustworthy gentleman told
the Times correspondent story of sons
heartlessness yesterday He lives next door
the night before by terrible commotion in
an upper room of his neighbours dwell
ing This was SO remarkable that
he asked the man what was the cause of the
unusual disturbance. 'Oh, it was only the
old woman" was the careless reply; ''she
fell out of bed and tumbled about the floor"
My informant said the man was drunk, and
the old woman referred to was his mother,
who is kept in a sitting garrett The son in
yited his neighbor to look at her. She is
about 70 years of age, and was tossed on the
bed, bundle of bones among a bundle of
rags. The atmosphere of the room was un-
bearahle. The windows were closely board
ed up, and there was neither light nor air ad-
mltted to the apartment, save what entered
the door when it opened The visitor
turned away in disgust, and as the drunken
son fastened the door he said: Il have three
thousand dollars on her life, and don't think
she can live very long" Indeed, 1 don't
think she can," was the answer. "Why don't
you open the windows and admit some light
and air." 81 guess 1 understand what's good
for her," was the brutal reply of the de-
graded son as he staggered away. This is
only one of many instances that can be null
tiplied to the thousand all over the State and
it is well known that a number of old per
sons have been poisoned and put out of the
way in various forms to recover the money
for which their lives were insured.
The origin of the system is generally at
,ributed to York county insurance agent
named Lewis Strayer, and it was first brought
INTO extensive public notice by the murder of
Raber, in Lebanon county, who was insured
FOR $35, 900, and for whose drowning five of
;he conspirators suffered the extreme penalty
IF the law. It is said to be spreading into
New York and Maryland, and it is feared
hat unless prevented by timely legislation
t will do such harm in those States as it has in