The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1881-05-07
PREMIUM ON DEATH.
The Speculative Insurance Mania in Penn
syIvania---Astonishin Revelations.

misunderstanding revelations.
In its Sunday issue the Philadelphia Press
gives striking sketch of the growth of the
life insurance or rather the death insurance
mania in PENNSYLVANIA. The business is car.
red on by companies regularly chartered I'M
der the laws Of the State. which profess to
insure lives upon the mutual plan. A prem
ium is paid to the company when policy is
issued, and when death occurs a pro rata
assessment is made on each surviving policy
holder. There is nothing particularly objec'
tionable in this method of insurance as long
as the contract is confined to the beneficiary
named in the policy and the company which
issues it. When policy is assigned for &
valuable consideration, such as natural affec
ton, dependence or Indebtedness, the trans
action is legal and proper. 1t is only wher
! third parties, who are strangers to the origi-
nal contract, and who have no insurable in
| terest in the assignor, are permitted to claim
as assiguees that the so-called mutual insur
ance companies become dangerous to society
MUTUAL AID SOCIETIES.
| Among the first of these companies started
! in Pennsylvania was the L. B. Mutual Ait
| Society of Lebanon. This society furnished
! the model for large number of mutual in
surancc companies which have grown up in
| the same neighborhood. There are said tC
be 165 of these companies in Pennsylvania
most of them being located in Lebanon, Dau
Phin, Berks, Lehigh, Lancaster, Snyder and
! York counties.
BAD EFFECTS OF THE CRAZE.
In some neghborhoods the mania for spec
ulative insurance has taken such hold upon
the masses of the people that it has actually
/ Ivya htrg1 laha
their earnings in speculative policies, and
when the person insued lives longer than was
anticipated, the assignees are sorely pressed
for the means to support their families. Many
of the spectators have been reduced to want,
aud are obliged to use the transferred policies
as q sort Of currency to pay their debts.
These companies are often presided over by
gentlemen who stand well in the community,
and who try to persuade themselves that they
are conducting a legitimate and honest bust
ness. Harrisburg is one of the centres from
which policies are distributed, and it seems
that gentlemen connected with the State gov
erEment do not hesitate to lend the weight of
their names and influence to the promotion of
death bed insurance. The following are
the officers of the Commonwealth Company,
located at Harrisburg: Hon. John c. Ever
heart, President; Lane S. Hart, State printer,
NJ
auditor generals office, secretary; George W.
SINNERS, treasurer; I. J. Danott, NJ. D.,
medical director and commissioner; s. Boyd
Martin, general agent. In its advertisement
the company refers TO the following gentle
men by perRission: Excelleney Henry NJ
Hoyt, Governor; Hon. William p Schell,
auditor general; Hon. Samuel Butler, State
treasurer; Hen. Lyman d. Gilbert, deputy
attorney general; Hon. William A. Wallace,
ex United States Senator.
LEGISLATORS AS SPECTATORS
Il IS charged that members of the PenAsyl-
vania Legislature are engaged in the business
and in the course of conversation with re-
porter an agent of the Commonwealth Com
pany said that three syndicates had been form.
ed By Legislators for the purpose of insnring
diseased and dyisg people with view Of
prohting thereby. There IS an ole mas" he
continued, Living near Siegersviile, Lehgh
county, named HefFeafnger, 20 years OF age,
a worn out man. Representatives Seiger, Of
Lshigh, Higgins and SchGeher, of Schuykill,
have ordered a policy on him. They have
already paid me $50 for other cases, Mr.
Sehelicher drawing the check. Other mem
bers are after me, and ] will have TO accom-
modats them.
Then there is not much hope for the pass
age Of the bill now before the House design
ed TO prevent this speculation business was
asked
"Not the slightest; it has no more show
than ! have to be President Of the United
States. ! tell you, sir, everybody is in the
business, from the highest to the lowest, but
there are none that take kindiier to it than
physicians. There is no trouble to get doc.
tor to pass doubtful case if yea give him a
share in a policy on a rotten subject.
What Kind Of a case DO you recsmeRd as
the safest and quickest paying Investment
''Oae with the heart disease, my boy,
with cautious look around; at takes them
Of so quick, You know, and they don't last
long once they get it. But | mast be off;
have an engagement 10 write up an old snooz.
er in the eoaHtry. He is 80 years old and
I'll put him in the Peerless Of Shamokin. Ii
IS the only company which takes them at
that advanced age.
ASSIGNED IN ADVANCE.
Some of the country companies maintain
agencies ia Philadelphia, bat as yet the ma
MIA has not made much headway in the cities
and larger towns. Most of the subjects" are
found in rural neighb0rhoods. The specula-
tors geaerally pay the subject 81 fer every
81 600 which hs allows them to put on his
life. For instance, an aged man who will
consent to sigR an application for policy for
100000 on his life gets $500 from ihe spec
ulaiorS, who undertake to pay the cash pre-.
MUM and all the assessments made by the
company. When the application is made the
subject signs transfer in blank, by which
all his interest in the policy is vested in the
assigtsees. who, Of course are the persons who
solicit the insurance From the list Of aged
and intirm persoas upon whose lives large in
suranees have been effected the following
specimen cases are taken:
John Mease. of Lebanon county, IS years
Of age, and ed.ridden for sixteen years, has
been insured; has risks upon his life ia va
rioas companies amounting IN the aggregate
to 500, 0Ql. The policies have been traded
arouuA by the persons for whose benefits they
were issued, and are now ia the hands Of
bankers, storekeepers and farmers, who were
obliged to take them in payment of debts
owed them by the spectators.
James Heinriehs, Wernersville, Berks Co.,
who is supported by the county, is insured for
800, 600, the amount being divided among
three Of the Snyder county companies, and
two of the Dauphin county companies.
JOAN Heck, of Berne township, Berks
county, old and bed, ridden, was Insured few
days ago for Sl00, 600, aAd an aged widow,
Mrs Dundore, for $4,000
John Rex, OF Lehigh county, aged 81
years, was induced by false representations to
sign an application for 5000 policy.
OF coarse, whenever these mushroom com
panies are called on to pay any considerable
number OF the policies which they have issued
they will collapse, and the bankers aud store
LeeEers who are holding the worthless paper
will be the losers. The thousands of deluded
people who have paid assessments viii get no
return in the fnal winding up except good
stock OF dearly bought experience.