Morning journal and courier., 1882-09-19

MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATIONS.
 The regular" insurance organizations have been somewhat disturbed by the vigor and the rapid growth of mutual benefit associa- tions and the proceedings at the recent con- vention of these associations in New York will not tend to reassure the insurance men.
 It appears that there were in existence in the United States at the time the statistics exhibited at this meeting were collected 52O associations organized for the purpose of in- suring the lives of their members through the medium of mutual assessments. Te each of these circular of inquiry was ad dressed, but as answers were received only in 216 cases, the remarkable figures present cd at the convention very imperfectly repre- sent the actual growth of this important and interesting movement. Yet partial as they are, the figures are impressive. We learn from them that these 21G associations have membership of very nearly half a million persons; that they are carrying an amount of insurance which aggregates 8 ,O6S, 1O3,- S71; that they have accumulated between them reserve fund of $1, ,52G, and that since their formation they have distributed among the legal representatives of deceased members the large sum of $50, ,45G,oo1.
 These facts show that the mutual benefit associations are popular, and that so far they are successful. Whether they will continue so remains to be seen. It is pointed out that notwithstanding what has been accomplished ' the system will not have passed out of the experimental stage until the lapse of at least nr The average age of the organizations; whose operations have been exhibited is no more than seven years. The average age of the members of the associations is set down at forty years and as the expectation of life of man forty years old is twenty-six years, it follows that it will be necessary to wait until the expiration of that period before it can safely be said that mutual assessment insur- ance is anything more than an experiment.
 It seems to the Philadelphia North Anaeri- can that the fallacy which underlies the sys- tenn lis revealed by the necessity to which it's advocates are reduced of depending for their hopes of permanence upon the ability of the existing associations to attract recruits in continual and never ending succession. They are usually ready to admit that only in this way is the stability of these assessment asso citations attainable. But if this admission be carefully examined in all it's bearings, it will be found to involve @ confession of fatal aud radical weakness. It is equivalent to admit ting that these institutions are not self -sus- taining, that they are not strong enough to stand alone, and that they can only be saved from breaking down by being kept, as it were, constantly in motion Thus their safety is dependent upon contingency over which they have no control. They must suc- ceed in securing this infusion of fresh blood upon which they calculate, and failure in this respect means disaster" The NortA Ame,i- can may be right. but we cannot see why new "victims" cannot be found as fast as they are needed. Thus far, at least, there has been no difficulty in procuring them.