Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-04-01
Life Insurance and Total Abstinence.
TrcsoS March 27. 1883.

TCcsoN. March 27, 1883.
 EDITOR CITIzES:-Wil you kIndly give place to the following facts and fig ures which coming from purely bust ness sources, will have great weight with practical people. The article i. from recent issue of The Union Signal of Chicago, and has come to my notice within ten days. Names and localities being given the statements are capable of absolute verification. I may explain that total Rbstainers are by some called "Amethysts" from the old classic legend, that this stone dropped into glass of wine would remove its bewIldering in- tnence, even as some of us believe that the habit of total abstinence introduced into society can alone eliminate the present hsziness of public opinion upon ths greatest question of the day.
 With best wishes for the success of the Womens' Christian Temperance Union of Tncsnn, l am yours truly,
 FRANCES E. WILLARD.
 MORE ABOUT THE AMeTHYsTs.
 DEAR UNION SIGNAL Tn your issue Tor February 22, you have an editorial headed, "Something new m Insurance" In 1t you quote the United Kingdom Prevalent InstitItIon as having a tenn perance section for its policy holders, and that these holders have a large bonus returned to them because the total abstsiners, or "smethysts," have the peculiar faculty of living so much longer than the moderate drinker.
 All this Is beautifully true, but the strong argument may be made still stronger by the fact that this one com paDy above mentioned Is not the only one that has proved the amethyst" ur non-drInker, longer lived than the "rubies," if l may so name them. The Emperor insures an "amethyst" at re- duced premlu ms, thus giving an imme- diate "bonus." Many years since it's directors commenced this plan. The Wilmington" in 1866, gave total ab- stalners bonus seven per cent. higher than that given to moderate drinkers; while, in 1872, '75 and '7S, II increased the bonus to fourteen per cent. higner. "Ihe BritOn' has special section to which only total abstainers are ad mitted. "Ihe Sceptre" has for thirty y ars proved that the mortality among those who abstain is less than among ordinary lives. This company finds dur ing sixteen years that, among its total abstAlners, less than half of the usual proportion have died "rhe General Life Insurance Office of Canada will not insure innkeepeTs at any price.
 Mir. Nelson, one If the most distin- gulshed English insurance men, has, after long investigation, published some very astonishing fac's. No business IS reduced to so exact 2 science as the in- surance business; and these figures are the result, not of temperance fanaticism, but of cold business calculation. They are reliable and astounding. MT. 1 Nelson reports that
 Bstween he ages of I5 and 70, where 10 total Q bstainers dIe. IS moderate drinkers die.
 Between the ages of 70 and SO, where 10 total ] abstainers die, 5l moderate drlnkers dle.
 Between the ages of 30 and %. where 10 total l Rbstainers dle 41 moderate drinkers die.
 Or, expressing the facts ln another |
 total ab- Has the chance Or, until
 stAIner of living hen
 9o years old ll yeaTs longer .6t years old
 iS Sst5.. BpI moderate Has the chance Or. only.
 drlnker of ny nE ,I untll hs is
 IJ ....ms5 ...As-5
 IL Is thus made very plain vi in l surance companies can afford to insure ] total ibstainers for a smaller cost. The ! average life of a young drinker Is seen l to be oul. 35ls years. while the average ! life of the total abstainer Is 64 years, l almost double.
 Thus the young man of 20, who drinks, i even moderately, deliberately throws away 2Sls years of life-deliberately l shortens hls life nearly one half. This l ls -hown by an average of the leading | English insurance companies. 'The | Sceptre," above referred to, shows that I in tbeIr experience of l6 years 1t has | been more than one half that is thrown | away.
 The drlnker is therefore a deliberate l causing himself to die at 35, | when he might otherwise have lived to | 64. His family therefore loses hls ser vice for 2Sls years. Ought not his fami- | ly to be heard when they cry out to the l State to save them, and to s've itself, I these 2Sl5 years of valuable time:
 Aside, therefore, from all questions of | morality and of party, but from the sim pie question of social and political econ | omy, ought not the Home be protected. and the interest of the State to be sub served, by prohibiting the sale of intox- icants!
 Think of the State, for a paltry fee, | allowing a set of meu to deprive the | State of half the life of its young men. IT any foreign nation should attempt | such destruction of hfe-tO kill our | young men at 35l2. when they otherwise would live to 64-what patriotism would | burn. what resistance wOuli be given Yet We suffer foreign mercenaries to come in among our homes, and do what | no nation upon the earth could possibly | do openly and by force. o temporal O | mOresi w. r. WOOD,
 Pastor Second Presbyterian Church.
 South Oil City, Pa.