The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1889-04-06
NEGROES AS RISKS.
Why tho Insurance Companies Disorimi-
nnto Against Colored People.

why tho Insurance Companies Disorimi-
nate Against Coiored People.
But few negroes carry policies OF .n-
surance upon their lives. The reasons
are various and interesting. 1t has
been amply proved that the American
negro is not so long-lived as the aver
age white man. In the first place, not
one in hundred has absolutely pure
blood. There is apt to be some foreign
Infusion that may be generations old.
Then mulattoes are particularly liable
to consumption or lung trouble. The
ndmixture of African and Cucasian
blood produces an inferior race, and
only the black-skinned negroes are
equally hardy with white men. Besides,
the negro has not yet become thor
oughly acclimated to the North. When
to these facts are added the negro's
general shiftlessness there seems ample
cause for discrimination in the Anglo
Saxon's favor.
The industrial insurance companies
do not attempt to conduct detailed
examination of applicants. The regu-
lar line companies, however, lay great
stress upon this matter, and right here
lies another difficulty in the negro's s
way. 1--WE require every applicant to
give the condition Of his parents and
grandparents health and various mat
ters of family history, of which the
average negro is totally ignorant" said
nm agent. IF he is unable to state,
for instance, whether there has been
consumption in the family, or what
was the disease that terminated his
fathers life of course we can not accept
him. Rather than assume so danger
ous risk we reject him entirely"
A negro owes to his hue decided dis
advantage when he comes to insure his
life. He pays down his weekly install
ment just like his Caucasian brother,
but when he is dead and gone and his
heirs step up to reap the benefit of his
foresight, they receive only two-thirds
of the amount that would accrue to a
white mans relatives. In other words,
there is u larger percentage charged on
colOred risks than on white ones, and
n negro who wants $1,000 policy
must pay for it a third more than If he
were a white man. On the sdme prin-
ciple, negro child between two and
twelve years of age, will only be taken
at five cents per week. while white
child is taken at ten.
This is one of the laws of industrial
insurance that strikes a novice as a
curiosity. In the regular life insurance
companies no such rate exists, as there
is no need for It. The number of col
ored people who take out a policy in
one of these companies is inlinitesi-
mally small. The few who are provi-
dent and wealthy enough to patronize
them are of the better class, and are
generally good risks. Otherwise they
are not taken at all. The medical eX-
aminer of prominent insurance COM
pany said that in his six years service
in that capacity he had not examined
more than half dozen colored appli-
cants. and of these three had been re-
jected. Other companies show SINH
lar paucity of negro policy-holders.
The discrimination in favor of Japh-
ct progeny and against the descend
ants of Ham is due to no sentiment or
race prejudice. 1t is purely matter
of business. Something less than ten
years ago Massachusetts insurance
company discovered that the mortality
among its colored policy holders was
about twice as great as among the
whites, and the company found that
the insurance OF blacks on equal terms
with whites entailed heavy losses
Philadelphia Record.