The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-04-06
NEGROES AS RISKS.
Why the Insurance Companies DIscriS
nate Against Colored People.


nate Against Colored People.
But few negroes carry policies of in
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
admixture of African and Cucasiau
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 Il discrimination in the Anglo
SaXon's favor.
The industrial insurance commnieI
do not attempt to conduct a deti
examination of applicants. The IA
lar line companies, however. lax 81
stress upon this matter, and rig nsnss.,,
lies another difficulty in the pero's
way. 1--WE require every a1phcntto
give the condition of his parents and
grandparents health andvarious mat
ters of family history, 6f which the
average negro is totallygnorant," said
an agent. If he is rlable to state,
for instance, whether there has been
consumption in the samily, or what
was the disease thu terminated his
fathers life of cours we can not accept
him. Rather than4ssume so danger
Gus a risk we rcjec him entirely"
A negro owes tohis hue decided dis
advantage when le comes to insure his
life. He pays down his weekly Install
ment Just like rs Caucasian brother,
but when he is lead and gone and his
heirs step up toreap the benefit OF his
foresight, theyreceive only two-thirds
of the amount1hat would accrue to a
white mans relatives. In other words,
there is q largr percentage chalged on
colored risks han on white ones. and
negro wD wants a $1,000 policy
must pay fort third more thar if he
were a white man. On the same prin-
ciple. a negIo child between two and
twelve years of age, will only betaken
at five cents per week, while awhile
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 ofcol-
ored people who take out policy in
one of these companies is in6niesi-
mally small The few who are pDvi-
dent and wealthy enough to patrolize
them are of the better class, and are
generally good risks. Otherwise hey
are not taken at all. The medieaAsak
aminer of a prominent insurance COM
pany said that in his six years service
in that capacity he had not examined
more than half a dozen colored appli-
cants. and OF these three had beenre-
iected. 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 a 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.
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