The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-02-22

ments of their affairs as show the items OF in
come and expenditure and as would enable the
public to judge OF the cost at which they are
transacting business.
COMMISSIONS.
In the light of the revelations now being
made to the public of practices existing In GER
tain great companies it seems proper to inform
our members that the commissions paid by this
company for business strictly maintained at
the conservative standard OF former years; that
our contracts with agents do not give them
future control over these commissions; when an
agency ceases, the Remuneration for the agent
ceases, and such commissions as are then fixed
upon the existing business OF that agency go
to the new agent to assist him in his work;
we do not add to the cost of paying men who
are at work for us by paying also men who have
worked for US, after they get through; we do
not submit to pay enormous commissions on
new business in order to ledsan agent who has
got through working continue receiving COM
missions on old business; we have no contracts
for future commissions against which lad
vances" 'loans" or "commuted commits
sions' can be made and charged up to the
agent, to make "rebates'' out of, or pay absurd
commissions and brokerages out OF, on BUSH
ness which will presently be "twisted". into
some other liberal company by the same COM
petitive measures, leaving old members to pay
for the ambitious exploit. The resources OF this
SoihpdHy are uOt ulortgdgeu 10 auyDouy
1t Is true that in these days OF fierce enterprise
and competition it has not been easy for us to
secure agents against the tremendous tempta-
tions held out by the "Racers." But we have
been and are slowly getting men who believe,
with us, that success in life insurance means
and can only mean giving pure and absolute
protection to families at its lowest possible cost,
and that competitive methods worthy of q lot
terry scheme are poor credentials for a company
asking men to commit to it the most sacred OF
secular trlsts
So the agents we have and get are true men,
and the business they get stays, and pays
SUCCESS.
Insurance is indemnity against loss. Its and
can be made nothing else. To give perfect in
demnity at the lowest true cost is perfect sue
cess: not brilliant success nor one gratifying
to an Ambitious manager perhaps, but it 10
the only success there is in the matter and any
thing else that 10 substituted for it, however
brilliantly it may succeed for the time being
and until 1t has worked itself out, will ulti-
mately come to naught.
This fact is slowly coming to the light in the
case of the great
ToNTINE COMPANIES.
In order to "boom' their business they ceased
to teach men the sacred duty of protecting their
families BY life insurance, and began instead to
show them estimates of the profits that might
Their experience has shown that, in their
companies, out of thousand men of middle
age taking policies only about one-third would
pay premiums for, say, twenty years; about one
hundred OF them would de- but nearly six hun
dred OF them would lapse-give up paying. So
they proposed that no one should have any divi-
bends for, say twenty years, but pay his pre-
miums in full; that if any one died he should get
the face of his policy, leaving bahind all the
dividends his policy had earned; and if any
man lapsed-couldn't pay-he should forfeit all
he had paid, both the dividends earned and the
reserves on his policy; at the end of the twenty
years those who had been lucky enough to live
and pay through should divide up what the IN
lucky ones had left.
This was called "Tontine insurance." this,
or a modification OF it, as to the amount for
feited, is now usually called "Investment in
surance."
1t took nightly. The estimated profits were
very large, and people did not realize, and per-
haps some of them did not care, that the profit
they might make was the loss of other men and
OF their families, and that in order to get a
chance at it they had to risk their own money
and the protection of their own families. The
reckoning day was far off, and agents were
tempted by tremendous commissions and by
contracts that allowed of Advances and
communications" by mortgaging the company's
margins of premiums for many years ahead.
ner; such increase became the one criterion of
success. 1t was hard for plain conservatives to
make head against the swift rush. The glitter
of big figures and the rebates quite overbore
such sobenfacts as the multiplication table and
the moraf1aw.
But in order to get lapses and forfeitures
enough they had to force the speed, and to
force the speed they have had to burn their own
cargo. They competed with each other for bus
mess by increasing rebates, and they competed
for each Others agents by increasing commits
sions and bonuses, and this sort of thing has
gone on until it swallows up practically all of
the first premiums, leaving nothing to cover the
cost of insurance; the forfeitures to the Tontine
OF investment fund are drawn on to pay death
losses and provide reserves in place of the pre-
miums swallowed up in competition; the settle
ments OF Tontine profits now being made are
less than one-half what they were estimated at
and they are decreasing nearly every year; and
yet they are advertised as results sufficiently
tempting to warrant men in betting their own
money and their families protection to get a
chance at the diminishing pool. Great as are
the figures of surplus advertised by these COM
panies, they are less than half what they were
expected to be. The 1892 settlements are at a
notaDle reuuctlon from tnose Vi 1881, IN certain
companies at leas% put nunursus Oh thousands
Oh Poilcies nave coh'iipuleu .neir earneo sur
pro'ees iainIi,es' W pay tne sro"ins Expenses
anu Tue wv lnuLing se.lieinens.
ine inoie 'uetr pustnes' Sio"s tne more tnelr
expenses mus SOW AHu .ue greater must Dc
s-4e NV. Va, 'sase oA VIC -ui0 -! way VI au-
|aLeeS, e.e'. ~ ooiie ou' VI po.4oy noiueFs. ice
a. - ~ $50 ieSosni~o 'nis'
aho " 10 IL oue oiIo'H 'ne! e,"iii! themselves