The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-08-04
MAY INSURE HER LIFE
wOMAN'S RESTRICTIONS IN THIS RE-
GARD ARE DIMINISHING.
Policy Mny Not Run In Her Husbands
She becomes 81 Desirable Risk.

New York Sun.
As woman gets nearer to emancipation,
that being what the woman sufrragists call
the right TO vote. she is sweeping away one
after another practices of discrimination
against her that have existed ever since the
Puritan fathers landed. There is hardly
anything that she can't 10 nowadays that a
man does do. The particular practice of dis
elimination that is weakening before her
determined assault at the present time is
that INDUCED in by the various life iHsur-
ance companies.
There was a time. a very few years ago,
when there were only one or two life insur-
ance companies i'm the United States that
would take a risk on a woman's life at oil.
Those that did charged a big extra Premium
because they said her chances Of living We're
much less than those of a man of the same
age. This extra premium was in some cases
so great that it amounted to a prohibitive
tariff. and even of the companies that did
let women insure their lives there were
several that kept them from doing it by this
extra rate.
They began to weaken four or five years
ago. First one company gave IN. then an
other, and another, until to-day Of all the
insurance companies in the United States
thcIc are pfpbdDly nOl a uOZeH ID Gil
to take risks on the lives of women.
Most of them, however, still discriminate
against women by am extra .a.e.
This extra rate averages about s. on n
thousand more than a man has to pay.
Some of the companies charge it, no mat
ter what the age of the woman may he,
but the larger companies only charge IL up
to the age of forty-eight or fifty, when dan
gers of death that are peculiar 10 women
are past.
There are one or two companies that do
not discriminate against women at all.
sured to the amount of $4,000 when she
paid an extra premium Of s. or $40 a thou
sand. If she was over forty-eight years of
age they would let her insure herself for
$4,000, but that was the extreme limit,
and the companies. were not any too anx-
ious to insure her for that amount. no mat
FER how much extra she was willing 10
pay.
There is one little restriction yet by these
companies, that is, the company will not
insure q woman in favor of her husband.
Tha oficisls put it bluntiy by saying that
that restriction is in her interest, meaning
that their faith In male human nature is
not of the best.
thei- new liberty to get insured, Just as
the-' have taken advantage of every other
sew liberty, and where ten years ago
to-day thousands.
Leaving out the industrial companies.
which insure for small amounts. 500 or
500. or the like, there are probably twenty
five women who carry life insurance to-
day TO every one who carried II ten or ff-
teen years ago. and some of them are in
sured for very large amounts. They have
taken out insurance as an investment,
just as men take IL out.
THEY ARE HEAVILY INSURED.
The woman who carries the largest in
surance on her life in the United States is
Mrs. Hearst, the wife of Senator Hearst.
Of California. She is insured for about
%20O 00 Same of har inc1ranoa &c what ic
called straight life insurance. but the
greater part of it is placed on the endow-
ment plan-that is to say, at the end of
twenty years, if she pays her premiums
regularly, she can draw her money. Mrs.
Hearst is said to be the first woman in the
State of California who insured her life.
There are to-day a very large number of
$4,000 insurance, but there are none who
carry anything approaching the amount
she carries.
Two women who carry $50 600 are Mrs.
Emeline Wallace and Mrs. Juana A. Neal
New York women have been rather slow
TO take up the matter of life insurance
from the Investment point of view, though
there are more than a thousand. according
to the insurance men, who carry as much
as $4,000 or $4,000, and there are more than
ten thousand who carry from 5000 10
$4,000.
OF those who have larger amounts are
the Misses Lorillard. Following the eX-
ample of their father. who has been for
years a great patron of life insurance COM
panies. these young ladies have themselves
insured for 100000 each. The female menu
bers of the family of Theodore a. Have
meyer, the sugar man, are also insured
for upward of 800, 900. Mrs. j.. Sloat Fas-
sett, the wife of ex-senator FaSSett, has
her life insured for more than 500. 600. and
her friend, Mrs. f. Il. Croker, of Elmira,
carries $4,000 insurance. Mrs. Fassett and
Mrs. Croker both patroniZe the endow-
ment plan of insurance. so that they will
get their money back themselves in case
they live the twenty years necessary.
from $4,000 TO 100000 insurance on their
lives, among them the wife of w. j. Ar
kell, the editor of Judge.
But to go on and give a list of women
who carry what may be called heavy in
surance in New York city would be tire
some. There are so many of the women of
New York applying for insurance to-day
that many of the larger companies have
special departments for them and special
examiners. For those women who prefer
sex they have women physicians who are
as well-trained in discovering latent disease
In the human system as are male doctors.
There are several women doctors in New
York city who make a good living examin-
ing women who want life insurance. Mrs.
DR.. jacob is an examiner for one of the
the women have, If anything, a greater
knack of finding out things about anybody
they examine than men have. Their re-
ports on a case ordinarily are from four to
six times the length of a report q male doc
tor makes. They contain not only every
thing about the woman's physical condition,
but the physical condition of the woman's
family. of her relatives, and sometimes OF
her friends.
These extraordinary reports are not OBJ
jected to except by the clerks who have TO
enter them up on the books.
There is also in New York a woman's
life insurance agency run by women in ev-
cry department, from the canvasser both
up and down. They have a big office down
in the Equitable Building, and are build.
ing up a large practice. The insurance com
panies encourage them.
So far as New York is concerned the in
surance companies here nave found in their
experience the last few years that there is
the life of a man than on the woman; IL is
in favor Of the man. One company, how
ever, in examining it's books last year
discovered that the average mortality In
its female clients for the year was exactly
one-half greater than among its men eli
ents. This was an exceptional showing
and IL was fair ground, possibly. for the
renewal of the old discrimination. but moth.
ing came of ii.
As a rule, the officers Of the company
say. the greatest mortality among wonen
is between the ages Of twenty. or there
abouts. when they marry. and of forty
five. The incidents of married life are re-
sponsible for this. After the age of forty
? five, If a woman is in good health at that
age. she is, If anything. a better risk thar
probably because she is more apt to take
care OF herself and her general heaitt
than a man is. She is not exposed 10 the
ordinary dangers of accident or OF disease
that every man who continues In active
business is exposed TO. She is not so liab!,
ing. In every way she is better kept. anf
usually she is much more ready to haV,