The Portland daily press., 1896-12-28
LIFE INSURANCE.
The Paper Written by the Late V. r.
FOSS.

FOsS.
1t Treats on the Beginning of Insurance
The Science of Insurance Explained
Insurance of Women Dwelt Upon
Some of the Questions Asked.
The Womnn's Council listened TO fine
paper on Life Insurance at its meeting at
the Fraternity House Saturday alter
noon. The meeting was very well at
yended and Mrs. George s. Hunt grace
fully presided.
One of the last acts of the late Mr.. v.
Richard Foss was to prepare paper on
life insurance to be read before the No.
mans Council and he had but recently
completed the paper when Portland re-
ceived the shock of his sudden and I'M
timely death. Mr.. Foss was peculiarly
fitted by an experience in the insurance
of almost lifetime in the insurance
business as he was especially happy in
the clearness and grace with which he
wrote or talked on any subject in which
he was interested, and that was again
svicenced by the valuabls paper read
yesterday The fact that this paper was
almost this last act of MIR. Foss In a bus
mess or literary way lent pathetic
touch to the meeting yesterday.
It was also most fitting that the gentle
man selected to read thu paper should
have baen MIR. Fred Brunei, who for so
many years was the intimate friend and
valued business associate of Mr.. Foss and
who has succeeded to the management of
She large insurance interests of which
Mr.. Foss had charge.
In introducing Mr.. Brunei, Mrs. Hunt
paid a feeling tribute to Mr.. Foss as did
MIR. Brunei in prefacing the paper.
MIR. Brunei said: "After an association
In business with Mr.. Foss covering Pc
riod of ten years, the last words we spoke
together were on Saturday afternoon,
February 29th when he returned from
the meeting of your council where he
had expected to fulfill his engagement
with you. I can pay no more fitting
Tribute to his memory and work than by
giving you the paper unchanged as to
word"
THE BEGINNINGS OF INSU RANCE.
In beginning, the paper spoke of the
qreat antiquity of the principles of in
surance saying: The foundations of
the great PRINCIPLES Of insurance were
laid in Greece and Rome. In English
History King Alfred, among sths many
wise institutions which he originated,
encouraged Mutua. Associations and
Combinations for good purposes. Con-
spiouous in Saxon annals are associa.
tiors founded on mutual principles of
union, and in which provisions for con-
tingencies were the prominent features.
We find that Pliny, in his enumeration
of the Inhabitants of the country be-
tween the Apennines and the Pc, ia es
especial care to distinguish the number
OF persons living at ages above 100.
Plato, also, In his works, makes observa-
lions upon the longevity of life. At the
time of the division Of the Roman EN-
pire table was found by which an
nuitiss could be valued. The Romans
from the time of Servius Tullius down.
war DIS, took census every fifth year.
Beside these there arc many items in his
tory that may be mentioned that give ev-
idence that the fundamental principles
Of life insurance have been in existence
for many centuries. But the first book
on mortality was published by John
Graunt in England about 1910. This
book gave rise to the earliest movement
In economical arithmetic and the closest
approximatton to the data on which Life
Insurance is founded. Among other
things he men tions the population of
London at that time as 1884, 600. and that
there were more males than females OF,
ns he puts IT: can overplus Of hus-
bands for ell that can be wives" He
found that, according to TIN ratio of in
crease in population, that Adam and Eve
doubled themselves every 81 years. He
also found that one in 40 died annually;
also seven out OF 100 lived to ba 10. A
century later ten out Of 100 attained the
age Of 10, and now "a out of 100 reach
that advanced age. The first tables of
mortality, or life contingencies. were
compiled by DR.. HALEY, in 1893, and
were ca fed the Breslau Tables Of Nor
bslity, Breslau, Silesia, being tbs only
place Mt that time where the ages of the
dead wore recorded. Halley's calcula-
lions ere made from record covering
five years.
No encouragement was given to life in
surance on the continent until the time
Of Napoleon Third. In fact. an ordinance
In France, dated 1861. sayss "We forbid
In aking of any insurance on the life Of
men," Similar laws were enacted in
the Netherlands in 1870. in Geneva in
1858, and in Amsterdam in 1888
In 1898 the first life insurance was at
tempted by the MERGERS Company in
London. They guaranteed 80 pounds
during the life Of widow whose hus-
!. and in his life had subscribed 100
pounds to the fund which WAS the limit
then laid. This was followed in 1899
blythe Society of Assurances for Wild
ows and Orphans" Two hundred life
Insurance companies were mbarked in
the Eighteenth century, but in ITO only