St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-04-17

statements he made to me W hen ne soiu
me my policy, then thought II was time
to stop. would like to know II 1t islaWiui
for a man to be so berated in the public
newspapers throughout the county. !
had not seen the piece in the paper until !
received your letter, and have not hao
time to read it all. | may drop you
line later. Yours respectfully,
John MCKINLEY, JR,
One more point in regard to the size OF
the State Mutual. Although commencing
SO years ago, for great many years
they confined their business wholly to
their own state, and today nearly one
half of their total business isin that state.
The balance is in the northern part OF the
United States, not being represented in
any of the high mortality or southern
states, in which the large companies do
an immense business from year to year.
1t may not generally be known, but it is
a fact nevertheless, that the southern
states ratio of deaths has been found to
be nearly double that of the New England
states, and policy holders in the good
states have to help pay them. For that
reason companies that confine their bus-
ness to the healthy sections of the coun-
try, have experienced much lesspercent-
age of death losses. The Mutual Life, as
we'll as the two other large companies,
have very large business in foreign
countries, and large volume of this is
located south of the United States, where
unquestionably the rate of mortality ex-
ceeds any part of the United States, and
the cost of doing business in the foreign
countries is said to be very much larger
than business done at home. Only short
time ago the insurance commissioner Of
Massachusetts, in his annual report, had
a long article in regard to this foreign
business, and committed himself as being
very strongly against it, for the reasons
above referred to. This article may be
found in the report for 1886, and is well
worth reading.
Acknowledged to be All Right.
In my last advertisement l said that
unless Mr.. Drew made some point against
my company, which he had not been able
to do in any respect, | should quit this
worthless advertising, but in his immense
advertisement of last week he acknowl-
edges the company is all right, in fact a
healthy infant, rather small for its age,
somewhat bow-legged, but thinks it does
not keep its funds in a wooden chest, and
very likely the home office at Worcester
is open every day, etc. AS have said
previously, size amounts to nothing in
insurance companies, at the same time
would say that we rank number Is in
the 80 companies represented in Massa'
chusetts, and that we have larger bust
ness in our own state than any Other
Massachusetts company, and only ex
ceeded by the Three Giants. The company
are building the finest office building il
the city of Worcester at present, which
think will be sufficient to properly tax
care OF the eleven million dollars assets O
the company. would say farther tina
no company in the United States ha
made so rapid progress in all essentia
particulars in proportion to bushes
done, as the State Mutual the past Is o
20 years.
A Few More Ratios.
To verify my statement of expense
and death claims paid, being largely i
favor of the State Mutual, give beloS
the ratio of expenses to mean amour
insured for the past ten years, as take
from the Massachusetts Insurance Con
missioner's report for 1894, which show
that the average ratio for the ten year
in the State Mutual is 80 4-10 per cen
in the Mutua Life, 1O3 $40 per cen
and to make this show still more to OF
advantage, and the Mutual Lies di
, advantage, find the ratio in 1885,
Mutual Life SO per cent, while in 1897
was ia per cent, while in the State
:. was 81 per cent in 1885, and only s
e per cent in 1894, which shows concl
sively that the Mutual LIES expen.
l. account is increasing very rapidly, viii
e the States is decreasing.
o The ratio of death claims paid in Il
n past five years, find the Mutual Life
d to be LAG per cent, while the States
4 only 81 per cent. One very importal
item in life insurance, which the gener
u public know very little about. is tt
a number of policies lapsed and not take
:. which in reality means so much busine
'. done that amounts to nothing whatevt
The amount of money realized on
y lapsed policies, does not generally p'
s. for the amount lost on the not tax
y. policies, and great many compani
,e make large showing from year to we
in writing vast amount of this kind
g business. In 1894 the Mutual Life Gre
IL tied itself with S2,132 policies issued,
re which amount AZ, 1914, or over one-hs
= were lapsed and not taken. This rep
: sents nearly one hundred and twe1
u million dollars Of insurance, and is