The Portland daily press., 1899-11-02
LIMIT In LIFE in TRANCE
In all the Companies of the World .
Man Might Get Perhaps $4,000, 900.

(From the st. Louis Globe -Demcc att
Several papers have published q para
graph to the effect that this Prince Of
Wales Is insured for about 4 0,00o, 900, O
portion Of the Insurance being for the
benefit Of creditors, and n much larger
portion in favor of persons naither related
TO him nor having any interest whatever
In his living. Prof. A II. Harvey, the
insurance sctusry who IL authority OH all
such matters considers ths statements
ridiculous. and particularly the one that
Prince Albert Is insured for the benefit
Of people who have no insurabls interest
In him.
"Up to about 1875 years ago the prao-
tice of taking out insurance on the lives
of Kings. Queens and others in authority,
where there was no possible insnrsble in
terest, obtained to a great extent" said
the professor when his attention was
called to the paragraph. 1.-The practice
became so general, scnndalous and vicious
that In l11l Parliament enacted a statute
IA Geo. 3. Q. IS. } prohibiting absolutely
all insurance in which there was no in
terest to the beneficiary in the life OF the
principal In the contract, and prohibiting
toe payment OF money under "a policy
written TO secure a del beyond the actual
sum due This law against wager or
gambling policies was followed up In
france and Germany and in most OF the
States of this country, and tas since
been rightly enforced everywhere"
The amount of life insurance car led
by the Prince Of Wales has never been
made public. and Ia probably known to
IN . n fay rAOnip Ia "a ~
that ths total Is not one tenth OF the sum
named In the paragraph refe r to The
most heavily insured man In the United
States 10 ex- Postmaster General job n
wsnan,aksr of Philadelphia, and his In
suranoe amounts to only 81 Ozb. 600. Ihe
y ord only applies there because of tAs
comparison with Sis. COZ. 900, or, to be
m re accurate, xiS, 40, 0Oo, according TO
the present market value here Of 2l0. 000,-
100 At meeting Of the National Life
Unterwritsrs' Association in Philadsl-
phia four years ago Mr.. Hanamaker stat
ed that one OF the first things he did
after becoming of age was to insure his
nf5. when Mr.. Wansnnksr addressed
the Association his life insurance
amounted to 81, 525, 900. and all but $50, 900
had been taken aftcr he was 90 years Of
age.
According to an Eastern insurance
journal "ths amount of life insurance
which can be secured upon a single life
among the United States companies foots
up 81. $780, COO : The paper gives n tatu-
lated list OF forty-two old-lins companies
and what purports to be- the limit CT each.
The figures are correct In the main, but
thsre are some bad errors In the Lat.
Seine OF the companies insure for IL ore
than the amounts G edited to tlem, but
In evsry such case the company reinsures
O portion Of the risk. The figures In the
table represent the limits without such
reinsurance. or course, the re could be
no reinsurance on q person that took the
limit in every company. LEGAL reserve
and stipulated premium companies that
nrs not usually olassed as old-linsrs are
omitted from the table, as also ass essme L :
companies, fraternai organizations ana
several industrial eSmpanies that write
very little. II any, ordinary life insur-
ancs. Accident compa MES thas pay death
claims, but do not writs ordinary lie
insurance, are like wise Quilted. Includ-
Ing all these, the total life insurance that
u person could got In the Uni tsd States
would probably still fall below s., 900, COO.
There are about $50 life insurance CON-
panies In the world, q OF counting Ameri-
can com anies. Very few of them insure
for as muoh as SIS, 600, and the average
Is not half that sum. bat supposing Ii
were 81 900 the total would be only 81
600, 600, which. added to the American
fetal, would still make only about one
iifth the sum the Primes of Wales Ia
reported to be insured for.