The Portland daily press., 1900-11-01

The Galveston disaster, which cost
about five thousand lives au millions In
property damage, will have practically no
effect on the business OF life insurance
companies The Johnstown food hadn't
any, though the companies paid several
hundred claims as a result OF the WipinR
out of the town and the lives of many of
it's citizens. Even the Spanish American
war had little effect. This Is due to the
great law OF average. In the war of
death on life Galveston and johnston
are mere flee bites.
None of the companies know the exact
amount Of its loss from the Galveston
flood yet, but that doesn matter. The
claims will come in at intervals, perhaps
for years, rs this man and that mans
relat ives, failing to hear from him, uis-
cover that he Ia dead and that he had an
insurance policy and forthwith demand
settlement with the insurance company
The cost to the companies OF the loss of
life at Galveston can be approximately
gauged, however, and the estimate will
be rather against the companies than In
their favor
There is held throughout the United
States about SIS, 600, 600, 0O0, in insurance,
Of which about 81, 000, 000, 0Oo is Industrial
INSURANCE., that Is, insurance issued
among the industrial classes in policies II
SIN all amounts, the premiums on which
are collected weekly or monthly. In the
seventy five millions OF population this
country contains, about ten millions are
rated as tnsurable and Of the other ten
millions about % per cent perhaps are
actually insured The deaths at Calves
ton numbered roughly i've thousand in n
| population OF about forty Thousand,
Reckoning one person In seven as insur-
able and % per cent of these as insured.
there Will he about one hundred and
seventy five policies to be paid by the in
suranceEcompanies on Galveston victims.
! Ihe average amount OF an insurance
policy In city like Galveston Is reckoned
at about 81 600; the total loss to this life
insurance companies will be something
under $3.50. COO, large SUN OF itself, but
a small one when compared with the
millions handled ly the companies.
1t may be much less, because, as an in
surance man pointed out, persons whose
lives are insured for large amounts
usually live in houses which are COM
paratively unlikely to tumble down upon
them even in such gale as Galveston
experienced, and consequ entity most of
the policies falling due would be- indus
trial policies for small amounts
In the sum OF life ana death great
fire, flood, town wiped out, city de-
vastated war even, any of these Is q
drop IN Une DucFet IN MS lnSuran CO.
The great law of average covers all. So
many killed by bullets, so many the less
die of disease. So far-reaching is the
rule that one at least of the big COM
panies, Whose business stretches out
across half of the Civilized world, did not
increase its ratss on the policies of men
who enlisted in the Standardization
war.
Disease in Its many forms Is the one
foe OF the life insurance companies.
Consumption alone accounts for one
fourth or ths deaths on which policies are
paid, and nine diseases are held respon-
sible for nearly 60 per cent OF the total
deaths on tbs companies books; SO that
the fire and flood, the wiping out of a
populous city like Buffalo or Syracuse,
lounts with the men who re exon human
Gives in dollars and cents as of much
! smaller i'm pOTtanee than a new disease or
a few per cent increase in the mortality
due to tuberc ulosis, pneumonia or typhoid
orka small in crease in the suicide rate.