The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-28

into the volunteer army which will ma
ture by death a great deal earlier than
they would otherwise have done aud still
II is a fact that although there were
thousands of insured men in our army,
the risks of life insurance are now so
widely spread that the statistics of the
big companies do not show any indication
that this country has just been through
a war in which we put 100000 men or
more into the field. Careful investigation
would show, without doubt, that the COM
panies met with large losses among the
men who wee wearing the uniform, but
tho iiaures of total losses for the year
wefc lot affected.
The general healthfulness of the South
African country Is expected fully to offset
the desire of the Beers to shoot British
officers, The chances of wQr in Europe
are considered so much greater than such
chances here that an American has de-
cded advantage in this respect when he
applies for life insurance. One big Amer
lean company considers war risks exactly
as ii does the risks of infectious disease
and takes risks on the lives of ordinary
citizens on policies which hold good
whether man goes out to fight his coun-
try's battles or not, and with no extra
charge If he does go. Even officers in
the regular army and navy are insured IN
time of peace at regular rates ond the
only difference between their policies and
those of the civilian Is that they go in to
a class by themselves, with which a sep
arate account is kept, and then may lose
the usual profit on dividends declared from
year to year on their premium payments
If the losses happen to be heavy among
them. Now that we have tropical coun-
cries as a part of the nation, an extra
clause is being added to the policies OF
army officers requiring them to get per-
NIT before going into the tropics. and to
pay special fee of $50 for each 81 geo for
which they are insured. This payment Is,
however, final for that class of risk. Nav
al officers are not required to pay extra
for going to the tropics, because they take
| their houses with Them
During he Spanish war the companies
whose policies did not cover the risk to a
citizen soldier made their insured men who
volunteered take out permits, ond agree
to pay an extra foe for the risk. but the
| The sum of this extra fee was not to ex-
coed 800 per 81 900 insurance. The act
ual loss from the risk has not been figured
up yet. but it is believed to have been
! only a small part Of this extra fee. Every
| man of our volunteer forces may carry
| Insurance, but none is taken on the lives
| of the enlisted men in the regular army
| No company writes more than a $4,000
| risk on an officer. Our officers are said
to be more generally insured than those
| of foreign armies. although the English
officers carry considerable insurance on
! their lives.
| The rates and manner of insuring the
| lives of officers abroad vary in the various
! countries, but the general principle is to
| charge an extra sum- equal according TO
| the results of experience, to the actual
risks of war. In England this sum is
| S6.25 year on each $1,000 of insurance,
| and our companies make the same charge
| there as the English companies.