The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-01-04
LIMIT IN LIFE INSURANCE.
Man Might Get Perhaps
$4,000, 900.

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Several papers have published para
graph to the effect that the prince of
Wales is insured for about Flo, ,000, 900,
portion of the insurance being for the
benefit of creditors, and much larger
portion in favor of persons neither. re-
lated to him nor having any interest
whatever in his living. Prof. A. F. Har-
yey, the insurance actuary, who is
authority on all such matters, considers
the statements ridiculous, and partic-
ularly the one that Prince Albert is in
sured for the benefit of people who have
no insurable interest in him.
''Up to about 125 years ago the prac-
tice of taking out insurance on the
lives of kings, queens and others in
authority, where there was no possible
insurance interest, obtained to great
extent" said the professor when his
attention was called to the paragraph.
'The practice became SO general, scan
dalous and vicious that in 1774 parlia-
ment enacted statute "a Geo. 3, c.
49,, prohibiting absolutely all insur-
ance in which there was no interest
to the beneficiary in the life of the prin-
cipal in the contract, and prohibiting
the payment of money under policy
written to secure a debt beyond the
actual sum due. This law against
wager or gambling policies was fol-
lowed up in France and Germany and
in most of the states Of this country
and has since been rigidly enforced
everywhere p
The amount of life insurance carried
by the prince of Wales has never been
made public, and is probably known to
only few people. It is evident, how
ever, that the total is not one-tenth OF
the sum named in the paragraph re-
ferred to. The most heavily insured
man in the United States is ex-Post
master General John Wanamaker, of
Philadelphia, and his insurance
amounts to only $2,O25, 900. The word
'sonly" applies here because of the COM
parison with $4S, 500 900, or, to be more
accurate. $4S,775,0O0, according to the
present market value here of a10, 0,000.-
600. At meeting Of the National Life
Underwriters association in Philadel-
phia four years ago Mr.. Wanamaker
stated that one of the first things he
did after becoming Of age was to in
sure his life. When Mr.. Wanamaker
addressed the association his life in
surance amounted to $1,525, 900, and all
but sec, 600 had been taken after he was
80 years of age.
According to an eastern insurance
journal "the amount of life insurance
which can be secured upon single life
among the United States companies
foots up $2,60O,OO0." The paper gives
a tabulated list of AZ old lire companies
and what purports to be the limit OF
each. The figures are correct in the
main, but there are some bad errors in
the list.
Some Of the companies insure for
more than the amounts credited to
them, but in every such case the COM
pany reinsures a portion Of the risk.
The figures in the table represent the
limits without such reinsurance. OF
course, there could be no reinsurance
on person that took the limit in every
company. Legal reserve and stipulated
premium companies that are not usually
classed as old liners are omitted from
the table, as also assessment compan-
les, fraternal organizations and several
Industrial companies that write very
little, if any, ordinary life insurance.
Accident companies that pay death
claims, but do not write ordinary life
insurance, are likewise omitted. In
cluding all these, the total life insur-
ance that . person could get in the
United States would probably still fall
below $3,oOo,oo0. There are about $50
life insurance companies in the world,
not counting American companies.
Very few of them insure for as much
as $4,000 and the average is not half
that sum, but supposing it were $2o, 900,
the total would be only $4,000. 900,
which, added to the American total.
would still make only about ore-fifth
the sum the prince Of Wales is report
ed to be insured for. st. Louis Globe
Democrat.
Changes Of Climate.
Prot. Arrhenius, who has recent
" investigated the causes Of secular
variations in the temperature at the
earth's surface, thinks that they are
more probably due to changes in the