The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-02-17


= decided that it's officers have been pay
t ing too much: that the business ha'
9 been forced; that, however much the,
$ may write in this way, they lose nearly
. as much; that it Is increasingly Difficult
: to buy new business faster than the ole
2 drops out; and that after all it is only
? the business that stays that is WORTH
having; although that il one Of the
companies that depend on the leaving:
5 of those who go out for the speculation
fund of those who stay in. But those
> leavngs have been largely eaten up by
l the expense necessary to get new bust
. ness enough to keep ahead. 1t does mol
yet appear what will be the outcome OF
: this more prudent View Of the situation
, Whatever has been re may be done
) about the expenses, other recent things
have shown pretty conclusively that the
company has, at present. no mind to DE
eclipsed III size. What method of COM
petition, except that Of high pay to
agents, will be adopted to prevent fall
ing behind remains to be seen. It Is
devoutly to be wished that it's manage
ment may rise to all the practical cour-
age Of it's new convictions.
Meantime it is significant that the
faith so steadily contended for by The
Connecticut Mutual is thus at last con-
fessed by one of it's severest and long
time critics.
Another Possible Reform.
That same company is also rendering
tribute to the principle of life insur-
ance for the use of the family rather
than as a scheme for the personal profit
or convenience of the policy-holder. 1t
has announced it's recognition of the
fact that the policy-holder can't use up
his policy without his family losing it,
10 the attraction of a policy which
let's the man into a personal speculation
in the losses Of others (and of others in
his losses). the racers are adding the
agreement to loan him all or even more
than the reserve on his policy; feature
which consistently completes the purely
personal and speculative view by which
they draw men by self-interest rather
than by leading them to plain but UNI
selfish duty. No doubt it is agreeable
to many men to think they can borrow
at will for their own convenience and
put up their policy as collateral. There
must be few who, in cold blood, would
do it If they could really in fore vision
put themselves in the place of the wild
ow coming with her dependent flock,
with hope in her heart for them, to rea-
lie the promise in her policy, and un-
expectedly receiving in it's fulfillment
but fraction Of that which will clothe
and feed, and for the rest, the cancelled
note which has served the personal con-
venience of the husband and father.
Few officers of companies can really de-
sire to face such disappointing settle
ments; such heart breaking failures of
promised protection at the saddest crisis
of stricken lives. Yet few hesitate to
compete for business by offering to do 1t.
While it has not pointed out the lirnita-
lions upon this practice the company
referred to has emphatically declared
that it may be and is being carried too |
far
The Unchanging Facts.
Time is slowly demonstrating to those
who would force the growth of their
companies by other theories, that the
only true use of life insurance is the
protection Of the family; that any other
use of it can be had only by the more
or less complete destruction of its pro-
tective value: that the working ex-
penses of it, even reduced to the lowest
terms by which safe and true men can
be employed in its promotion are SO /
much greater than those of any other
fundamentally for the investment and I
care of other peoples money, that no
one can legitimately afford to use it or
any of the schemes offered in its name,
for personal profit or convenience. There
can be profit in 1T to one which
does not come from the greater loss of
another; there can be no personal con-
venience which does not cost far more
than it is worth or which could not be d
had at less cost in another way.
1t is slower building, it is harder
work. 1t is less snowy on the surface, to
persuade men to take life insurance at
its own value only, as the only wholly i
means of doing their unset
fish but imperative duty to their de-
pendent ones and with all its details
adjusted to their most complete and {
abiding protection, asking for ones self s
only that the cost of this duty shall be
made as small as possible by pru- .
lence as careful and conscientious as q
he duty is sacred. But the work so
lone endures. 1t disappoints neither
hose who trust 1t nor those who I
Jay it's cost. The road to the {
highest results is not along the lines of | S
east resistance; nor is it much thronged
With those who applaud But the I
ruth remains and returns. And genu- i
ne conviction of and loyalty to sound Il
principles are the most enduring basis, y
nd the strongest binding tie, of human /,
b. J.
'he Operations of Flfty-Four Years. q
In the fifty-four years of its work a,
The Connecticut Mutual has received: |,
or premiums .$206, 5j60 o55U =
or Interest,". S4,GS2,3 6T.03 J..
or rents..... S,027 04644
alance profit y
and loss 49, LII, 039.78 ,!
Total receipts ............ $500, l42, 95S. IS e'
has paid
Death claims L
for ........ SOL, 1s262s.75 i
EndOwments &C
and annuities d,
for ...... 1861, 54719 al
For surren- p,
dcrod policies 25,5ss,571.76 NJ
For dividends 597S0.2T3. E
total return l.
TO policy hold IN
ers or their III
benciciarles,
being 97.37 per al
cent. Of the A,
entire prcmi- n.
ums receivedS2O1, 1862 IA ~