The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-02-23

and the soundness of the company, ha been eliminated. But we have n( built with one hand and, with the oti
 CT, prepared the way to tear dowi 7 The Connecticut Mutual remains If
 insurance company.
 Expenses Cut in All Business But Lif
 Insurance.
 One of the most striking incidents c
 the last thirty years has been that gen eral and extensive reduction of expen ses in all commercial, manufacturing transportation, and other enterprises
 by which only have these enterprise been able to prosper in face of an un precedented competition. Present prof its are largely, and often entirely, say ingS of reductions from former expen ses. Lower cost is the strongest facto in general business competition. So i should be in life insurance of all things But so it is not. The expense accoun of the companies pushing the deferre' dividend investment schemes, is iron twice to three times the former stand ard of the most prudently managed companies. But, the dividend thereb. affected being so long put off, the fac
 
 settling day comes, the strikipg failure of the dividend to realize the estimate is explained on other grounds thar high commissions and expenses.
 ! We have refused to compete in thi: way. In order to maintain the low standard of cost to the great body o1 policyholders we already have, we have kept expenses down to the old stand i ard, and added only such business as could be had on the same terms.
 The Difficulties of Our Course.
 It must not be supposed that the maintenance of our position in all these matters has been free from difficulty The high commissions of those conn ipanies have tempted away many of our former agents, and made it the more difficult to get others. Our agents with fair commissions, with no margin in them for rebating, have worked up bllsi- ness only to see it taken from them by men whose commissions and allowances are such that they can rebate from 50 to 100 per cent. of the premium, and yet have enough left to compensate their work But, happily, we have been able to get and to hold as agents, the men who take their work so seriously that they will not tempt their client to spec ulate in his fanily's protection, or, for higher pay, place him where his policy will cost him more than 1t ought.
 Adverse Criticism.
 The position so steadfastly held by us and the efforts we have made from year to year to set forth the simple truth gav v11 hn tryyn nh afn v1d effect of the demoralization whose growth we have here sketched, have, as a matter of course, brought upon us criticism and misrepresentation with out stint. Success in getting business by estimates, which have not been half fulfilled, has been cited as the complete justification of that method. In the heat of speculative competition we have been labeled with every epithet signify ing want of enterprise, ultra conserva- tism and lack of the modern spirit.
 Even the extraordinary persistency with which our policyholders have con- tinued on has been, ignorantly perhaps, alleged as danger because older men die faster than younger; as If the call culations of all companies must not and
 
 mortality of its membership and not merely for the younger or middle-aged part of it.
 It is in the great multitude of lapses and surrenders that the companies of fering investments" hope for profit; it is by the staying solidity of our membership that we can get those best results which we seek.
 However agents of other companies might strive against each other, they have joined to attack the Connecticut Mutual. Insinuation, depreciation, islander, can do in moment and by word that which much time and many words may fail to undo. The abundant defamatory literature of other compa- nies has been supplemented by the services of certain insur- ance journals. ,N
 Effect on Our Business.
 All this was not without effect. It hindered our business. From 1874 to 1885. our amount at risk declined from s185, ,3666 633 to $151 1901, ,588 before the tide turned Dry rot'' was alleged to have set in, and the extinction of the compa- ny to be in sight Meantime we went on educating a clientage to the idea of insurance for it's own sake and at it's lowest cost, recast our premiums and reserves for new business on per cent interest basis in 1882, and were laughed at for it-though all are now following that lead-bided our time and waited for the results of long deferred dividends to appear; and they have ap- peared as already narrated, in a stead fly diminishing stream.
 Failure of the "Investment."
 As device for investment the scheme has failed; as device for the insurance of even those who live to test the hope deferred, it | nas failed. For the simple annual divi- lends of the Connecticut Mutual, with 10 speculation in them, are exceeding he outcome of the estimates; and no | mans surplus and no fanlily's paid-up | insurance has been taken to do it with. | Let an example serve: Fifteen years lgo one of the deferred dividend compa- lies issued a $10,000 15-year endoW- nent policy, at age 35, at>a premium of 67S50, on an estimate that the divi- lend would be s4,9s0. Tn it's settlement, ust made, the dividend was only $2,010 | Vas it worth while, for this 40 per cent if an estimate, to run the risk for fif- cen years of losing all? The same ,,o,, +I,o Connaotia,,+ M1yt,1ol icStyo1