The sun., 1901-10-09
HANDLING MILLIONS DAILY.
Phenomenal Increase in the Amount
Invested in the Big Corporations.
BY RICHARD A. MccURDy.

The head of one OF the largest lnSur-
ance companies in the world, Richard A.
McCurdy, of the Mutual Life Insurance
Company, of New York, has this to say
on the subject of insurance..
"In the development of civilization dur
ing the nineteenth century no general
fact can be found more impressive and
more significant than the extension of
the business of life insurance and the
growth of the companies which carry it
on. One hundred years ago the practice
of insuring lives was unknown beyond a
very narrow circle, the scientific princi-
pies which underlie it were little UNDER
stood, and the aggregate transactions of
this character were but small fraction
Of those now negotiated every year by
each of many great companies. The
idea of distributing in advance, by con-
tract, unforeseen losses which might be
suffered by premature deaths commend
ed itself very rapidly to prudent minds
as it became more and, more clear through
scientific studies verified by experience,
that this could be done with entire safety
and equity. Twenty-Five years ago the
business in this simple form had become
so widespread among enlightened nations
that large percentage of people depend
ent upon the earnings of the head Of the
family were to some extent protected by
insurance. Since that time the elemen-
tary form of life insurance has rapidly
become associated with variety of CON
tracts providing for the investment of
capital, often in amounts much larger
than We're required for the protection
against poverty. the need of which had
inspired the institution at its origin.
'The fundamental fact that the consti
tuition of a well-ordered life insurance
company brings with it higher degree
Of security than that of any other finan-
cial institution has attracted to such
companies so large a degree of conf
dence OH the part of the wisest inves-
tors that it is now comparatively rare
to find man in possession of large
estate who has not deemed it prudent to
intrust portion of his accumulations to
the care of these institutions.
The superior safety of this form of
investment above all the ordinary vent
ures of the business world was pointed
out more than two generations ago by
the great mathematician and investi-
gator, Augustus de Morgan. 1t may be
said, in general, to result from the fact
that while all ordinary financial invest
ments and business enterprises depend
for their ultimate success upon the fore.
cast which the investor can make of the
course of the markets and the tendencies
of trade and industry, the life insurance
company is able by wide range of in
faut.,N 4e. IN IL ~, ~.
the element of hazard in its effect upor
the rate of accumulation, while its obi
cations are assumed on the basis of cal
cuations which have all the scientific
certainty that is attanable in human af
fairs. While this was well understood il
theory as long ago as the time of Mr.. dt
Morgan, it was only the experience Of
many years, III which the life insuranc.
companies, particularly of Great Britain
continued steadily to increase in re
sources and usefulness, that the senst
of the peculiar security of this busines,
grew up and became fixed in the popular
mind. The universal confidence in i
has been strengthened in each succeed
ing year.
1t has thus come to pass that the grea
life insurance companies, especially thos
OF England and America, form at thi
time nucleus of solid strength an,
wealth such as society in former age
has sought in vain, even in the larges
banks or in the treasures of nations
Suffice it to say that in the scope O
their holdings and transactions the prin
clpal life insurance companies far sur
pass any other financial organizations
and can be compared only with the pub
lie treasures of the leading nations.
AS an illustration of the foregoing
1t is interesting to look upon the histor
of one of the companies beginning o.
small scale, the amount which it woul
grant upon any one life being limited t
maximum of $4,000, it has now ae
quired a membership numbered by hun
dreds of thousands. and all limits upol
the amount insured have been withdrawn
Its accumulations, made up of annua
contributions and the interest receive,
upon investments of them, amount t
much more than S3O0,000,O0O.
The most striking feature of thi
growth has been its impressive uni
formity. During its activity there ha
been succession of periods of grea
industrial prosperity, interspersed will
several shorter periods of depression o
even of panic. At the outbreak of tn