The Winslow mail., 1901-01-17
LIVES RECKONED IN CASH.
GalvestOn's Deaths to the Life Insur-
ance Companies Count Almost
as Nothing.

The Galveston disaster, which cost
about 5000 lives and millions in prop
erty damage, will have practically no
| effect on the business of life insurance
companies. The Johnstown flood
hadn't any, though the companies
paid several hundred claims as a re-
suit of the wiping out of the town
and the lives of many of it's citizens.
Even the Spanish-American war had
little effect. This is due to the great
law of average. In the war of death
on life Galveston and Johnstown are
mere flea bites, says the New York
Sun.
| None of the companies know the
exact amount of it's loss from the
| Galveston flood yet. but that doesn't
matter. The claims will come in at
| intervals, perhaps, for years. as this
mans and that mans relatives, fail
ing to hear from him. discover that
| he is dead and that he had an in
surance policy, and forthwith demand
a settlement with the insurance COM
| pany. The cost to the companies of
loss of life at Galveston can be APP
| proXimately gagged, however, and the
estimate will err rather against the
| companies than in their favor.
There is held throughout the United
| States about $4,000, 100000 in in
! surance, of which about ST 900, 900 900
is industrial insurance. that is, in
surance issued among the industrial
classes in policies of small amounts,
| the premiums on which are collected
weekly or monthly. In the 100000
| OF population this country contains,
| about 10000, 900 are rated as insura-
BILE and Of the other 10,0OO,0O about
25 per cent. perhaps are actually in
sured. The deaths at Galveston num-
bered roughly 5000 in a population of
10000. Reckoning one person in seven
as insurable and IS per cent. of these
as insured, there will be about IT'S
policies to be paid by the insurance
companies on Galveston victims. The
average amount of an insurance pol
icy in a city like Galveston is reck-
oned at about $4,000, the total loss to
the life insurance companies will be
something under $350,000, a large sum
| of itself. but small one when COM
pared with the millions handled by
| the companies.
| 1t may be much less, because, as an
| insurance man pointed out, persons
whose lives are insured for large
amounts usually live in houses which
are comparatively unlikely to tumble
| down upon them even in such gale
as Galveston experienced, and con-
sequently most of the policies falling
due would be industrial policies for
| small amounts.
In the sum of life and death great
| fire, 4 food, a town wiped out, a city
| devastated, war even. any of these
| is a drop in the bucket in life in
| surance. The great law of average
covers all. So many men killed by
| bullets, so many the less die of dis
ease. So far-reaching is the rule that
one at least of the big companies,
| whose business stretches out across
| half of the civilized world, did not
| increase its rates on the policies of
men who enlisted in the Spanish
| American war.
! Disease in it's many forms is the one
foe of the life insurance companies.
Consumption alone accounts for one
| fourth of the deaths on which poll
cies are paid, and nine diseases are
held responsible for nearly co per cent.
of the total deaths on the companies
| books: so that the fire and flood the
wiping out of a populous city like
Buffalo or Syracuse, counts with the
men who reckon human lives in dol
| lars and cents as of much smaller i'm
| portance than a new disease or a few
| per cent. increase in the mortality due
to tuberculosis, pneumonia or typhoid
or a small increase in the suicide
| rate.