Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-10-23
TOTAL ABSTAINERS.
LIFE INSURANCE COMPANIES
URGED TO FAVOR THEM.
Important Statement by a Foreign
Expert-Result Of an Interest
ing Investigation.

From the New York Evening Pest,
Efforts are being made abroad to organ
ize total aostainers into what is known as
UNDERSTANDING class Of life risks. The
movement Is the result Of a careful investi-
sauon into the death losses Of life COM
panles. with the result that much valuable.
oata mas been accumulated to show that
persons who do not use alcoholic beverages
make altosether the best class Of policy
hoioers Tor an insurance company to have.
Inc subject has been studied before by
actuarles In this country, and although au-
'horltles are not in agreement as to the ex-
act enect OF such Indulgence, the feeling Is
general that it adds materially to the ordi-
nary life risk. In cases where policy-hold-
ers have been attacked with a serious dis
ease 1t has been found that the chances of
recovery decidedly favor those who do not
use stimulants of any kind
Moderate Drinkers.
one Foreign expert cautions the compa-
MES against making any allowance for even
moderate drinking. This, he says, may
easily lead to excess. He adds: 1.-The out
look Tor man who should fall Ill with
pneumonia. typhoid fever dysentery, neph-
rus heart disease. diabetes and affections
circumstances, but II the patient Is an in
temperate man his hope for recovery is re-
ouceo very materially, and the fight for life
~ desperate, II not hopeless. Every phys-
clah VINO mas had much emergency hospi-
Ia practice. or even private practice,
among the incorporate, can assent to these
statements: We know that men who fol-
low hazardous occupations are frequently
3ured is temperate his chances for recov-
cry from the injuries and the surgery Incl
oeht thereto are far in excess OF the man
VINO uses 1ntoxicants
Heredity and Disease.
since inheritance plays such a great role
IN lie insurance, and many a risk person.
ally good is rejected on account Of bad
ancestry, would it not be also well to con-
sioer' not only the physical features Of a
rlsk VINO has drunken ancestors, but also
the moral features Of such risk in all it's
bearings? Namely, intemperance Is usually
irequen. among the vicious and those of
AZ" Haplts, VINO frequent all kinds of re-
sorts, the dive, the brothel the levee-all
places of great risk to health and life. The
children Of heavy drinkers are personally
poorer risks than those whose ancestors
LED temperate and pure lives. We might
multiply instances to show the MANY cor
relative combinations in which intemper-
ance IS FACTOR as a great hazard in life
insurance.
Substandard Risks.
Under present conditions we have but
two kinds Of risks. the standard and So
called substandard. The first embraces all
those who can pass satisfactory examina-
ton and can get an aunmodifed policy at
the usual rates; the second embraces all
those who pass only a partially sue
cessful examination, and can obtain a pol
icy with some notifications and inserted
conditions. l wish to make plea for the
establishment of another class of risks than
the two already existing, and which for
want OF another or better name l will call
the superstandard class. This class shall
possess all the good qualifications of the
standard risk, namely; good family history,
free from faint of disease, bad habits, lon
gevity, personally good health and in ad-
dition to all this they must be teetotalers.
There are sufficiently large number of
these who take life insurance to justify the
creating Of such a class of superstandard
risks, to- whom policies should be issued at
reduced rates. This is no more than Just
to them, they should not be compelled to
pay for the shortcomings of that large ma
jority, who, aside from what good traits
they possess from a life insurance stand
point. are most Of them drinkers of intoxi-
cants. who vary all the way from the worst
inebriates up to the regular everyday tip
pier and the so-called thoroughbred sport"