The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-11-26

lating wealth for some years to come,
and In spite Of the fact that death and
other claims would constantly be max
in all probability, increase from its
present figure of about four hundred
millions of dollars to perhaps five or
six hundred millions before the tide
turned. The tide would, however,
eventually turn; the claims would be-
gin, with advancing years, to flock
in more and more thickly, and in the
end, perhaps seventy or eighty years
from now, the last money would have
all been paid out to the last policy
holder and the company would cease
to exist. The much-dreaded "piling
up OF surplus" so-called matter for
government control and suppression, is
pure Pigment Of the imagination, and
| on closer inspection is found to be
quite innocuous.
Best of all types is that of mutual
. insurance. There are no shares in a
mutual company, as every employee,
is on salary, and every policy
holders money, invested by the COM
pany, after those investments have
paid for the absolute cost of running
the business. is returned to him plus
far safer and more liberal Increment
than it could have earned elsewhere.
The company with its vast resources,
decades of experience and Argus-eyed
Watchfulness; knows better how to in
vest with perfect safety and how to
gain two talents for one, than the av-
erage private citizen seated at home
in his easy chair. The late Frederick
ID. Tappen, president of the Gallatin
National bank of New York and finan-
clally prominent in very many ways,
realized this fact most fully when in
his unique will he prescribed to the
trustees of his estate only such invest
ment securities as were possessed by
, Inc ny Mutual Lite. A great COMPANY
money, it returns the investment at
the end Of certain periods, specified
in the policy, and in addition it gives
the citizen a thousand, ten thousand
or hundred thousand dollars incre-
ment as the case may be.
Illustrative Examples.
Suppose, for example, a mutual COM
| pany with one thousand pOlicyhOlderS,
whose contributions in each case have
created an endowment Of ST 900. The
amount hand will therefore be
$1,0O0,O00. Suppose Investments have
increased this amount to S1,500,O00
Then each mans share in the surplus
will be $500, and this is precisely the
sum he will receive, in addition to his
$1,000 invested, a total of $1,000. The
case is purely hypothetical, but will
serve 'as an illustration.
| A real example will make the mat
ter clearer still. On Feb. Z, 1S43,
Charles H. Booth, already mentioned,
tual Life. His policy is still in force.
In the beginning, sixty years ago, it
| read for $4,000; to-day it is worth
$5,S30.92. In other words, his original
investment is coming back, every cent
of it, plus all the accretions which
|
gained for him. His case is by no
means unique, but on the contrary
quite we'll paralleled by many others.
| The old Line companies alone pay
out every year in endoWments, death
claims and benefits in round numbers
| $200,00O,000, and this sum is increas-
ing largely from year to year. All
this money, returned to those who
| need it most is the product of the
peoples savings, judiciously invested
and honorably accounted for, savings
not 10 per cent Of which, it is con-
sentative to say, would have ever been
voluntarily or Systematically laid up
had not the stimulus of a life insurance
policy interviewed to make regular and
systematic saving necessity.
word in conclusion. The mutual
life companies are not, as some have
proclaimed, hoarders, but rather dis
| tributOrS of wealth. the greatest dis
tributors that the world has ever seen.
They play two roles and perform two
important functions; first Of all they
are conservators of wealth, and sec
ondly they are disbursers. How great
is their conserving effect may be seen
from the accumulations they have laid
up for the people, to be drawn on in
time Of INSTRUMENTATION that re-
suit from regular and systematic saw
ings which would have otherwise been
spent and dissipated with no material
result or gain to the spender. Such
an accumulation of savings as The
Mutual Life of New York has thus
laid up puts all the savings banks in
the country to shame, both in amount
and in the rate Of interest returned.
Life insurance companies take savings
on legitimate basis, assure them abb
!, solutely from loss, and return them
: eventually to the last cent and mill,
with liberal increments. Their money
comes in from those who can afford it,
| from business men, men with incomes
and men on salaries; it goes out to
those who stand in direct need thereof
, to the aged, to widows orphans and
dependents. Can there be in the world
more legitimate, more praise
| worthy and beneficent business than
: this Of protecting the weak and the
defenseless?