The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-01-29
THE GREAT DESTROYER
SOME STARTLING FACTS ABOUT
THE VICE OF lNTEMPERANcE,

Plea For Lower Insurance Rates For To.
tai Abstainers - Efforts Being Made
Abroad to Classify Temperate Men
with a"superstandard" Class of Risks.
Efforts are being made abroad to or.
ganize total abstainers into what is known
as a "superstandard" class OF life risks,
says writer in the New York Evening
Post. The movement is the result of
careful investigation into the death losses
OF life companies, with the result that
many valuable data have been accumu
lated to show that persons who do not
use alcoholic beverages make altogether
the best class of policy holders for an in.
surance company to have. The subject
has been studied before by actuares in
this country and although authorities are
not in agreement n to the exact effect Of
such indulgence, the feeling is general that
it adds materially to the ordinary life
risk. In cases where policy holders have
been attacked with serious disease it has
been found that the chances of recovery
decidedly favor those who do not use
stimulants of any kind.
One foreign expert cautions the com.
panies against making any allowance for
even moderate drinking, This, he saws.
may easily lead to excess. He adds. The
outlook of a man who should fall i'll with
pneumonia, typhoid fever, dysenterv. neph-
ritis, heart disease, diabetes and affections
OF liver is bad enough under the best
circumstances, but il the patient is an
reduced very materially. and the fight for
life is desperate. If not hopeless. Every
physician who has had much emergency
hospital practice or even private practice
among the incorporate can assent to
these statements. We know that men
who follow hazardous occupations are fire.
quent,y liable to injuries. In case the
party injured is temperate his chances for
recovery from the injuries and the surgery
incident thereto are far in excess of the
man who uses lntoxicants.
Since inheritance plays such great
role IN life insurance and many a risk
personally good is rejected on account of
bad ancestry would it not be also we'll to
consider not only the physical features OF
a risk who has drunken ancestors but
also the moral features of such risk in
all its bearings? Namely, intemperance is
usually frequent among the vicious and
those of low habits who frequent all kinds
of resorts, the dive, the levee-al places
Of great risk to health and life. The chill.
dren of heavy drinkers are personally
poorer risks than those whose ancestors
led temperate and pure lives. We might
multiply instances to show the many CORE.
lative combinations in which intemperance
is factor as a great hazard in life in.
surance.
Under present conditions we have but
two kinds of rsks-the standard and So
called substandard. The first embraces all
those who can pass n satisfactory exam
nation and can get an unmodfed policy
at the usual rates. The second embraces
all those who can pass only a partially
successful examination and can obtain a
policy with some notifications and insert
ed conditions. / wish to make plea for
the establishment OF another class of
risks than the two already existing and
which Tor want OF another or better name
| will call the superstandard class. This
class shall possess all the good oualifca.
tions of the standard risk-namely. good
family history, free from taint OF disease
or bad habits, longevity, personally good
health. and in addition to all this thev
must be teetotalers. There are a suffi.
ciently large number of these who take
life, insurance to justify the creating of
such class of superstandard risks. to
whom policies should be issued at reduced
rates. This is no more than just to them.
as they should not be compelled to paw
Tor the shortcomings OF that large majority
who. aside from what good traits thev
possess from life insurance standpoint,
are most of them drinkers of intoxicants,
who vary all the way from the worst in.
ebr'ates up to the regular everyday tinpler
md the so-called thoroughbred sport"