The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-02-19

sURANCE n WHAT DO THEY
 MEAN?
 The published statements of banks, trust companies and industrial concerns command the attention of persons in- terested in them as investors or depos- itors; the annual statements of great life insurance companies are read by the mass of the people with all the in terest that attaches to the more impor- tant news of the day. It cannot be otherwise when practically every fam fly in every community feels that its own fortunes are closely connected with and dependent upon the operations of one or more of these tremendous be- nefcent associations.
 The Metropolitan Life puts forth a statement of it's business in 1903, pre- senting an array of figures that shows impressively the intimate relations be- tween this institution and the whole people. In one item alone an amazing
 
 number of policies in force on the last day of the year-more than 7,50000O- showing that one person in every ten of the entire population of the United States is insured in this company. In other items the figures are too 1 large to convey any clear meaning until they are divided and subdivided and made to apply to days and hours in- stead of years. For example, this great company has paid to and invested for its policy-holders since organization over $2S8, 1000, ,060-a sum that will iln- press the average reader merely as be- ing vast and very vague, There is quick comprehension, however, when we learn by a little calculation. that during 1903 the amount thus distributed among policy holders averaged $S9 8 | minute during every working day of l the year.
 l Every day in the year 359 claims were I paid; every day in the year more than l 5000 new policies were written. At the end of every day in the year the com | pany's assets were more than $50000 1 greater than in the morning. Its total
 assets at the end of the year were more
 than $105,0O0,000 Its total income for | the one year 1903 was over $49,000,000. | Going back twenty years we have
 some comparative figures that tell a
 story of almost incredible growth. The
 company's income for the year 1883 was
 a little over $3,OO0,00O; for 1893 little 1 over $15, 900; for 1903 over $49 900, 900; l its surplus since 1888 has increased from | about $627, 900 to over $10,000.000. When we come to the amount of outstanding | insurance at the end of the year we pass the billion mark. The exact sum is $1, ,342, ,381, 457.
 | The Metropolitan Life received from | premiums and other sources during 1903 | over s6,500,000 more than in 1902 Con- sidering the relative condition of the i financial markets in these two years, | this exhibit is at first surprising, then 1 Illuminating. Tn 1902 money was plen- 1 tiful; public confidence ill the manifold projects of promoters and fnanciers l had never been stronger; times were good'' In 1903 these conditions were re- yersed. Thousands of hitherto prosper ous wage-earners were out of employ
 ment; others were forced to accept re- l duced wages; the incomes of the we'll <, to-do shrank and dwindled; and every where there was decided tendency tc I retrench and to withhold money from 1 investment. Yet this was by far the
 most prosperous year of the Metropoli- i tan Life Insurance Companys exist l ence.
 Nothing could show more plainly
 what life insurance really stands for ill
 the minds of the people. It is not re- I garded as a speculative venture, but a | sure promise of security; safe shelter when financial storm-clouds threaten general wreck.
 A concern like the Metropolitan Life
 Insurance Company is, of course, bus mess organization, but it is one in whict
 all of it's poliey-holders are bona-fide partners-.'a company of the people, by
 the people and for the people," one
 that has known how to gain and how
 to justify the confidence of the whole
 community
 That is why no bank stockholder will
 read the annual report of his own pros porous bank with keener relish than people everywhere read this remark
 able statement of the Metropolitan
 Life.