The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-16
Colossal Figures in Life Insurance.
 What Do They Meanp

The puDISneQ statements or banks, truss companies and industrial concerns com- mand the attention of persons interested in them as investors or depositors; the Annual Statements of great life insurance companies are read by the mass of the people with all the interest that attaches to the more important news of the day.
 It cannot be otherwise when practically every family in every community feels that its own fortunes are closely connect ed with its own fortunes are closely con- nected with and dependent upon the ope- rations of one or more of these tremen- dous beneficent associations.
 The Metropolitan Life puts forth a statement of it's business in 1903 present. ing an array of figures that shows impres- sively the intimate relations between this
 institution and the whole people. Tn one
 Item alone an amazing fact is stated. II Is that giving the number of policies in force on the last day of the year-more than 7,500, ,000-showing that one person in every ten of the entire population of the
 United States is insured in this Company. In other itemsthe figures are too large
 to convey any clear meaning until they are divided and subdlvided and made to apply to days and hours instead of years
 For example, this great Company has I paid to and invested for it's policy holders
 since organization, over $2SS. 600 000-a sum | ttAat VIII lLHplCbS lnO average T6duGI | merely as being vast and very vague There Is quick comprehension, however when We learn by little calcuation that during 1903 the amount thus distributed
 among policy holders averaged $S9 a min
 ute during every working day of the year.
 Every day in the year S59 claims were
 paid; every day in the year more than 5000 new policies were written. At the
 end of every day in the year the Com pany's Assets were more than $50,00C
 greater than in the morning. Its total
 assets at the end of the year were more l than 1O5,O00,O00 Its total income for the
 one year 1908 was over $49,0OO, 900. Going back twenty years we have some comprehensive figures that tell a story of | almost incredible growth. The Company
 income for the year 1883 was little over $S,OOO,OOO; for 1893 a little over $15,000 900: | for 1908 over S4900O.00O; its surplus since | 1883 has increased Srom about S627, 900 to over $10,O00,000 When we come to the l amount of outstanding insurance at the end of the year we pass the billion mark
 The exact sum is $1.342.3S 457OO.
 The Metropolitan Life received from
 premiums and other sources during 190s
 over $6,5O0,O 900 more than in 1902. Consider.
 ing the relative condition of the financial
 markets in these two years this exhibit Is at first surprising, then Illuminating
 In 1902 money was plentiful: public con.
 fidence in the manifold projects of pro.
 motors and financiers had never been
 stronger: times were good" In 19O;
 these conditions were reversed. Thous.
 ands of hitherto prosperous wage earners | were out of employment; others were forced to accept reduced wages; the in. comes of the well-to-do shrank and dwln. dled: and everywhere there was a decided | tendency to retrench and to withhold. mon. ey from investment. Yet this was by
 far the most prosperous year of the Me.
 tropolitan Life Insurnace Company's ex-
 istence.
 Nothing could show more plainly what
 Life Insurance really stands for in the
 minds of the people. It Is not regarded
 as a speculative venture, but a sure
 promise of security; a safe shelter whcr
 financial storm-clouds threaten genera
 wreck
 A concern like the Metropolitan Lif,
 Insurance Company is. of course, a bust
 ness organization, but 1t is one in whicf
 all of Its policy holders are bona fide part
 ners, "a company of the people, by thu people and for the people," one that ha,
 known how to gain and how to justify thc | confidence of the whole community. Thats is why no bank stockholder vii
 read the annual report of his own pros | porous bank with keener relish than peo | pie everywhere read this remarkabl
 statement of the Metropolitan Life. | adv.