The Savannah morning news., 1904-02-20
Colossal Figures in Life Insurance.
What Do They Meant

The published statements of banks,
trust companies and industrial con-
Germs command the attention of per-
sons 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. 1t
cannot be otherwise when practically
every family in every community feels
that it's own fortunes are closely con-
nected with and dependent upon the
operations of one or more of these
tremendous beneficent 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 amaz-
ing fact is stated. 1t is that giving
the number of policies in force on the
last day of the year-nore than $780,,
OOO-showing that one person in every
ten of the entire population of the
United States is insured in this COM
pany.
In other items the figures are too
large to convey any clear meaning un-
til they are divided and subdivided
and made to apply to days an hours
instead of years. For example this
great company has paid to and in
vested for its policy holders since or
ganization over $23S, 000 00O--a sum that
will impress the average reader merely
as being vast and very vague. There
is quick comprehension, however,
when we learn by a little calculation
that during 1903 the amount thus dis
tributed among policy holders aver
aged $3.50 minute during every work.
ing day of the year.
Every day in the year 359 claims
We're paid; every day in the year more
than 5000 new policies were written.
At the end of every day in the year
the company'S assets were more than
$4,000 greater than in the morning.
Its total assets at the end of the year
were more than sos, 100000. It's total
income for the one year 1903 was over
$40, 900, 900.
Going back twenty years we have
some comparative figures that tell a
story of almost incredible growth. The
company's income for the year 1888
was a little over $1,000, 900; for 1893 a
little over $4,000, 900; for 1903 over $49,-
100000; it's surplus since 1883 has in
creased from about $627, 900 to over $780,
100000. 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, 3S1, 457.OO.
The Metropolitan Life received from
premiums and other sources during
1903 over Sc, 100000 more than in 1902.
Considering the relative condition of
the financial markets in these two
years, this exhibit is at first surpris-
ing, then Illuminating. In 1902 money
was plentiful; public confidence in the
manifold projects of promoters and
financiers had never been stronger;
"times were good" In 1903 these con-
ditions were reversed. Thousands of
hitherto prosperous wage earners were
out of employment; others were forced
to accept reduced wages; the incomes
of the well-to-do shrank and dwindled;
and everywhere there was a decided
tendency to retrench an to withhold
money from investment. Yet this was
by. far the most prosperous year of the
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's
existence.
Nothing could show more plainly
what life insurance really stands for
in the minds of the people. 1t is not
regarded as speculative venture, but
a sure promise of security; a safe
shelter when financial storm clouds
threaten general wreck. ~-
A concern like the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company is, of course. a
business organization, but it is one in
which all of it's policy holders are
bona fide partners, "a company of the
people, by the people and for the peo-
pie one that has known how to gain
and how to justify the confidence of
the whole community. 49,
That is why no bank stakeholder will
read the annual report of his own
prosperous bank with keener relish
than people everywhere read this re-
markable statement of the Metropoli-
fan Life.