The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-04-16
COLOSSAL FIGURES IN LIFE INSUR-
ANCE. WHAT DO Hey MEAN?

The published statements OF banks,
trust companies and industrial concerns
command the attention of persons inter
esteG in them as investors or deposltors;
tie Annual Statements of great Life In
suraEce ompanies are read by the mass
Of tie people with all the interest that
attaches to the more important news
of the day 1t cannot be otherwise when
practically every one in every communi
ty feels that its own fortunes are closely
connected with and dependent upon the
operations of one or more of Jnese tre-
nnenGous benefcent associations.
The Metropolitan Life puts forth
statement of its business in 1909, 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
fact is stated 1T is that giving the
number of policies in force on the last
day of the year-more than 100000
showing that one person in every ten
OF the entire population of the United
States is insured in this Company.
lii other items the figures are too large
to convey any clear meaning until they
are divided and subdivided and made
to apply to days and hours instead Of
years. For example, this great Company
has paid to and invested for its policy
holders since organization, over $23S,-
uG0, 000-a sum that will impress the av-
crage reader merely as being vast and
very vague There is quick comprchen-
sion, however when VIC learn by a lit
tie calculation that during 1893 the
amount thus distributed among pollcy
he lders averaged $50 q minute during
every working day of the year
Every day in the year $50 claims were
paid; every day in the year more than
i6,UUu new policies were written. At the
end OF every day in the year the Com
panys Assets were more than $5O,0u0
greater than in the morning. It's total
assets at the end Of the year were more
than $105, 900, 900. It's total income for
the one year 1903 was over $40 600.
Going back twenty years we have some
comparative figures that tell story of
almost incredible growth The Com
pany's income for the year 1888 was a
little over 100000 tor 1898 a little
over $4,000 600; for 1903 over S49, 100000;
It's surplus since 1883 has increased from
about 1927 600 TO over $40 1000, 600 When
we come to the amount of outstanding
Insurance at the end OF the year we pass
the billion mark. The exact sum is
81 .342, 3S1, Asst CO.
The Metropolitan Life received from
premiums and other sources during 1903
over $6,500,00o more than in 1902. Con
sidering the relative condition of the
financial markets in these two years, this
exhibit is at first surprising, then illu-
minating. In 1902 money was plentiful;
M ms nil ipct G
OF promoters and fnanciers had been
stronger; times were good In 1903
these conditions were reversed. Thou
sands of hitherto prosperous wage earn
ers 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 and to
withhold money from investment. Yet
this was by far the most prosperous year
OF the Metropolitan Life Insurance Com
paliy's existence
Nothing could show more plainly what
Life Insurance really stands for in the
mrds OF the people. 1t is not regarded
as a speculative venture, but a sure
premise of security; a safe shelter when
financial storm clouds threaten general
wreck.
A concern like the Metropolitan Life
Insurance Company is, of course, bust
ness organization, but it is one in which
all Of its policy 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 oant stocnholder will
reaG the annual report of his own pros
porous bank with keener relish than
people everywhere read this remarkable
statement oil the Metropolitan Life.