The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1905-10-12
INSURANCE.
A Bulwark Against Want.
THE EVENING WISCONSIN, MILwAU.
KEE, WIS.


KEE, WIS.
The concensus of opinion in regard to
the insurance investigation now in prog
ress in New York is that it will eventu-
ate in good for insurers and insured.
Even the most pessimistic opponents of
the principle of life insurance must ad-
NIT that better conditions will follow the
publication, not only for the companies
which have been sorely stricken as a re-
suit of the moral lapses of their officials.
but for the companies which are suffer
ing VIGOROUSLY under the shadow of dis
trust that has been cast upon corporate
management generally.
Society cannot afford to throw down"
life insurance because of the remissness
of high officials in one or two companies.
The principle of protection for the de-
pendent through provision for payment
TO them of sufficient to keep the wolf of
want from the door is so closely inter
woven with the social fabric that if it
were possible to eliminate it by force,
the social order would suffer u severe
strain. Public duty and private philan-
thropy would together be unable to meet
the appeals for assistance from women
and children berett of their breadwin-
ners. \ large proportion of the $4,000
COO poicyhoders in the United States
have by their wise provision for the fu-
ture insured organized society as well
as their loved ones against the trials
incident to sudden dependency. Cases
without number could be cited in every
large city of the United States where
the death payments of life insurance
companies have saved wives and chill
dren from actual want, and made 1t
possible for widows to rear their chill
dren in a way to make them useful mem
bers of society. 1t would be interesting
to know how much of the total of in
suranre risks in the United States con-
stitutes a bulwark against poverty. =
large part of the SLID l42,T1l of out
standing insurance would undoubtedly,
ON analysis. be found to be protection OF
this vital character.
Bringing the subject close to home, the
PEOPLE Of the northwest have in the
history of the Northwestern Mutual Life
Insurance company of Milwaukee,
company Of which every resident of the
northwest has special reason to feel
uroud-a record which shows how much
a ,vcll-ConductCd lie insurance company
contributes 20 the support of the existing
social order. TIE first record of losses
Paid is that for the year ending June l,
1850. S35OOa goodly sum for Il young
cumuaMy in those times of pioneering
in life insurance, but Il mere pittance in
comparison with the princelY amount
now paid ont annually for death losses.
The death payments increased i'll logical
proportion to the c0mpanYS business,
and in ten years january /, 1912
reached S443,442.S9, quite Il large
amount, vet still small in comparison
with the amount now annually paid to
the bcnefciarics Of the insured. For the
year ending January !, 1856, the death
payments surpassed the million mark for
the first time, aggregating Sl,Oi9,OO4.uH
Since that time they have increased with
the company's immense business, until To-
day the payments on account OF deatA
losses upproXimatcS seven millions an
nually. The exact figures for the year
ending January l, 1903, are SG,9So.-
4O3.O3.
Since its organization the Northwest
crn Mutual Life Insurance company has
paid death claims to the aggregate of
$1S.6SJ. 30 .9G. This enormous sum of
money has contributed in no small de
gree TO the welfare of society as whole.
The prompt payment of the death claims
has in thousands of instances made II
possible for helpless widows 10 get
along" without appealing to public char
ity or private philanthropy.
The Northwestern Mutual Life lnsur-
ance company's management has been
unsWcryinEiy honest, and its history has
been an open book from which the in
surcd could read the records at will
The officers of the company have no
side lines" of official interest. They are
devoted solely to the conservation of the
interests of the policy holders, who are
with them mutually concerned in the
wcll-bcing of the corporation. 1t is one
of the most substantial life insurance
companies in the United States, and its
record is absolutely stainless.