Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1905-11-21
FraternaI Insurance.

ed for old line life insurance are ex-
cessive.
In the measure that these rates are
excessive, rates for fraternaI insur.
ance, except in the case of few COM
panies, are too low to insure safety
and stability.
Fraternal insurance is the poor mans
insurance. The worker who earns only
from nine to twelve to fifteen dollars
a week and who must support a fam
lily and pay for a home, or pay rent
out'of bis income, is not financially
able to pay from S18 to 1926 per thous-
and for his insurance in old line COM
panies.
Approaching the absolute need Of
protecting his family against want af-
ter his death he buys the cheapest
insurance afforded him.. because he
must buy the cheapest, If any.
Statistics have been assembled to
show that the average life of frater-
nal societies which maintain no re-
serve fund is twenty years. They do
not last, can not last, because as the
membership grows older it diminish
es, the death rate increases rapidly,
Ientailing multiplication of the death
assessments, and imposing upon the
surviving members burden many
times heavier than that undertaken
originally, and which they can i'll af-
ford to pay and frequently can not
pay out Of their own resources.
If the membership of the society
could be constantly recruited with
young men in sufficient numbers to
keep the rates down, no problem and
no increased burdens would be pre-
sented. But the young men are not
secured in sufficient numbers and join
new societies, where the rate is less.
The careful men In fraternal insur-
ance have for some time advocated
the creation of a reserve fund Ia
every society. Some fraternal societies
already have reserve funds and these
are insured stability and permanency
as long as the management is able
and honest. But these reserve societies
have higher rates than the societies
without reserve and suffer some from
the competition.
1t would seem to be the duty OF the
state in which societies without re-
serve funds are chartered, and in
states where they are permitted to do
business tn adopt legislation requiring
them to 90 on reserve basis. This
might impose some hardships on the
older members Of such societies, hut
1T would safeguard them and practical
" insure the payment Of their death
claims and the continuance of the
Established reserved rate.
The states likewise should subject
these companies to examina ton by
the insurance department.. thus
throwing the protecting mantle of
the law ahnnt the members.
The people able tn paw old line prem
inms will he amply protected hence
forth. The. totling millions whose in
snrance is in fraternsl societies de-
serve as mnch consideration for their
interests and there should everywhere
he raised demand that they be &C.
corded it.-Telegraph- Herald.
The foregoing ia 40 true In every re-
spact that we are very glad to give H.
snace. While the newspapers and
magazines are illed to overfowine
with the account OF the exploitation
of the MD line insurance cnmpanies
and their patrons, ton little attention
is paid to p proper discussion OF fra.
terna' insurance, the only kind the
majority nj men can afford to carry.
The nnlv thing, often times, between
family and absolute want, is the
policv in some fraternal insurance
company, carried by the bread winner
nj the family, and the safeguarding
Of that insurance and the perpetuttv
OF that society ia nf far greater i'm
pnrtance tn the welfare of the major
ity of MS than the robbery of the old
line companies whose patrons are
chiefly IF the more well to do classes
where insurance is more OF an invest
ment than means of protection for
some helpless family. AS ia indicated
above, two things are chiefly essen.
tial, honesty OF management and the
perpetuity Of the society. This lat
Ter is only provided for by the estsb-
llshment of reserve fund sufficient
to enable a society tn pay the increae-
ing death claims that surely come to
the society of % or more years of age.
Disaster and trouble inevitably CON en-
upon the ssessment-sktpping hand.
to-month plan adopted by many OF
our fraternal insurance companies.
who bask in the sunshine of to-day
with no thought of tomorrow, who
"carry their reserve In their pocket"
and whose reserve is consequently in
the same condition of the reckless
spendthrift they emulate in their
plan-gone wnen sney most need 1T.
The one great order today that
most nearly fills Ell the requirements
demanded of a safe insurance order is
the Woodmen of the World, an order,
Though one of the youngest, with a
membership the third largest of the
insurance fraternals; a society so hon.
estly and economically managed that
the country has never been startled