The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-11-08

be identified with what may prove the
longest step in paternalism the gov
eminent mas taken in all its history.
These bills will be of two kinds, one
calling for federal supervision of life
insurance and the other demanding
that the government go int. the bust
ness Federal supervision will be
doomed as a cure-all for the evils of
slack, incompetent and dishonest man
agement, but the argument will be
weighed carefully when men reflect
how ineffective federal supervision has
proved in the case of national banks.
Federal life insurance, moreover, is
very different thing from federal SUI
pervision. 1t would have to be under
taken, if at all. in competition with
hundreds of private companies. 1t
would have an equal chance In the
financial department. since Uncle Sam
has access to manifold investments in
WHICH lIlc INV Idlc VI iItSASoS AiNSSS
sary to mature insurance contracts
would be earned with perfect safety.
The peril of federal life insurance
would be in the management, which
might get into politics, and in the med
icaI department, whose duties in con-
nection with the selection of risks are
all-important. The government life
insurance company would run the
chance of being loaded up with men
afflicted with chronic hereditary dis
eases, risks which a private company
would without hesitation reject, but
which, through political influence, the
government company might be induced
to accept. The selection of risks is
the most important factor in success
full life insurance, and is the depart
ment in which the government insur
ance company would be the weakest
By following the methods of the
present big companies the danger
might in a measure be obviated. Sucn
companies as the New York Life clas-
sify their risks so that nearly every
man who has a chance according to
the tables of mortality, can get some
kind of protection. The poorer the
the policy, a lien which the insured
can work off gradually by persistently
living. But even mere the government
would be worried by the political pres
sure for a better classification.
1t is far cry to federal life insur-
ance. State life insurance is, per-
haps, more practical, because the av-
erage condition of the population of
a state would be more easily ascer-
tanned than of the nation, and the po-
litical pressure would be less impu-
dent because easier uncovered.
The difficulties in the way of either
federal or state insurance are suffi-
cient to insure that the coming con-
greSs will not embark on any half
baked scheme. The disposition of
statesmen will be to try what can be
done by the states in the way of bet
ter control. 1t is also to be observed
that the abuses which are being ex-
posed in the New York investigation
are not necessarily characteristic of
all insurance companies. AS a mat
ter Of fact, they are not. The New
York racers" have a system Of their
own. Deferred dividends, a big sur
plus and a dishonest disbursement of
their funds have made them a shame
full spectacle, but all insurance COM
panies are not needless and all of
them are not Shameless There are a
dozen large life insurance companies
which could easily rival the best eff
forts of a national insurance COM
pany, in their returns to policyholders.
1t is with these the federal concern
would have to compete.