Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1906-12-28
To the Field Force:
GENTLEMEN:

1t is our custom to address you each year at the time
OF our annual superintendent Convention Usually
this is held about the middle of January and the
topic OF the BULLETIN is naturally the Annual
Statement OF the Company This year the Smner.
lntendents meet In convention the middle of
not made up, and it would be premature to set
forth the progress of the Company in It's business
and finances We shall have something very pleas.
ant to say to you before close about what YOU
have accomplished; but our immediate object is to
tell you about our plans for year.
INDUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT.
You have known from numerous addresses both
oral and written, what our ambition has been for
years in the Industrial part of our business You
VIII bear us witness that treatment of the policy
hoiders mas been one of progressive iberality
since the present administration the Company be.
gan. The very first year of its ncumbency Paid-up
polices-theretoore unknown to Industrial insurance
In this country--were announced; and every year
since then something has been done for Industrial
policy.noiders beyond any promise made in the poll.
cies Bulletin No 95 set forth these concessions and
bountes UP to its date and since then the success.
sive have been marked by progressive gifts ana
OeneIts offered to poltcyhoders: and this year the
Company has been disbursing the enormous sum OF
about two million Of dollars in voluntary dividends
upon non-participating Industrial policies: bringing
the total amount of unpromsed dividends in twelve
years to about ten millions of dollars to Industrial
policyholders in the form of dividends on premiums
dividends OH death claims and increases OF benefits
upon existing policies
We have been enabled to accomplish this work
all these years by steady improvements in business
methods by steady extensions of business territory
by steady additions to insurance in force by watch
lu!nesS In Writing and taking of business,
sulting in decreasing death rate, decreasing lapse
rate and decreasing expense rate. These improve
ments we have announced to you from year to year;
but perhaps from this very acttheir gradual steady
progressiveness-you have failed to grasp their full
Significance Yet year by year we have told you
our anl---o reduce expenses, to improve the death
rate to better the policies, to distribute the surplus
SO that each year larger proportionate amount
could be returned to pocyholders and smaller
proportionate amount used in expenses.
Within the last few years our disbursements for
death claims have been so continuously and marked
IL less in proportion to income our improvements
IN ratio OF expenses shown so steady an improve
ment, that we thought the time had come to make
features of the business. We have made nvestiga
lions into our mortality and drawn off into various
periods our experience of mortality. The mortality
tables upon which our present tables founded
were taken from the experience of 1S90-1S94. A COM
parson of this with tables taken from the experience
OF other periods has shown steady improvement in
mortality. In the case of children the result is really
startling. Take for instance, age two next birthday
Our present table shows 1913 deaths per thousand:
table 1S9G-19O5 shows but 36.9 age three the figures
are respectively % and 2i.3 age five 16 and 9,S;
age ten 5.5 and 3.s, and this Improvement runs
through the Infante table. AS to adults there is
also marked Improvement
These facts convince that the time has come
to construct new tables of benefits founded upon
experience of 1S96-1905; and are confirmed in our
conviction by the fact that table drawn from the
years 19011905 shows better experience than that
of the full decade And it seems to iust to base
these tables upon the experience of white lives;
to give benefits based upon the Improvement which
we feel certain is permanent. How great this i'm.
proyement is we illustrate by few figures compar-
ing the table upon which present benefits are
based with table of white lives for the last ten
years Deaths per Thousands age two next birthday
1913 reduced to 3i7; age three SO to 22.5 age four
2I.5 to 1872 age five 16 to 95: age ten SIS to 8 A;
age twenty 10.5 to III thirty 1877 to III age
forty 1913 to 14.3. The other element besides NOR.
tally involved in table of BENEFITS is of course the
expense. AS You know, ratio OF expense to
premium income has been falling for some years;
this year the reduction has been phenomenal and
will reach, we think, by the end of the year. three
per cent! This alone means saving of nearly one
and half millions of dollars! We shall show a
lower ratio of expense for 1906 than has been ex-
perfenced by any Industrial company in the world.
One other element goes into the construction of
tables of benefits; and that is the maturity OF the
policies. Whom we made up present table we
We're convinced that the public enamoured of
endowments Our Industrial business has been is
sued for ten years. as you know mainly upon En-.
downent tables-Increasng Life and Endowment