The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-12-18
To the Field Force.
GENTLEMEN .

su.rraendents' Convention. Usually this is held about about th. middle Of
January, and the topic of the BULLETIN is naturally the Annual Statement
of the Company. This year the Superintendents meet in convention the
middle of December, and obviously the record of the year is not made up.
and it would lie premature to set forth the progress Of the Company in its
business and finances We shall have something very pleasant to say to
object Is to tell you Aout our plans for next 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
will bear III witness that on treatment Of the poicy-holdes has been one
of progressive hDerahty ever since the present administration Of the Com
Heretofore unknown to Industrial insurance in this OOuntry-were N
notmred; and every year since then something has been done for Indus
1876 vet forth these concessions and borndes up to its date and since then
oneed to policy holders; and this year the Company has been disbursing
the enormous sum Of about tro millions Of dollars in voluntary dividends
upon uon-partidpatng Industrial policies; bringing the total amount of
urpropssed diidends in twelve years to about ten millions of dollars to In
dustral poHcy-holders in the form OF dividends oil premiums, dividends
on 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 terri
tory, by steady additions to insurance in force, by watchfuness in writing
and taking car Of business, resulting in a decreasing death rate. decreasing
announcedsto you from year to year but perhaps from this very fact-their
gradual. steady progressiVeness-yo have failed to grasp their full sig
~ tbat soCbCaar a args uronortonats Amount could be returned ~ nonov.
holders and a smaller prOportionate amount used in expenses.
Within the last few years disbursements for death claims have
been so continuously and markedly less in proportion to income and our
improvements in ratio Of expenses shown 81 steady an improvement, that
we thought the time had come to make a scientific resurvey, so to speak,
dfthe technical features OF the business. We havem made Investigations into
our mortality and drawn of into various periods III experience Of mortal
ity. The mortality tables upon which our present tables are founded were
taken from the experience Of issO-isS4. A comparison of this with tables
taken FRONT he experience Of other periods has shown a 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 4s3 deaths
per thousand; a table isOe-isOS shows but 500; age three the figures re
respectively 81 and 243 age five 10 and 9s; age ten SIS and 3s, and this inn
provement runs through the Infantle table. As to adults there is also a
marked Improvement.
These facts convince us that the time has come to construct new tables
Of benefits founded upon or experience Of 1895 1905. and we are confirmed
in NJ conviction by the fact that a table drawn from h eyears I9OIIgO5
shows a better experiences than that Of theful decade. And it seems to us
just to base these tables upon the experience of white lives; and to give bene-
fits based upon the improvement which we feel certain is permanent. How
great this Improvement is we illustrate by few figures comparing the table
upon which MI present benefits are based with a table Of white lives for The
last ten years. Deaths pc" thousand. age two next birthday 4s3 reduced
to s47; age three 50 Ito 225; age four a5 to 1872; age five 10 to s5; age ten
SIS to- ga age twenty 1915 to III; age thirty 1877 to Ill; age forty 49, to l43.
The other element besides mortality involved n a table of benefits lie of
course the expense. As you know, our ratio OF expense to premium income
has been falling for some years; this year the reduction has been phenome-
nal and will reach, we think. by the end Of the year, three per cent? This
alone means a saving of nearly OF and a half millions Of donarsl We shall
show a lower ratio Of expense for 1905 than has been experienced 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 When we made UP our present table