The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-01
INSURANCE PRESIDENT
 ANSWERS ALL QUERIES
President H. L. Palmer of North western Mutual Life Writes to
 pr. A. p. Montague.

Dr. A. P. Montague of Howard college recently wrote an open letter to Henry L. Palmer, president of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance company, which was published in The Age-Herald, asking number of questions regarding the sal aries paid by hls company and other mat ters of absorbing interest at this time. Here is MT. Palmers reply
 Milwaukee. December 27. 1905. Mir. A. P. Montague, President Howard College, Birmingham Ala.
 Dear Sir-I am In receipt of your favor of the Fist inst. submitting several in- quries in regard to the salaries of officers of this company, and its management and l take pleasure in furnishing you the in- formation desired.
 1. The salaries of the officers of this company are fixed by the board of trus- tees of the company at the annual meet ing thereof held on the third Wednesday of July in each year. The salaries of the officers as fixed by the board of trus- tees at the annual meeting held in July last. were follows:
 President. .... ...... ............ $25,0O0
 Vice president. ....... ... ..... 18.000
 Second vice president ......... 15.000
 Third vice president.... ....... 12,0o0
 Secretary..... ............ l0,001
 Actuary.... =. ... ............ 12,0 600
 Counsel..... ...... 1s,W0
 Meulcal direetor. ..... .... l2,Voo
 Superintendent of agencies.... 12.000
 Four members of the executive
 and finance committees each. 5000 One member of the executive and fin- ance committees, who also serves as a member of the real estate committed $500 The position of counsel of the company is at present vacant, this vacancy befsg occasloned by the recent decease Of the
 
 not be filled until the next meeting of the board of trustees to be held on the last Wednesday, being the coming year. the last day of January pnxt. The eof- ficers of the company receive no other compensation by way of commission otherwise in addition to the salaries thus fixed. They have no interest in any other business and are required to give their entire time to the business of the com pany. .Their duties as such officers re- quire all their time and all devote them selves diligently and faithfully to their duties. The assets of the company on the 90th of September last amounted to $204- 436,2 ,264 It is entirely safe to say that at the close of this month they will exceed $207 000,000. The investments up to this hour, for the current month. are in ex- cess of $3,9 $3,900,000-considerable exceeding $l00000 for each day of the month, in- cluding non-busness days Sundays and !, on the first of January last the invest- ments are in excess of $3S, ,500O00. There are but three life insurance companies in the world larger than this company. The salaries of the officers of this com pany arc very much lower in proportion, than those of any of the other large life insurance companies.
 ?. You inquire should not these salaries be reduced I do not think that any man, familiar with the duties performed by the officers of this company, would say that the salaries paid them are in ex- cess of a fair and reasonable compensa- ton, for the services performed by them. 3. You ask If il Is not possible to re- duce the number of our officers and thus save money, We have no supenumeraries in the official staff of this company. The daily duties Of every officer require all his time and all his thoughts from tho time he enters the office in the morn- ing until he leaves 1t at night He can do nothing outside of the business of the company. and this is true of the office employees of the company. While 1t is our desire and our constant effort to con Suct the business of the company as eco- nomically in all respects as possible, con- slstent with efficiency, we cannot see where we could reduce our working force to advantage. Yours truly.
 H. l.. PALMER,
 Al