Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-01-19
rRATERNAL INSURANCE.

The question of new legislation
for fraternal insurance companies
Is being discussed, around the state,
and bills are already beng prepar
ed, with a view to demanding in
creased rates, and better protection
for the insured. 1t is a wise move
ment, and entitled to thoughtful
consideration, and the most careful
investigation.
Experience has proved that there
is time limit TO this kind of in
surance, and the most popular COM
pan1es, of this class, in the field to-
day, are rapidly approaching the
danger period.
The county is full of old men. on
the verge of the grave, who planned,
% or 80 years ago, to leave some
thing in the way of an estate as the
result of a membership in fraternal
societies.
They paid their assessments for
years, and thought they were buy
ing something more than protec-
ton, but they lived too long to beat
the game, and one fine morning,
the societies went out of business,
or raised the rates so high that they
could not meet them.
These are not isolated cases. They
are found In every community, and
their numbers will increase until
the last fraternaI society retires
from the field, and then there will
be an army of men without insur-
ance, and too old to secure it in
reliable companies.
The principle of fraternal insur-
ance is wrong, and while theIdoctrine
is not popular, it simply amounts to
an effort to get something for
nothing. The average member of
any fraternal organization, who has
been connected with it for a score
of years or more, has paid for pre-
lection from $500 to $500.
If ne should live 20 years more,
and continue to pay at the same
rate, he will have paid out from
$1,000 to $1,000. Not a dollar of this
money is in the treasury, and no
s-,Ao,.o-% = &C =. oor.,a1 Io,,oo,7co 4boro
has been nothing to invest, and yet
he expects to receive from 81, 900 to
So, 900 for his estate.
Where is the money coming from2
OF course it is claimed that the new
blood coming in will keep the thing
going indefinitely sort Of endless
chain proposition, now you see it,
and now you don't
There comes a time when losses
accumulate so rapidly that increas-
ed assessments are necessary; then
the membership begins to go the
other way, and lot Of people are
stranded and the company retires
from the field.
The actuary tables of life insur-
ance companies are reliable. They
are based on actual experience and
fortified by statistics that no man
can question. Any given 1000 men,
who can pass a careful medical ex-
animation, will live an average
number of years. These men in
sure their lives, and the money
paid for premiums, and the interest
which it earns Will be sufficient to
pay the losses of all of them at
death, but the average man of the
entire 1000 has invested money
enough, vita its accrued earnings,
to pay his own loss. In other
words, every man insured is ex-
pected to provide the money to pay
his death loss, and the average
man in every 1000 does this.
This is the only principle on
which life insurance can be safely
written, and yet fraternal organiza-
lions ignore is completely.
The state Will do we'll to pass a
law regulating these societies, and
compelling them to create reserve
sufficient to provide for the future.
TUT rECTCr ATy1nr