The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1912-07-18
SEES ADVANCE FOR BIG ORDER
Shows That New Rates Will Provide
Some Permanent Insurance for the
Woodmen at Rates Lower Than Of
fered by the Old Line Companies.

the Modern Woodmen of America in
Kenosha have received letter from
T. A. McNeal, editor of the Farmers ,
Mail and Breeze in defense Of the
new rates recently made for the Or
ganization. The letter is one Of the
best things that has been offered in
support of the new rates. 1t is in part
as follows:
E'Just now there is commotion in
the camps of the Modern Woodmen of
America. The dreaded day has come
when the assessments of members
must be raised, as every man who be-
longs to the order who has given the
subject 10 minutes thought must have
known it would come.
"No member who took the trouble
to look up the term Of his life expec-
fancy did not know that if he lived it
out to the end and kept on paying in
at the rate he had been paying, he
would not pay into the treasury of the
order more than one third of what his
benefciaries would draw out if his
policy were paid in full
"There is no way known to men of
taking something from nothing. 1t is
impossible to subtract $4,000 from
5000, and if the membsr's widow OF
other beneficiary drew out $4,000,
when as matter of fact he had only
paid in 5000, it was entirely evident
that somebody else had contributed
the other $1,400.
~ cannot see how any reasonably
intelligent man could have labored I'M
der any apprehension at any time.
He did not need to be a great mathe-
matician to arrive at the correct con-
clusion. So long as there were more
new members coming into the order
than there were dying out of it, it
was possible to continue the small as
sessments, but there was inevitably a
time coming when that condition
would no longer exist
Here is the question that is agitat-
ing the minds of thousands of Wood
men: Shall l drop out of the order
now that the rates have been raised in
some cases more than three times what
they were before, or shall l stay with
it9 The present rates were adopted
after what is claimed to have been a
thorough examination of the expert
ence Of the Woodmen order and other
fraternal orders extending over long
period of years. There is no reason
why those figures should not be cor
rect.
while it is true that no man
knows the hour Of his own death, it is
possible to tell with mathematical GER
tainty what will be the average num-
Der Of deaths per annum among a Civ
en- number of human beings Expert
ence has demonstrated that an aver
age of so many will die each year per
thousand until finally the last of the
thousand will be laid away.
"Of course it is possible that
plague Of some sort might ravage the
country that would greatly increase
the death rate and change the figures
of the mortality tables, but under or
binary conditions, the average death
rate can be accurately foretold.
What the actuaries have done Is to
figure out the average death rate per
thousand in the Woodmen order at the
various ages of the members and from
that estimated what it costs to carry
members at certain age. It is also
true that the young members of the
order have been loaded somewhat
heavier than the actual cost Of carry
ing them in order to help carry the
extra load of the old men now in the
order.
THE old man therefore has no
right to complain, for he is getting his
insurance still at less than cost. The
old man who finds that he will have to
pay after the first of January, 1913,
some three times or even more than
three times as much as he has been
paying, may sort Of vince and debate
the question as to whether or not he
should stay with the order.
Before you make up your mind to
quit old man, | want you to consult
some old line life insurance agent in
a good reputable company and find out
what you would have to pay for the
very cheapest old line life insurance
that you could get and if you do not
find it will cost you more than the
highest rate you will have to pay I'M
der the new Woodman plan, then yol
had perhaps better drop yonr v Goldman
certificate and take old line in its
stead As a matter of fact you will
find that the very cheapest old line
you c&n get will cost you at least 80
per cent mere per thousand than the
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