The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1914-02-16
Done Addresses College Students.

Commissioner Willard Done recently
delivered an interesting address on in
surance before tho students OF the Lat
ter-day Saints Business college. Mr.
Done started out by saying that there
was 10 element of finance that entered
more intimately or closely into tho lives
of people individually, In the family ca
He said
1t Is one Of the elements OF
tho business world Great enter
priSes which are now carried on IN
business could not be carried through
witaout Insurance. Credit could not
he extended TO merchants without
insurance. Losses could not be made
up and individual suffering lcsseued
II it were not for insurance. Burned
stores. factories and cities could not
he quickly and effectually restored
without insurance. Family fortunes
could not be maintained: the cduca-
ton of children OF deceased fathers
who die in the prime OF life. could
not be secured without insurance.
There is not a phase OF our great
business activities in the world to-
day that is not safeguarded by some
form OF insurance. And il is coming
TO tho point where IL you go TO the
bank and desire TO borrow any money
on some future contingency, one OF
the first questions asked is, Have
You any life Insurance." Recogniz-
ing your honesty. your integrity and
your ability 10 meet tho obligation II
sured t3lat the obligation VIII be met
jf you die,
Continuing. the speaker said that un-
doubtedIy much misunderstanding eS-
listed everywhere regarding insurance
and II was his purpose 10 correct and re-
move some OF these Observation-Disclosures
First. regarding the company that
sells insurance, Unlike any other
business organization, or unlike,
should say, almost every other busi,
ness organiz5 tioD, the company that
sells insurance is made up entirely
OF the ones who buy insurance, When
YOU buy Insurance from company,
YOU become thereby n fellow-insurer
vita your other fellow-insurers. You
literally insure ono another. 1nsur-
anCe is purely a cooperative scheme
OF finance. The company that places
insurance is made up by those who
receive insurance Losses sustained
are paid by those who arc insured.
The company acts simply All
agency for collecting the money from
tho many who are. Insured, and dis
who arc entitled TO decentralization.
Therefore in the ordinary meaning
OF the term there is no such thing
as an insurance company independ-
ent OF It's policybolders.
II a frc occurs we sometimes say,
What A good thing it is that his
house was insured, and that he gets
the money from the company But
met by other people who are fellow
insurers with .lin and who arc the
company, Therefore. the cost OF this
kind of thing is proportionate to the
losses that occur.
Tho fire loss In the United states
and Canada last year, according 10
the reports received amounted 10
over two hundred and twenty-four
millions Of dollars. Seyenty-flve per
cent OF these fires could and should
have been prevented. The insurance
companies are simply distributing
agents for the people who carry in
surancc: that Is all. The American
people paw that great loss to one
another. The millions OF people who
have policies are willing to pay. money
10 the few thousand people who suf-
goes up. the price that each one pays
must necessarily increase; II the loss
goes down the price that each one
pays Is necessarily reduced; and that
is tho only way in which II can be
reduced or increased.
! do not know whether any OF Won
but you will learn there something
about the theory OF proba bility. It
is something like this: IL you take a
largo number OF incidents where one
occur regularly. You take coin
toss II up and n may come down
heads threo or four times, az YOU will
know II YOU have tried It for any
l'HhlH VI NIiAlNs II Nop ~
thousand times. you will be surprised
TO find taat il comes down ten thou
sand times heads UP. and ten thou
sand times tails Gp. For all pracu-
cal PURPOSES the experiment works
out just that way Perhaps one fam
ily will have nearly all boys, and an
other nearly all girls. You take II
throughout the United States, where
millions OF boys and girls are born
each year and about one-half of
them arc boys and tile other half
girls The same is true regarding
deaths Take a hundred thousand
boys about 10 years OF age. Men are
able 70 determine and have deter
mined how many OF these will do
during their eleventh year, and how
many will he alive at the end or their
eleventh year; how many deaths can
bo expected the next year. aud eo on;
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