The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-06-16
NOVELTY IN
 CORPORATE
 MANAGEMENT
Wider Scope of Modern Life Insurance --Supt. Emmet Warmly Comments Met ropolitan Company.

The report of the New York State 4 Department of Insurance on the trt- enniaI examination of the Metropoli-
 tan Life Insurance Company has, just
 been published by the State. <, Undel 1 the law. revised by Governor Hugh es | this examination must be made every
 %hree years. About twenty examiners
 of the Insurance Department devoted neArly a year to the work and Mir,
 Emmet, as Superintendent of the De- 1 partnnent, wrote an extendedS review 1 of the report In this review Com-
 missioner En1Tnet not only made an
 analysis of the Company.s condition activities along the broader lines of
 social service arnongs industrial work CTS, health educatio on and the conser- vation: of human life He points out that the Company, now having more than thirteen million policies out
 standing, has assumed such propor-
 tions that 1t Is practically brought
 into immediate contact with approx
 imately one-eighth Of the population of the United States. &
 Here are extracts from Superinten-
 dent Emmet's report:
 The fact lis, the history and achievements during the last decade
 of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and ofx one or two other of
 our large life Insurance companie es,
 present such shining examples of effl- cient and. enli ightened business man agem ment--with in some eases a dash of statesmanshfp thrown tn--that it seems to me to be quite as much the duty of a. supervisory official, when an appropriate occasion arises. to com
 nent favora.hly upon such cases of successful public service by business corporations under private control, as it would be, his duty under present conditions to administer sharp crit- icism if the tendency had been in the other direction.
 ssThe fact that sthe percentage of lapses due to theS abandonment of constantly decreasing. speaks elo- quently to the same effect This last
 mentioned development is perhaps the most convincing evidence which could be offered that the Conpanyis s policy holders are, broadly speaking, very well satisfied indeed with what they get in return for the premiums they pay. A very remarkable show ing altogether.
 eff the men in charge of such a. tendencies, Or blind to the social pro- gress of the age, the movement tow ard an absorption of their powers by the State itself will. a.sa matters stand. proceed very rapidly But in the case of the Company under consid-s GTaL1On IQ6EG mas been .SuGIAs a. If11hk and fearless recognition of its new responsibilities that it is easy enough after all, to understand how it has happened that in, the field of Indus trial insurance the movement toward State operation and. ownership has experienced setback
 Having very promptly recognized, what the public may rightfulIys re- a tire from institutions engaged in the Industrial Insurance bslsi n ess--nav- < ing in fact been largely instrume rental in educating the public to full real ization of what it might rightfulIy reduire-this Company waited for no changes in existing law beforeSstriking out as a pioneer among insurance companies along the pathway of so- ciaI service on a huge scale. Leaving out of consideration the
 mere numbers of those who have been directly benef1ted by these ac- tivities, I think that the example which the Metrop olitan has set to other great business organizations by it's early recognition of the new reS- possibilities attaching to all business enterprises which have attained a Scer- tain size, is one of the most beneficial of recent occurrences in the field of American business.
 For years it has through it's pub- lications upon the -Question of health conservation been serving multitudes of people as a sort of univ ersity of beneficial instruction upon this most Important subject For years. it has maintained for its po1icy-h holders a nursing service upon a great scale; this has latteriy become a veritable marvel of efficiency and practical heIpfu1ness.
 s'I have mentioned only a. few of the things the Company has been doing in the field. of social service, but I think that these will sufficiently show tIae extent to which this institution has recognized the modern truth that or ganized wealth under pr1vate man agement must if it is going to be all lowed to exist at all, assume certain public responsibint ties which were not dreamed of under any of the old philosophies.
 ''It simply happens that this great misunderstanding so very recently been under our critical scrutiny, and so many adn1ira,bIe illus trations of what an efficie ent and en- frightened modern business organiza- ton on a large scale can do in the l way of keeping abreast of modern ught-seems to bes in a position where I may properly use it as an of the particular point had in mind when I decided to pre- pare this preface to the report of my examiners. My point iss of eourse. that private initiative and enterprise are at their best still capable of doing I the finest possible work in fields from which, latterly, all the talk has been that these agencies should be com pelled to retire.
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