The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1915-08-05
w. C. I. U. COLUMN
Life Insurance and Alcohol
one oil the greatest rguments for tempe1nn,

one OF the greatest arguments for tempe1anc
that mas ever been made is that which is giye
Ill fhe Pelican for March, 1915 The Pelican /
publication of the Mutual Benefit Life Insur
ahce company, Newark, y. j., and this spccin
number has been scattered pretty widely i,
south Carolina by Mr.. NJ. NJ. Mattison of a nder
son the general agent of the company for thi.
STATE. we are not authorized to say SO. but we
suppose he would be glad to send COPIES of mi.
issue to those desiring them, provided his sun
ply holds out
This issue of The Pelican was not gotten IN,
for the benefit of prohibition. What II has n
say on the alcohol question is said solely IN tho
interest OF its own business and for the guild
ahce oi lis agents But II is of immense yalue
70 temperance simply because it gives the col.
lective experience Of a large number of insur.
ance companies
Before giving some items from this expert.
en"e we will ask our friends to read this state
ment concerning the investigations We take it
from letter sent out by Mr.. Mattson accom-.
panying the copy of The Pelican we received:
I'm 1909 forty-three Of the principal life insur-
ance companies IN the United States and Gan.
ada decided to analyze their collective exp. ri.
ehce on the various classes of the insured. This
Acturial Society of America and the Association
OF LIE lnsuranee IN, M 1 Directors. Records of ap.
Rroximately hosa 100000 lives were supplied, and
these records covered period of TWENTY-FIVE
years. 1t required three and onehalf Years Of
c0ntlnuous labor, with the most upto date
result.
This was the greatest investigation of the
| kind that was ever undertaken and the results
and conclusions reached by 1t can be relied uI
on as final or as nearly final IT is possible for
human Judgment to be on such subjects What
| this investigation revealed as to alcohol Is sim.
ply startling.
The general conclusion reached was that the
whole whiskey realm was in the danger" zone
SO far as life insurance is concerned. Those who
sell whiskey and those who drink the whole.
sale dealer and the retail dealer those who
drink moderately and those who drink to excess
AL belong to that class which constitute n
heavy risk to life insurance companies.
The Pelican gives two tables which register
the results Of this investigation as to the whis.
key classes. The first table is about the dealers
| and the second about drinkers
AS to the dealers: We have the facts concern.
Ing seven classes OF these: and concerning
them at four different age periods We can
note only two of these classes, but the death
rate among all of them is above the normal and
among some of them more than twice as great
as the normal But these two classes we select
are those who own and attend their saloons and
those who own but who do not attend their
saloons.
AT the age period of fifteen n.twen.y .y-nine say at
twenty-five years of age, for this is the medium
age of this period. the death rate is almost
twice the normal If the normal is reckoned at
l00 then the death rate for the first class, those
who attend their saloons, Is POI. The death rate
of the other class those who do not attend their
saloons, is still greater. 1t is 203. They have
more leisure and consequently drink more and
die faster. But the figures show that for G
young man of twenty-five to go into the whis
key business is to surrender one-half of the re
\ naming years that he could of normal righ
| claim.
! But take the drinkers. The table gives tn