The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-04-22
Along with Other Features by
Former National President
Scovel In an Address.

Charles W. Scovel, OF Pittsburg, for
mer president of the National Life
Underwriters Association, made talk
before the Central West Virginia Life
Underwriters Association in the Ma
sonic temple here Saturday afternoon
on The New Soliciting"
The speaker outlined the various
activities Of the life underwriters
association, natonaf and local, and
emphasized the many practical ways in
which 1t helps the agent in his daily
work. He pointed out how the assoc
iation is particularly helpful In
bringing about radically improved con-
ditions and methods in field work, so
that soliciting shall be more and more
free from the evils OF undue COMPETE
! ton and shall be put scientifically
right and made more efficient in It's
manner Of presenting to the people
the great fundamental truths OF life in
surance that underlie all good COM
panies. These great truths he sum-
married. as follows:
Second: The fundamental truths OF
life insurance. These are the great
truths common to us all. Here the
new motto yields Its message. above
the companies. life insurance" Yes,
above and below and in and through
the companies, life insurance! The
companies are but the machinery
through which life insurance, the
science, the cooperation, does its work
for mankind. The best that can be
said for your company or for mine is
that 1t worthily embodies the truths
and ideals Of life insurance. But any
two companies, like any two saints.
exhibit two differing blends of the car
dinal virtues. We have to look above
and beyond all the companies and their
various blends, II we want distinct,
complete picture OF any one or all of
those cardinal truths common to us all.
What Is life insurance, fundament-
ally? 1t is first OF all science: an
applied natural science; the applica-
ton of natures great law OF mortality.
Its advance calculations, like those of
astronomy. have been tested and prov
en- throughout $50 years. That science
gives us an advance schedule OF the
maximum number OF deaths that will
occur in large group year by year
TO the end. The closest parallel is an
issue Of serial bonds; a known num-
Der OF them to be called each year:
which particular ones not known until
singled out each year by lot. Fore
known payments call, of course, for a
sinking fund. That reserve fund
scientifically figured. compounding
year by year, belongs to all the out
standing policies; each has a yearly
increasing share in 1t. This is why
every life policy is lifetime sinking
fund operation; why mans premium
or deposit is not money spent but
saved. The science makes It so. II
makes "life insurance" unavoidably
spell thrift"
That science and the state law!
based on 1t definitely set apart ant
protect eighty-four per cent OF the en-
tire assets in this policy reserve. They
also dominate the daily transactions
leaving practically no room for the
fatal errors of judgment by which
other business fails. That science I:
impersonal, impartial, the Square
deal" incarnate. It makes the well
established company stronger thar
other financial institutions, not mere.
as bigger thing of the same kind
but as having also another and higher
kind of strength-the strength of ma.
lures law out OF which It's whole
structure is fashioned as the sky
scraper is fashioned Of steel. This
scientific stability sets all such com
panies together on table-rock O
granite, towering above all else II
the financial and business world.
A life insurance, fundamentally, Il
also a cooperation. 1t belongs t.