The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1916-12-23
AMERICA FIRST
IN INSURANCE
T.. S. HAS MORE THAN HALF
THE WORLDS LIFE
INSURANCE

tism of business and national eco
ncmic preparedness comprise the
keynote of the Tenth Annual Con-
vention of the Association of Life
Insurance Presidents, which opeu-
ed here today with company execu-
tives present from nearly every
state in the union. Among those
from the Pacific coast we're George
/. Cochran and w. H. Davis of Los
Angeles, Cal. More than three
quarters of the tw~enty-four billion
dollars of old line life insurance
now in force on American lives Is
represented at the convention.
Ways and means are being cen
sidered for broader cooperation be-
tween large lines of related business
and industry in connection with
plans for an increased contribution
or their part to the country's pre-
~paredness.
Speaking on the subject Amer
lea First in Life Insurance." AL
fred Hurrell sof Newark, N. IT,,
presented original statistics showing
that the United States now has
more life insurance in force than
ali the rest of the world, although
it has only one%-fifteenth of the
population of the earth.
THE American life insurance
companies, made up of over thirty
one million of policy-holders, ard
which hold in trust for them as
sets of over five billion dollars, con-
stitute an affirmative element of
first Importance if our preparedness
as a nation should be put to test
he said. Here in America, life
insurance, under strictly private
initiative and auspices, with the
help of legal compulsion or of
government subsidy but with, how
ever, a strict government regula-
ton and sometimes interference,
has grown into it's great estate SO
that at the present time with less
than a fifteenth of the popula-
ton of the earth, it has more insur-
arce in force than exists in the
rest of the world put together.
"There is in force in the United
States on residents therein yer
twenty billion dollars of legal re-
serve life insurance. The insurance
in force on the lives of the people
of Great Britain, Germany, France,
Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Austro-
Hungary, Denmark, Norway and
Sweden. Japan, Australia, New
DALT44I-- -- CIsI@ o -
available statistics, was less than
sixteen and one-half millions. In
the ten years from 1905 to 1913
the insurance in force in American
companies increased just short of
ten billions of dollars. The in
crease now is at the rate of over a
billion of assurances a year"
Strongly urging the need of i'm
proving the physical condition of
the American people, particularly
from the point of view of national
preparedness, Hon. E. E. Ritten-
house of New York said: at is es-
tiniated thai the number Of examin-
atoms for ordinary life insurance
is approximately as follows: Rejec-
ted annually, 100000; accepted
annually, 100000 A person
who is medically examined is ma
turally anxious to have a full des-
cription of his physical shortcom-
ings, especially if he has been de-
prived of life insurance.
why should the rejected appli-
cant not have it? Why would It
not pay from the standpoint of en-
l%ightened s~elfishness, and of our
duty to the state, to give this man
q written report of his physical
condition with health advice or re-
ference to his own physician, as
the Ease might demand? This in
formation in many instances might
be a matter of life or death to the
individual. Why should he not
have it in detail?
at is also possible that We may
gain another and, financially, far
more valuable, by-product by adopt
ing a similar plan with the 1900 :
900 who are annually examined and
accepted. The fact that a mar is
accepted for life insurance simply
signifies that his physical condition
meets the requirements of medical
selection; not that he is in per-
feet condition of health.
From this it would appear that
over half of our adult population
or about 81 million people should
have medical attention to head off
needless sickness and in many cases
premature death. AS 1t now stands,
a large number of the 1900, OOe
new policy-holders think they have
a clean bill of health whereas they
Ave nothing of the sort.
1.-The evil effects Of his physical