The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1916-04-22
Fundamental Truths
OF the Life Insurance
Business Are Presented

the pollcy-nolders. First. because
they. not the company, make II. Tho
lives actually insure each other. and
do SO almost wholly with their own
money. The company whether mu-
tual or stock) 10 but the central but
reau through which they operate. The
policy holders are the bees, their re-
serve fund the honeycomb, the CON-
pany the hive-and when, as II
sometimes happens, Reinsurance
deal transfers the bees, honeycomb
and all. to another hive, there is
where the honey making goes on.
Then It is plain enough that de hive
itself never made any honey. The
policy holders moreover, own nearly
all the assets and profits. over nine
ty-seyen per cent OF each. taking all
the companies together. They are
the actual owners in law and In fact;
the company management whether
mutual or stock) is but their trustee
TO collect, invest and distribute.
This life insurance is not at all to
be classed with the usual private,
proprietary business, existing to make
money out Of its customers. II OK
lists to save and earn money for its
customers. who are also Its sole or
chief owners. That is why its con-
tracts are so liberal and its practices
even more so. As a true co-opera-
ly and want 1t now-the kind that
tlon life insurance Is TO oe classed
with the mutual savings bank or the
building and loan association; 1t is a
great deal more like ones church,
lodge or club. than like ones grocer
or gas company. Its business organt-
cation and agency forces are neces-
sary to Its efficient operation; they
are its brains and hands. but they are
in no sense its body and soul. II is
n cooperation Of policy-holders that
its being.life insurance lives and
has its being.
This again means strength, perma-
hence, stability. The single company
numbers its members by the thou
sands, enlisted for life. Far greater
than the strength of great assets Is
the strength of great numbers of
men. This Is living growing strength;
its keeps creating more values. 1t
is the distinctive strength of munich
pals" which because of 1t lead the
list OF investment bonds. 1t is. in
Darwin p. Kngsley's fine phrase, the
immeasurable strength of men stand
ing together"
These are some OF the big funda-
mental truths-common to all Of us,
but not possessed by other business
that the New System must voice to
prospects and people generally Must
voice, not merely because they are
true, but also because they are eff
fectiye; far more effective than any
one-company "sales-talk" can be.
The New Soliciting, therefore, Is
soliciting that grounds the prospects
confidence in all our propositions on
a few fundamental facts and truths
common to US all, and thus leaves the
bulk OF the time free to tell him
plainly the things that interest and
attract him.
1t is soliciting that has no time to
fight over the one Immediate pros
pect"-both because the fight chow
ever It ends) will yield him poorer
future prospects and booster; and be-
cause very many more people are
waiting around the corner to be right
ly solicited without any fight.
1t is soliciting that is creative, not
competitive; with talk that Is in
stitutional, rather than "one-com-
pany": by rightly trained. permanent
agents, working for their own and
their prospects future with all the
resources Of skilled salesmanship.
plus professional counsel, plus ap-
postolic vision and zeal.
1t is in word efficient soliciting
the kind that makes the prospect
want life insurance. want 1t large
ly, and whant 1t now-the kind that
will open the eyes Of the whole pub
lie to its need for life insurance, and
open those eyes far wider than has
! ever seemed possible to it or to us.