The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-11-02
70 BILLIONS IN
WAR INSURANCE
Soldier and Sailor Policies
May Almost Equal Total
of Civil Risks
ALL ESTIMATES
WILL BE EXCEEDED
Notifications of Allowances Probable
Concentration of Control Criticised
Actuaries Urged to Give Services to
the Government.

Measured by the readiness with
which soldiers and sailors are taking adj
vantage of its provisions, the war in
surance law will be a great success in
protecting the families of men who 90
to war, according to James d. Craig,
President of the Casualty Acturial and
Statistical society of America, who IN
his annual address at the national con-
vention of the society at the Hotel AS
tor said the total of insurance under
the act would be far more than the
first estimates of either insurance men
or treasury officials.
Mr. Craig, who is an actuarv of the
METROPOLITAN Life, was one of the com
mittec of five insurance experts who
aided the government i'll drafting the
war insurance measure. He estimated
that S20,o00,o0Q,OO of insurance prob
ably would be taken out if the war
lasts two years from last April. To
give an idea of what this means, he
cited the fact that the total of life in
surance now in force in this country Is
something like $4,000, 100000.
Mr.. Craig said the cost of the gov
eminent insurance would probably be
far more than the estimates made Cor
il. and as evidence said that the sink
ing of the Antilles with the loss of
seventy men would cost several hun
| bred thousand dollars under the insur-
ance act. The measure names $4,000
as the maximum for a soldier, and Mr..
! Craig said that it had been estimated
in Washington that most OF the sol
| diers would take about $4,000 lnsur-
ancc. Then he added:
In the New York Times of Oct. "a
| 1917. the statement was made that
twenty-seven applications had been re-
ceived from members of single com
pany for $4,000 each, while in the
| Economic World of Oct. 20, we read:
1.-The officers and men gathered at
| Camp Mills, y. y. for example. arr
said to have applied for insurance vir
tuallv without a single exception, and
but for trivial number of eases, fo
the maximum amount allowed, so 600. =
"ln the Bulletin of the War Stud,
society of Aug. l. 1916, it is STATED
that France had had $4,000 men killet
and 2.llj,000 wounded in the war, o
whom $4,000 are invalids, and
might be we'll to reflect upon the ulti
mate cost to this government if til
war lasts long enough 10 cause any sue
losses.
Mr.. Craig said the undertaking wa
''thc largest insurance proposition eve
considered. He said that while tn
| appropriation for the first year wa
$l16,2J0,0 600, for the second year
| would probably be $3.50, 1000 600. thi
y being exclusive of the $40 year pc
$1,000 premium paid by the men il
Z sured.
''On the basis of million men til
/ first year, each insured for the max
! mum sum of 10000 at a premium al
| proximating $50, the aggregate pr,
/ MUM would be $4,000, 900. . he sal,
| "a few years ago, before we were ec
| ucated to talk in hundreds of million
and even billions, such figures woul
| have staggered us.
He pointed to the interesting fcatul
that under the bill the widow of
MAJOR would receive exactly the san
insurance payments as the widow of
/ private. Then he reviewed the featur,
Of the policy which includes both ca
ualty and life insurance, and defend,
the insurance companies against IL
] charge that they were antagonistic
1 the measure.
Mr.. Craig criticised the measure
/ that it vested in the hands of the {
/ rector and the secretary of the treasul
complete power over the whole systel
= comparing that with the many limi
: placed upon insurance companies.
'Whcn it is considered, - he sal
that an army of 2,0O0,00O men. i
B sured for $4,000 each, makes an aggl