The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-25
SOLDIERS GOOD CRITICS

back soldiers against any people in the world. By long association with other men they have acquired a knacls of seeing to the heart of things. Noth- ing escapes them
 If any officer Is foolish enough to be-
 lieve that he Can deceive his men or get by" with anything but the real
 stuff' he is badly mistaken It is a pretty sure bet that his men know a great deal more about him than he does
 about them, and that they have learn ed his limitations long before he himself suspected them. If he doesn't know his
 business-hasnt "got the goods"-they are not slow in finding 1t out There is many an officer who brides himself on his military knowledge and efficiency who would be shocked and surprised to know that his men have long ago formed
 rather unflattering opinion of him. | The already high spirits of the division
 have been raised still higher recently by instructions from Washington directing that the soldiers insurance bill was to be put into immediate operation. Under the bill each soldier can take out insur- ance to the amount of not exceeding monthly salary.
 The provisions of the bill are very Hb- l eral-more so than any lever given any 1 soldiers in the world.sJ
 Three different benefits are provided
 First, the bill provides for the support of any dependent relatives of the soldier. In case he has made an allotment of not { less than $l5 of his pay to them, the gov-
 ernment will pay them an additional s25. l In other words, the soldier provides a.. 1 income of $40 month for his family dur ! ing his absence, but he himself pays only 1 s15 of 1t. Tn this way private soldier 1 can be sure that his family Is being cared
 for during his absence, and yet retain $15 1 for his own use. A great many fond parents who have besieged the war de-
 partment for the discharge of their sons
 on account of being dependent relatives 1 Will now have cause to wish they had 1 let their 'sole and only means of SUD-
 port stay in the army Their support
 would then have been more surer'' second benefit under the bill is the
 one which provides that in case the sol l dier Is permanently and totally disa bled l in the service to such an extent as to
 be unable to earn his living, the gov
 ernment will step up and take care Of
 him for the rest of his life. He will re- | ceive monthly income sufficient to pro- vide for hfs needs, and will not be al- l lowed to become in any sense an object l of charity or a burden to his family. But the provision that has lifted the 1 greatest load off the hearts of many an officer and man Is the one which provides | that in case he should die or be killed l in service, his family will receive the full amount of the policy, divided into month
 ly payments covering period of 20 years. Under the full policy of s10,OO0 the monthly payments would be about s57
 Not a great amount one might say. but great deal more than nothing.
 COST IS SMALL
 The cost of the insurance to the soldier is mercifully small. Depending upon his age, the price averages about q for l each thousand. This Is paid for by the 1 soldier at the rate of about 70 cents per 1 thousand each month. The charge Is en- tered on the pay roll by the company | clerk, and is deducted from the soldier 3 l is no possible way for the policy to be | lost or to lapse because of non payment 1 of premiums.
 | Uncle Sam has gone into the insurance l business on magnificent scale He has l set himself the task of insuring some millions of men, and Is doing 1t at a cost l that would bankrupt anybody else. But as Uncle Sam usually knows what ne Is | doing (strange as it may seem to some oi 1 his critics) it may be assumed that he Is | not throwing his money away He fig i ures that if these millions of men are go- 1 ing to risk their lives and limbs and | health in his service 1t Is up to him to ! uaKe care or t0elr nome IOikS while Tnoy i are doing it. And he has also determined 1 that there will be no broken soldiers | or their widows and orphans, forced to
 besiege the pension office if he can ] help it.
 1 No one but soldier can realize what l this means, or what fine thing it Is for 1 those most affected. At the outbreak of hostilities the men in the service naturally 1 turned to the insurance companies for ! protection for their families. But the
 war rate demanded was so large as to be ! practically prohbitive. The extra charge ] for the risk assumed was about 10 per
 cent of the value of the policy. That is, every soldier taking out insurance had to iipay $100 for each $1000 of his policy, in 1 addition to the usual premiums
 i Being thus between two horns of the dilemma, many took out insurance, with
 the result that a big portion of their salary went to pay for it. It seemed | hard, indeed. that a man who was going away to risk his life for his country I should have to pay such high price for
 the privilege. And as a consequence , many refused to take any insurance