The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-20

to 31 are only from 65 to 70 cents per $lo00 per month, so that if a man takes out s10,000 policy, which is the highest sum possible, he pays therefor only S7 ger month. If he takes out a $5000 policy it costs him S3.50 per month and if he dies his family would get S27. 50 per month
 of every wear for 20 years thereafter This 2oTyear payment is one of the pe- culiarities of the policy. The amount 1t is insured for is not paid as whole upon death, but in equal monthly install- nents for 2i0 months after death The .nstallments are $5.75 per s1oO0 and the average insurance policy So far applied
 for will give s46 per month for 20 years to the wife children or relative of the | man insured should he happen to die
 This insurance will be paid to the man | himself if he is totally or permanent l lv disabled during the term of his policy, no matter whether he is in the i service or not; and after the war is over he can keep up the insurance on l the same terms for five years, or he can convert it into other forms of life insurance arranged for by the govern ment.
 And now let me tell you something about the big machine which has 3heen organized to carry on this part I tpart of one day looking into 1t, and I am surprised at the efficiency with
 which it is running. The machine lhad to be created from the ground up, The Eovernment had no department of a similar character and the whole I had to be blasted as it were, out of
 the rocks. The business started with the insuring of our ships at sea against losses by the German fleet land submarines. and from that be-
 ginning was developed the great ma ] chine for insuring the lives of mill 1 lions Of men. The plans for both
 divisions were largely the work of Will liam c. Delaney. an insurance man of New York city, who has been the direc- tor of the bureau of war risk insurance
 from the start and who is now at it's head
 l Tn order to do this work, however. The had to bring in many others to help lhim, and among others MT. C. F. Nes- bit, the present commissioner of mili- I tary and naval insurance, was appoint ed to put the new bureau into being I asked MT. Nesbit to tell me how the work was organized. Said he: eve were in despair at the start. The thing was so big and it had to be done in such a short time. The soldiers were ;already in the cantonments and General Pershing and his army were already in France We had no officers, no equip ment no clerks and no definite plans The job seemed impossible. I could not sleep of nights for worrying about my part of 1t, and I remember telling the assistant Secretary of the Treasury that if he had ordered me to take 8 gang out to Colorado and move Pikes Peak 200 miles west in a space of two months the task would not have seemed to me greater than the one they had given us.'
 But you soon got the job under way, said T.
 tYes, we had to do so. AThe families of the soldiers had to have their allow ances, and there were thousands whc lwished to insure. Congress had enacted
 the law, the money had been appropri- ated and work had to De done. II commenced the day the act was passed
 That was the 9th of last October, anc by 30 D. m. of that day we were look ing for offices and fighting for our
 equipment in the~way of desks, type
 writers and help. There were no build lings to be had, no blanks and no clerks