The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-07-09
'JNLY THREE LIFE
 COMPANIES RAISE
 Y RATES IN YEAR

Insurance Commissioner Burton Mansfield has Issued the dfty-hfth annual raport of his department. It contains a statenbent of the busin ess sdene by life, accident, casualty and ,strety companies in the state during ithe(,year 19u9 Commisstoner Mans-, fielh discusses the effect of influenza- and Kindred diseases on the<ciaimsl < paid by companies.
 I Out Of thfrty-one life companies only three had fncreased%their insuf- aucesrates.
 The commissioner gives@the result of his observation of thet effect of ness frofns October l. 191S,ato March 3i, Taue The deafh claims foEstl1at pefaod amopnte ed to, y252, 16s;sof, ,and the. aEuUsant of such claims due to Influenza, latsgrip sandt pneumoniaGwas 3120y44Ss469, representing 47.8 per cent of the toeaI claims. 'It would thus appear reads the report, .thatsso far as,sour- statistics go we may reasonably Sas.sume that the mortaatty rate wasfaa most double that of the normal dur1nrs- the period un- der consideration. This fact is strilxingiy illustrated h1 the case of tfie experience of frA.ernal socie- ties."
 It appeared that health and acci- dent companies suffered aAl increase in the rate of sickness propn'rtionate- ly2 as great as the increase in the rate of mortality. experienced Aby the life companies and fraternal %Socle- ties.
 Fraterna1 insurance has received it's share of the amount of new business according to the report. Tine increase for the first six months of 1919 over the corresponding 1918 period amounts to 84 per cent. Un- like the life companies there was a. considerable falling off in new busf- ness for 1917, but only slight de- crease in 1918. Contrary to the case of the life companies. not all fraternal- societies shared in the in crease. Of the twenty-five societies whose experience Is included above, ten showed a decrease for 1919 as compared with 1918,
 As to the probable effect of inI fluenza on the incraase in new busi- ness Commissioner Mansfield says: z "As to what effect the influenza epidemic has had upon the increase in new business, I have concluded that it is something we can only make a guess at. Personally I am of the opinion that the three im- portantafactors contributing to the 1919 increase are the influenza, gov ernment insurance for sailors and soldiers and general prosperity. Of these three factors I believe that general prosperity is in the lead with influenza and government insurance running a close second. Our indus trial population has enjoyed an un- precedented prosperity and has been spending money freely. Insurance officials with whom have discussed the suhject advise me that their agency forces have been diverting fair share of this money to invest nent in life insurance. There has been 8. fertile field opened up among people who heretofore have carried little or no insurance whatever, but who now have the means of carry ting substantial amounts. This natur- 'Vany raises the question of how much of the new insurance will remain in force, but such a problem is beyond the scope of this paper.
 ''It takes time,' continues Com missioner Mansfield, "to educate the public in life insurance matters un- less we have striking examples tc put forward, such as the influenzs epidemic or the government insur. ance plan. If the present scale o1 prices should continue, no doubt il time life insurance would adjust it self to the 50-cent dollar. We can not say that the workman who ha! become comparatively prosperous and who previously carried s50t industrial policy but has graduated into the $1,000 ordinary class, ha doubled his insurance because O e- the shrinkage in the purchasins power of the dollar. He has in creased his insurance merely becaus he has had plenty of money to spend The man to whom the argument o a 50-cent dollar is most likely t
 make a strong appeal IS the salariet
 man carrying from $10,000 to $50,