The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1920-01-06
SUPPORT HOME INSTITUTIONS.

Queruue and the prosperity of the individual citizen. We want
TO carry the same suggestion a little further today as it relates to the
support and cooperation we owe to home institutions, other than.
equally with them to the financial and social welfare Of all of u.s.
We were interested by an advertisement Of the Occidental Life
Insurance company which appeared in the Albuquerque newspapers
on New Years day. The advertisement stated that the company
during 1919 had received applications for insurance totaling nearly
five million dollars, and that this company, one Of Albuquerque
home institutions, is now the largest and oldest insurance company
T. an9sIs.. y home office at any point between Kansas City and
These two statements, $ to volume of new business created in
1912 and a TO the position Of the company in the insurance world
as the largest and oldest maintaining a home office across nearly
aud Of such Importance in the Albuquerque business world as TO make
them Of first news value. We sent to the Occidental offices to get
out there turned this from a news article into an editorial statement
From the information furnished us, this, to our mind, is the most
OF the $4sOooOO of new business of the Occidental Life Insur.
in Albuquerque. The company wrote twice as much business in Trim
dad COLORADO q as IT wrote IN its home city two and ons,h3lf times as
1000 miles away and four times as much in Phoenix, Arizona.
The Occidental company actually wrote more business in Portales
New Mexico, population 1000 than it wrote in its home city in 1919
The Herald is perfectly willing to give the Occidental Life In
the well known Prophet in his Own Country was never quite so badly
We have not at hand the annual statistics of our otter home
insurance company, the National Life Insurance company Of the
written in Albuquerque in 1919, is about on the same basis.
Il these home companies offered an inferior policy, or a ma
terany more expensive one II any question existed as TO their abil
hy, to carry their risks in perfect safety il their manae sments
and methods lacked official state approval, this lack of support at
home would be understandable. But as we understand it the home
insurance companies provide as safe and as generous a life policy
suranee; Official inspection and supervision report and guarantee
their ,her pJ III eo SId not OF be- soTd YoOo miles, %es swS~ n r. " sDrb volume Jmee %TS
in competition with those of other companies.
reason for the slow growth Of the University Of New Mexico. has been
due to lack Of interest and support here at home. We are moving
now to overcome home indifference to the University, once and
for all time to come. We can well afford to move to overcome in
difference to other home institutions, like these home life insurance
companies, which contribute so largely to the financial stability, i'm
portance and general prosperity OF our city. Perhaps If we got be-
cal strength and capacity for service to our city would be vastly
increased. The Herald believes that would be the result
The facts about these home life insurance companies are inter
The Occidental, for instance, is fourteen years old this year.
II has operated continuously since ITS establishment IN 1910, under the
same management II has long since passed out of the purely con,
struetive stage and is firmly established as one of the recognized
financial institutions of the west Its assets total one and a quarter
What is of more immediate interest and Importance to AIbuquer-
que is the income Of this company, for 1919, which was in round
around $4,000. During the year it sent from the home office APP
Proximately five million mprnis OF the name OF Albuquerque, New
ever made for the city by any public or private institution, in a single
year.
The Occidental company has built its home office building in
Albuquerque at a cost of approximately 100000 1t is a building Of
in the nation. The Masonic Temple and the Odd Fellows building
were financed by loans of Occidental fund.-. Its outstanding loans
total considerably more than one million dollars and the great bulk
Of these loans are on New Mexico security made for New Mexico
development The company has bought Liberty Bonds to a total of
s-vovO, whsn y y an rui o al PSnmais% r ss~r ~ im ,b oo me.o mS
sary stablizing of the federal bond issues resultant upon the war
All Of which will impress upon even the most casual reader the
important factor in the financial life Of Albuquerque and New Mexico
hut that it would be important in the financial structure of any com
munity. The National Life Insurance company Of the Southwest
younger than the Occidental, but growing very rapidly and on soundly
conservative lines has also adopted as ITS permanent policy the loan
factor in the states finaniial structure and business operations.
Perhaps the apparent lac OF interest hefe az hOme IN these nome
companies, may be due 10 The fact that both have been less aggressive
in pressing their claims upon insurance buyers here than in other
parts of he fields they serve. Both have been extremely conservative
In pressing for local business through advertising They have been
justified, perhaps, in expecting voluntary cooperation and patron
age in their home city.
The fact remains that there is not another city in the Nation, Of
enual population, with two such institutions and only a very few
with one such institution Of equal strength and Importance.
Consider this significant fact: Life insurance companies in
America. already the largest financial unit on the western continent
wrote double the business in 1919 that was done in any previous year
in the history of insurance.
Iige insurance companies have been the most powerful single
e,otor IN financing American business and industry during the past
nuarter Of q century, just as they were the most powerful single factor
h financing the war.
Obviously /. is to the advantage of Albuquerque and every one
. - citizens 10 lend every encouragement TO the growth Of these
home institutions, and policy conditions being equa, to give them the