The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-03-27
A Business Statement
 A Human Document


 HOT 1921 contains interesting matter
 not generally found in the statement
 Of financial corporation. It relates
 to the human side of a great busi-
 ness. The company's assets are more
 than one billion, one hundred and if
 teen million dollars and its policies
 outstanding are more than twenty
 five and a half millions. Many people
 hold more than onep olfcy and the
 pest estimate of the company is that
 this number of policies insures, in
 round numbers, nineteen million in
 dividuals. As over twenty million of the policies are the So-called InduS-
 trial, on which premiums are collect
 ed weekly by agents who call at the pOlicy-holderS' homes, this gives to a company with the financial strength of the Metropolitan an opportunity for health and welfare work The statement published shows how the
 company has accepted this opportun- ity.
 While the year 1921 in the popular mind is put down as a year of dull business, life insurance has been an exception. The Metropolitan again held the record among all companies | in the world in 1921 with $1,564.789,- 1 GOT new insurance placed on the books. Its assets increased more than one hundred and thirty million dollars. and it's income was $SS, ,462,- | 919 more than it was in 1920.
 For many years the company's principal business was Industrial - 1 l working men of America and their families. But lately the so-called Ordinary insurance. where the pre- | miums are paid quarterly. semi an- nua1ly or annually, has so increased l that this branch of the business now | exceeds the Industrial in amount. 1 In accepting the opportunity for | health and welfare work. the com- 1 pany extended the free nursing ser
 vice given to Industrial policy-holders so that last yeaM it was effective in | 2,S00 cities and towns and the nurses | made more than 2,100,0 900 free visits. l Arrangement have been completed by | which employers, insuring their em . ployees under group policies, receive l the benefits of the nursing service and welfare literature.
 In making their weekly calls to col | Ietc premiums, the 16,0O0 agents dis | tributed booklets and pamphlets dealing with health and disease, tell | ing in simple language how to avoid preventaibIe diseases and what to do | if the policy-holders are sick. More than twenty-five millions of these pamphlets were distributed in this
 way last year. In connection with 1 the Society for the Prevention of | Tuberculosis, the company is conduct 1 ing a great experiment at Framing I ham. Mass. This city was selected as 1 a, typical American city with a popu- | 1ation of about the average character. | The company financed the Tubercu- | lOSiS society in dem OnStration to show what proper municipal health | regulation can do toward wiping out | this disease. Practically all the popu-
 lation were examined for signs of this | disease, and then. with physicians to 1 advise them, m eaSureS were taken to | improve the conditions and for the l general ibetterment of the health of | the city. The experiment is watched l by health auth critics throughout the 1 country. One result has been that deaths from tub ercu1osis in Framing ! ., that the experiment has been in pro- gresS have dropped from the rate of 1 121 per 100000 to 40. The health l authorities and the people of that these beneficial results that they have greatly increased their own munich pal appropriation for the health de- partment
 many cities of the country, due to the lack of building during the war, caus- ed the Metr olitan to make a sys- tematic and widespread effort to
 and apartm ents. During 1920 and
 1921 the company loaned, and pledged itself to loan, $6S,0S0.O00 on new dwellings and apartment houses pro- viding homes for 17,744 families. In 1921 the death rate among In
 dustrial policy-h elders reached its
 lowest point-81 per cent. lower than it was 10 years previous. The rate
 from typhoid fever decreased II per cent; from tuberculosis. 49 per cent; from Bright's disease. nearly 80 per
 cent. and from infectious diseases of
 children nearly 37 per cent. The records kept by the company show
 that, compared with 1911, there were in 1921, 55,000 fewer deaths than there would have been if the 1911 edath rate had prevailed. While there has been a general public health
 movement and notable progress in medical science and sanitation which contributed in part, there is evidence that a conisd erable factor in reduc-