The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-03-16

Editors Note. Forest Dryden,
president Of the Prudential Insurance
Company Of America is widely known
throughout the insurance and banking
world. His own company is one of the
greatest financial institutions in the
world. His explanation of what is
done with the millions that pour into
the insurance companies each year is
an enlightening article that gives to
the public a new conception of in
surance and its results.
Stand some morning in the office
OF a large life insurance company
when the mail is opened. See the
great stacks Of letters brought in and
emptied on the receiving tables, and
let your Imagination busy itself with
the stories that lie behind these en-
velopes. Here is a money order from
a crossroads post-office-only a few
dollars, yet a husband and wife have
sacrificed for a month to purchase the
protection it represents. Here is a
check for Thousands great corpora
ton has insured the life of it's presi-
dent, in order that the business may
be protected in the event of his loss.
Stiff, formal envelopes, and poor
shabby envelOpes-some addressed in
typewriting, some in ink, some with
lead pencil in letters hardly legible-
but everyone a magnificent testimony
to human faith. Fol the people from
whom these envelopes come have
never seen the office of the insurance
company nor met it's officers; they are
entrusting the dearest thing in the
world-the protection of their wives
and children-tO men whose
even are almost unknown to them.
Surely there is no more solemn trust
than this. / pity the insurance man,
no matter how familiar the sight may
be to him, who can watch the norm
ing mail being opened without feeling
a renewed and %deepened sense Of obli-
cation at this vast, silent, ritual of
confidence and faith.
Now what becomes of these mil
lions that are sent to the insurance
companies from families all over the
world? Are they kept piled up in
banks? Some Of them are, for sound
insurance practise dictates that the
company shall always have a large
reserve in cash. No one knows when
a catastrophe or an epidemic may
come, making thousands Of families
suddenly dependent-the insurance
company must be always prepared.
But what of the rest-the millions
and millions which will not be needed
by the policy holder for years?
In st. Paul's Cathedral in London
there is a single slab marking the
burial place of Sir Christopher Wren,
the architect of the great edifice. Up
on it is this inscription in Latin-"if
you would see his monument look
about you" The same inscription
might be written of the dollar which
you, and you and you, have entrusted
to your insurance company as a pro-
lection for the future. If you would
see that dollar, you have only to look
about you. 1t is not lying idle in
some vault far away; it is invested
and at work close at hand.
You pick up the telephone receiver
and are connected with a friend in
another part of your city. 1t is a
miracle that would amaze us more if
it were not so m Your insur-
ance dollar has helped to work that
miracle. For the telephone system
has been constructed by the proceeds
of telephone bonds-and millions of
dollars of insurance money are in
vested in these and other utility
bonds.
You step into a train in New York,
eat dinner, go to bed and wake up in
Buffalo. Another miracle-and again
the insurance dollar has helped. For
the railroads could never have stretch
ed their tracks across the continent
except by the sale Of railroad bonds.
And insurance companies are large
investors in those bonds.
You pass a beautiful park or a fine
public school-they too are built by
bonds-municipal bonds-an invest
ment which is heavily owned by in.
surance companies. You pass a row
of houses, each the home Of a family
that is paying a few dollars a month
and looking forward to the day when
it can call that home it's own. Who
furnished the money to erect this
home, and took a mortgage as Sc
curity? Very likely an insurance COM
pany-another place where your dol.
lars are at work.
And farms-here your millions have
been at work, also. Thousands upon