The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-04-12
(Contirned ION Paqe Onel

have been in force" (pald on) Tor
ten years. The John Hancock In
smance Company limits the period of
bondage TO only five years. The other
three companies all insist upon a ten
year surrender clause.
No Cash for 10 Years.
At the expiration of this ten year
period the policy must be surrendered
and lapsed in order to receive its
paltry cash value. This cash value
is in all instances less than one-third
of what has been paid in. This is
perfectly legal. The New York state
department of insurance has said it
is. So it must be.
If, due to unemployment, sickness
or i'll fortune, the Inflated policyhold-
en- cannot keep up his payments for
ten years he rs out Of luck"-as his
agent will tell him.
To illustrate by an actual case:
An industrial" whole life policy is
bought by a man 80 years Of age. It's
weekly payments come to 35 cents.
So cents a week is $500 a year. He
is protected for 1888. He pays for
ten years. Then, due to illness or un-
employment, he needs cash. Let US
sec what happens.
Robbed of $122.
During the ten years he has de-
posted $1S2. Under the terms of his
unfair policy all that he is entitled to
and receives is $50. The contract is
then lapsed and he has lost $122. If
he still needs insurance for the pro-
lection Of his wife and children he
must be re-insured at increased rates
due to his increased age. If during
this ten years he has contracted an
incurable disease, he is a poor risk"
and win be rejected.
Now this same man could have
bought $1,000 policy (instead of one
for S559) on the ordinary" (yearly)
plan for precisely the same annual
premium-payable in monthly INSTALL
ments instead of weekly. At the end
of ten years his borrowing capacity
(loan value) would be S161, instead
of $50, and his contract (polidy)
would still remain in force.
No Loan Values.
One notes with bitterness that
whereas an Industrial policy has no
surrender value until it has been in
force for ten years, an Ordinary"
policy has a loan value after two
years. Why this should be will take
lot Of explaining by the publicity
departments of the big Four"
The weekly payment policy is the
workers policy. The ordinary" pol
icy is the stiff collar" policy. The
penalty of poverty in insurance is
that one must submit humbly to the
outrageous swindle on a gigantic
scale.
However simply explained insur-
aRce is more or less a bewildering
subject to the average man. Insur-
ance subjects have been OVERLAND with
tons of technical buncomb and the
public as usual falls for the academic
austerity implied in a column of
figures.
Directors Make Graft.
Ever since the introduction of in
dustrial life insurance into this coun-
try the laws governing this type of
insurance have become more and more
complex and unintelligible. Assets,
more than are needed, have piled up,
and finance committees-tho who
take care of these funds for "mu-
tual" policyholders-have gathered
juicy harvest.
Investigators Bribed.
In 1905 the famous Armstrong In
surance Investigating Committee
purged Ordinary" insurance of its
erstwhile corruption. But the COM
mittee was under the screw of the
"Big Four" and the day before the
industrial companies were to be
probed, as the tabloids would have it,
the investigation was called off.
Bribed With $4,000
AS result, several Of the alleged
investigators" were, it is logical to
assume, handsomely take care of. For
instance, Senator "Bill" FULLY was
appointed solicitor for the Metropon-
tan Life (the daddy of the "Big
Four") at a yearly salary of $4,000.
Since then he received $4,000 raise.
Some graft.
Charles Evans Hughes (he Of the
whiskers) was appointed counsel
for the Equitable Life, and Assembly
man Robert Lynn Cox was appointed
general manager of the association
Of life insurance presidents, semi
official lobbying device. Mr.. Cox
(who is a liberal in religion but a
hard-headed conservative in business)
is now a second vice president of the
Metropolitan at modest salary of
$4,000 a year.
Calls big Four" Swindlers.
After these appointments were
made, the department of insurance
was aware of them because the COM
panies must report all home office ex-
penditures over $1,000.
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