The daily worker., 1927-04-26
copyrighted by The DAILY
WORKER, 1920
(By CHARLES YALE HARRISON)
Article XIV.

using in this exposure of the "Big
Four have been taken from reports
issued by the companies involved, or
from the 1926 issue Of the New York
state department Of insurance report.
The reader has been spared the agony
of going through miles Of tabulated
statistics.
In this article, however, quotations
will be adduced from the published
works of Haley Fiske, insurance liter
ateur and propaganda. The book
under discussion is called, "An epoch
in Life Insurance"
Likes The Company.
The book in itself is absolutely
unimportant as a contribution to the
science of insurance. 1t is merely u
hodge-podge laudatory goo served up
as information on insurance matters
particularly Metropolitan insurance
matters.
/ quote and reply:
Industrial (weekly-paymentl in
surance is costly owing to the high
death rate among the laboring
classes and the necessary system
of weekly collection of premiums;
and no ordinary company had Of
fered it's policies to them because
of this high mortality ="
Let us first deal with the lie that
the death rate is higher among week
ly-payment policyholders.
On page 100 Of the Metropolitan
annual report as submitted to the
Supt. of Insurance we find that in
1926 death claims in the Ordinary"
department totalled SS9,323, ,97S.S1.
The ordinary" insurance in force
was S5,737, ,507, ISL exclusive of group
insurance.
Industrial" (weekIy payment)
death claims were $39, ,542, ,6OO.27 with
an aggregate of S5,013,452,116 of
weekly-payment insurance in force.
From these figures it will be seen
that the ratio of claim payments are
practically the same in both depart
ments.
Middle Glasses Caught.
The reason for this is that the sale
of weekly-paymen life insurance is
not confined exclusively to what Mr..
Fiske is pleased to call "the laboring
classes" The sales pressure upon
agents has been so severe that they
haYe penetrated into all classes. Small
shopkeepers, white-collar slaves, small
executives and small business men
carry this form of petty larceny in
surance either on their own lives or
upon the lives of their children and
families.
"The necessary system of weekly
collections" of which Mr.. Fiske speaks
costs 1870 of the annual premium.
An ordinary whole life insurance
policy in the Metropolitan at age 40
costs $25 per thousand.
A weekly-payment policy for the
same amount of protection costs $46.-
so; nearly 1000 more costly than
ordinary insurance. We still have
$500 to account for. Nothing short
of a legislative investigation will
satisfactorily show what Haley Fiske
and his associated high financiers dc
with the surplus overcharge.
Popular Impression.
On page XIV of this same work OF
art, Mr.. Fiske delivers himself OF
this, "There may be an impression
abroad that the Armstrong laws i'm
proved and liberalized industrial in
surance." This is perfectly true.
The Armstrong insurance investi-
eating committee in 1906 investigated
the evils of the insurance business
generally. An internal row in the
Equitable Life Insurance company
between two contending factions pre-
cipitated the investigation. Wher
thieves fall out honest men come into
their own.
The story of the Armstrong inves.
tigation is stale news. But certain
ly, this much is not generally known
The day before the "Big Four" were
to come up for investigation, it was
moved that the committee adjourn &c
draft It's report. Ana as Mr. f1skt
says: "The laws scarcely touched
industrial insurance.
But industrial insurance touched
the lawyers-the lawyers who parti
cipated in the investigation and serv'
ed on the committee.
For example: After the investiga
tion Charles Evans Hughes who acteC
as counsel for the committee was
made general counsel for the Equi
table Life, his erstwhile enemy.
Senator William J. Tully, also o.
the committee, was made solicitor o
the Metropolitan Life Insurance Com
pany at salary of $4,000 per year
Since then he has had his pay raise'
TO $4,000. The Metropolitan is |
mutual company. It's policyhold
ers, officials and employees are al
supposed to share alike in the &C
crued benefits.
All Big Salaries.
Assemblyman Robert Lynn Cox wa