The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-04-21

moron, not an upstate legislator.
"The Big Four" earn, it is true, 6
per cent on their bonds and stocks,
but what is illegally earned on the
scores of millions of dollars in cash
which is rented out for call loans and
short term notes only the mutual"
directors know.
High Payments.
There is a mistaken notion current
among non-industrial policyholders
that only a few cents week is coll
lected from the poor in payment for
his petty larceny form of protection.
On the contrary, the average week
/ ly payment family pays an average
Of $500 per week and in many cases
much more. The writer knows of a
widow living in Brooklyn who pays
$1,000 per week. During the past ten
years hordes of agents have terrified
/ her with the threat that she will be
/ penniless in her old age and be de-
pendent on charity. During each
spell Of illness or unemployment she
drops her insurance. BY the time she
is able to start paying again she is
unable to meet her payments in ar
rears. New policies are then issued
which means a total loss of her prev
ious payments. There are millions of
dupes like this woman throughout the
country.
Last year lapsed policies which were
a complete loss to five million erst-
while insurers totaled s1,143, 436,575.
And on this deal alone the "Big Four
Melted upwards of fifty million dol
lars.
Policies Lapse.
When the price of insurance is be-
ing figured by the high salaried book
keepers of the "Big Four" it is as
sumed that every policy will mature
either as death claim or as an en-
dow1nent.
In reality only about Is per cent of
/ policies issued mature. What happens
to the hundreds of millions from this
source which have been piling mp
years after year? Have they been
credited to the mutual" policyholders
who have the infinite patience and
gullibility to continue with the "Big
Four? Certainly not.
A Conscious Swindle.
After 80 years Of experience insur-
ing tens of millions of lives these
companies still use an antiquated
! table of mortality which was complied
in 1868.
The "Big -Four" have on record a
varied death experience at all ages.
The death loss per 1000 at any in
dividual age is not a matter of guess
work-it is a mathematical certainty.
Company Saves Half.
Assuming that 1000 men at 40
years Of age insure their lives for ST.
600 each. The old table of mortality
says that at the end of the first year
9 will be dead. This means that the
1000 prospective risks must agree to
pay at least $4,000 or 80 each in or
der to cover the death-loss. Accord
ing to the modern table of mortality
only 5 will die within the year instead
Of 9, thus reducing the death loss cost
to IS per $1,000.
They Cheat.
From the above it seems that any
table OF mortality which fails to pre-
dict within 8 per cent of the actual
death loss per thousand at any given
age from rs to z6, which covers 80
per cent of the total insurance in
force, may be regarded as being used
for the company's ends. And any
table which predicts within 10 per cent
of the actual death loss is maliciously
fraudulent.
The "Big -Four" charge 100 per cent
more on death losses than they should.
Maliciously fraudulent is a mild term
to use in characterizing the operations
Of the petty larceny insurance trust,
but one soon runs out Of invective.
Get Rich.
In retrospect then, the "Big Four
assume an original premium charge
twice as great as it should be and op-
crate under system whereby 1 per
cent Of all terminated policies each
year are endowments and only 9 per |
cent are death claims.
Is it any wonder then that the "Big
Four" have reserve fund of assets /
Of nearly s4,00O0OO,00000 and that
Charles M. Schwab, Joseph P. Day
and Albert Wiggin act as directors
on the Metropolitan?
The excuse offered by apologists
for the "Big -Four" is that these men
''lSnow high finance" That is quite
tyde but these hi-jackers have as
Ihuch in common with the millions of
weekly payment policyholders as
xreaeaI hos with a hon