Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-01
Head of New York Company
Points Out Present
Prospects.
NEEDS FOR PROTECTIVE
POLICIES MULTIPLIED
Increasing Popularity Of Life Risks
Has Greatly Extended
Whole Field.
BY JOHN F. SINCLAIR.
special Dispatch to The Star,

opeclai Dlspatcn 70 The Star.
NEW YORK, February pa young
man has much more opportunity to
succeed in the life insurance business
today than was the case 81 years ago.
when entered the field" said Thomas
A. Buckner, who on Wednesday will
succeed Darwin A. Kingsley as presi-
dent OF the New York Life Insurance.
co. In the last decade, the vision
OF the life insurance executives has
been lifted. Now life insurance Is sold
on the basis Of income, and not princi-
pie. When first wrote life insurance,
size. For many that's the limit. Even
today half Of our policies are made out
for 81. 900.
But the new vision Is different
Tar different. Many men who formerly
owned $40 900 of insurance, which looked
IKE considerable sum Of money-WtlI
now have $4,000 or $4,000 insurance
OF more-because they realize that &c.
600 at per cent produces an income
OF only $500 year. Figuring insur-
ance needs by estimating the income
required, has multiplied by at least
ten the possibilities in the life insur-
ance field"
AS ne spoke, Mr.. Buckner was seated
behind his mahogany fiat top desk in
the new executive offices Of the wonder
Iul new building Of the New York Life,
on the site Of the old Madison SQUARE
Garden.
Animated Conservative"
Thomas A. Buckner, at sc. n q
friendly, natter-of-fa unhurried. de-
liberate talker, careful in diction. He
Is the type Woodrow Wilson once de.
scrtbed, as an animated conservative, %
Abraham Lincoln was In the White
House, and the Civil War was drawing
70 Its close when Mr.. Buckner was born
IN Bloomington, H., in January, 1865.
Before he was ten, his father had
moved TO Independence, Mo-, then q
rushing little Western frontier city
ana the starting point for the covered
wagon trains. He must have wondered
often what lay beyond-in the Far west
Mr.. Buckner's father quit teaching
school to enter the life insurance field.
In few years he became manager of
the New York LIES Milwaukee branch
office. Young Toms first Job was ONCE
boy at $50 month in his fathers
agency. He was then Is, and his school
DAYS were over. His father charged
him SIS month for his board and
room. That left him IS a month for
spending.
once boy was the hardest Job I
ever had" said Mr.. Buckner. "But
show me q good Office boy and I'll
show you Q good future executive"
DO you think the young men Of
today entering business, are as eager
to satisfy their employers as they were
half century ago?" I asked him.
Many of them have the wrong slant
college boys especially. They want to
start too far up the ladder-before they
have built a solid foundation. College
authorities could and should change
this limited point of view Of the stud
emit entering business by training their
students to understand that they must
go through testing apprenticeship for
ct least i've years after they leave coll
1ege, no matter how brilliant their
records a. students may have been"
Started - Solicitor.
But 10 continue. Young Tom Buck
ner, by the time he was II, decided to
leave his fathers once in Milwaukee
and 90 To- Ottumwa, Iowa, as o life
insurance solicitor. This was In 1885.
His first year he wrote $3.50, 900 Of in
surance and $4,000 was his largest
policy. Most Of them were for 1000
and $4,000. Even today such record
would be called brilliant. For an agent
today who produces $3.50, 900 new bust
ness annually is first-class man, and
Continued on Third Page.)