Evening star., 1931-12-06
Underwriters and D. C. Bank
erS Addressed by F. |.
Jones, Equitable Official.
CALLS UNEMPL0YME
INSURANCE UNSOUND
Speaker Also Opposes Too Much
Building-Sees Need of More
National Thrift.
BY EDWARD C. STONE.

business we shall move with humber
soul and a saner perspective. Let us
continue to work together in the me-
chanlcS OF estate creation and diStribu-
ton and add to our cooperative effort
the programs necessary to a regained
and then maintained business struc-
ture"
This was the plea made by Frank L.
Jones, vice president Of the Equitable
Life Assurance Society of New York,
before the District Life Underwriters
Association and the fiduciaries section
OF the District Bankers Association at
Their annual joint dinner at the Willard
Hotel last night
Kenneth F. Brooks, assistant trust
ofticer Of the Riggs National Bank, pre-
SIDED, and special guests included Her
bert L. Davis, insurance commissioner
OF the District; Edgar E Mountioy.
washington representative of the Amer
lean Bankers. Association; David S.
Bethune, chairman Of the local under
writers association; Victor B. Deyber,
president Second National Bank, repre-
senting the bankers association, and
Aubrey o. Carter, in charge of trust
functions, Treasury Department. B. L.
Cotton was committee chairman.
Cooperation Is Years Old.
Banking institutions and life insur-
ence companies alike are engaged in
creating, caring for and distributing
capital" Mr.. Jones asserted. Through
out period of 10 or IS years the Ma
tional Association of Life Underwriters
has maintained a strong committee to
cooperate with a similar committee
from banking and trust groups.
THE encouragement to create life
insurance estates by both life insur-
ance companies and banking institu-
tions has been directed through adver-
tising and personal interviews to the
creation Of an increasingly large volume
of life insurance and trust estates each
succeeding year. Three special ways
IN which insurance men and bankers
are vitally concerned are:
Creating habits among the people
OF saving through budgeting or other
wise.
Creating Of mental attitudes that
affect the thinking OF people with ref
erence to savings or capital.
Dealing with an individualistic So
c1eJy as distinguished from a socialistic
society.
Outlines Joint Responsibility.
"pur joint responsibility as bankers
hnd insurance men is to stabilize the
thinking of people-to bring them face
70 face with the underlying problem
OF exchanging services for goods as a
fam and satisfactory basis on which
to proceed. We have had in recent
years two great illustrations of the at
tempt to shortcut the road to financial
succeSs-the Florida land boom and
the speculation In securities. Both of
tSese conditions resulted in widespread
dRaaster to millions of individuals and
to thousands Of institutions Two
great fundamental precepts, If previ-
ouSly launched and taught, would have
saved many an individual the ad-
versity which his lack of fundamental
principles got him into. These two
preceptS are:
The kind Of money and goods
which will be valuable to you will be
those for which you exchange your
services.
Whenever you get something for
nothing, somebody else gets nothing
for something.
Here we have a broad field of
mutual cooperation "a program on
which to use our joint efforts in build
ing proper human understanding and
In the creation of proper human habits
or attitudes. A belief is held by too
many people that each separate insti-
tuition which seeks to get a part of
the public's income dollar is a COM
petitor, when in fact the result should
be neither a competitive one as against
each other nor a limitation of the
power TO use either one service or the
other.
Ways Out National Depression.
when the present disaster is proper
" appraised" said the speaker, 1T will
be seen that the attempt to shortcut
the long route to financial affluence
concuuently with the development of
the opportunities to do so, places a pro-
found responsibility on all financial in
stitutions, especially those Of banking
and life insurance, to develop hereafter
q conservative mental attitude among
the people and to promote a proper in
depreciation of values
why should We not consider our
Joint meetings, the need TO study the
long range of business conditions and
to strike a reasonable, conservative
average in our operations. There is no
need for banks to build. nor for life in
surance companies TO build, the habits
of saving If savings are to be poorly in
vested either by the individual or by the
corporation. A little of the old-style
doctrine Of Benjamin Franklin that a
penny saved is a penny earned will
help lot Of people, but there should
be added to that the doctrine that a
penny safely invested will safely grow"
The life insurance expert then re-
viewed the unemployment situation and
suggested that the whole principle of
insurance as applied to unemployment
Is unsound. The remedy for unemploy-
ment is work, he asserted He showed
enthusiasm over putting great numbers
OF men at work on reforestation, as sug-
gested by Calvin Coolidge, but strongly
opposed overproduction of buildings.
program Of overbuilding now viii
mean a curtailment Of normal building
later, Mr.. Jones concluded