Real Estate Record

AND     BUILDERS'    GUIDE.





Vol. XVII.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, APEIL 15, 1876.





No. 422.





Published Weekly by

THE REAL ESTATE RECORD ASSOCIATION

0. W. SWEET...............Pbesident and Tbeasubeb

PEESTON L SWEET...........Secbetaet.

L. ISRAELS.........................Business Ma.nageb

TEEMS.
ONE YEAR, in. advance....$10 00.

Communications should be addressed to

C.   SV.   ^SVm'E.lO.

Nos. 345 and 347 Bboadwat.

THE LIFE INSUEANCE BUSINESS.





About three years since The Reai Estate
Recobd presented some facts in connection Avith
life insurance whicb attracted no little atten¬
tion at the time. We then gave some reasons
for believing tliat this business was being over¬
done, that without any discussion the public
was beginning to be suspicious of its manage¬
ment, and that in very many respects the whole
business of life insurance was injurious to the
community. That our views were in consonance
with the public feeling is shown by the very
marked falling off in the business done by the
life insurance companies. Some six years ago
109 companies were in the field competing for
business; to-day, tbe companies having any
status at all number only 45. Tn The DaUy
(??'apfi,ic we find the lollowing coniparisous be¬
tween the business of 1874 and 1875:

Forty-five Companies.                 1874.              1875.

Number of poUcies issued, ..          150,109            134,302
Amount insured during the

year...................... .$333,541,733   $305,541,196

Whole   number   policies   in

force........................         791,924            791,482

Whole amount insured......$1,930,571,601 $1,949,065,289

Premiums received...........     88,371,362       85,908,387

Interest received.............     23,232,181       24,736,389

Total receipts................   114,879.355      110,704,187

Losses.....................     26,181,425       27,604,891

Bividends to policy-holders..     16,712,290       18,613,930

Taxes........................      1.212,522         1,086,335

Expenses of management___     13,377,816       12 998,118

Beserve required by law.....   317,956,520      338.327,319

Gross assela..................   380,100,871      413,187,488

Gross liabilities........,.....   326,026,687      347,044,981

Surplus.....................      60,074,184       60,142,507

Forty-five Companies,                     Increase,      Decrease.

Number of policies issued.......            ___           15,807

Amount insured during the year,           ___    $28,000,537

Whole number ofpoliciea in force.           ....               442

Whole amount insured...........            ___   $30 906,372

Premiums received..............            ___       2 465 975

Interest received................  $1,604,208

Total receipts....................             ___       4,175168

I-osses...........................    1,483,476       '     ....

Dividends to policy-holders......    1,901,634

Taxes............................            _  __         126,187

Expenses of management........            ....         379 698

Beserve required by law.........    20,370,829

Gross asseta.....................   27,086,617

Grosa liabilities.................   21,018,294

Surplus.....................,.,.     6,068,323             ....





These figures, so far as we are able to verify
them, are, we believe, substantially correct. It
will be noticed that there is a marked falling off
in the last column as compared with the former,
fewer policies being taken out. Nearly thirty-
one millions dollars less have been received on
account of poHcies, compared with the previous
year; and in all the material items the figures
show a weakening of public confidence in these
strong companies, which have survived the fate
of the weaker and badly managed one,?, so many
of which have gone into liquidation during the
past six years. It is- generally understood in in¬
surance circles that from six to ten of the com¬
panies now in existence will be compelled to
pursue tbe same course within the next five
years; and those who have studied the question
are of opinion that not more than fifteen of the
forty-five now doing a large business wiU be in
existence in 1890. That public confidence is
certain to be withdrawn from these institutions
must be apparent to everybody who will study
the figures. For the last year the total receipts
were $110,704,187; the total losses were $27,-
664,891. In other words, for every four dollars
received by these companies one dollar is paid
out to customers. It is true there are what are
called dividends to poKcy-holders, an item of
from sixteen to eighteen millions more; but our
whole insui-ance system is, as at present man¬
aged, wasteful to the community.

The statistics of fire insurance show that for
every two dollars invested by the community the
return is less than 90 cents. A business which
is 80 profitable to the companies cannot be ben¬
eficial to the community. It is greatly to be re¬
gretted that as yet no scientific grappling with
this question of insurance, both hfe and fixe,
has been attempted. The only publications
with reference to this subject are those in which
the system is defended, and figures given to
show their beneficial effect. Newspapers do not
wish to offend the insurance companiBS, for
obvipus reasons; and even social science con¬
gresses and leading quarterhes have been used
to advertise the corrupt and extravagant system
now in vogue. Evidently, it is not the interest
of those who have the ear of the pubhc to tell
the truth, so that the individuals who are "ex¬
ploited'' have to find out by bitter experience
the robbery to which they have been subjected.

Of all the various forms in which modem
commercial greed has manifested itself, there is
none more offensive to the right-thinking man
or woman than this matter of life insurance.
It s]peculates upon the love which the head of a
family has for his wife and children—^his desire
to see that they are cared for after he no longer
can take care of them himself, Founded upon
this natural tendency, and counting upon
man's strong domestic affections, this life in¬
surance scheme (orginally innocent and laudable
enough), has been made a means of impoverish





ing numberless individuals, pf stimulating waste,
of placing a premium upon corruption, and of
robbing the poor and the needy; thus making it
in nearly all its features repugnant to right-think¬
ing men. Indeed, the fact of speculating upon
the chances of one's life is in itself exceedingly
distasteful to any normal sense of right and
wrong. In effect, the life insurance speculator
bets with his victim that he will not die within
a certain time. Intrinsically, the faro-table and
the sweat-board are on a far higher moral
plane than is the scheme of the hfe
insurance trader. In actual practice, gam¬
blers are far more moral, and governed by
a higher sense of honor, than are many
of the insurance companies. The man who
gambles knows the risk he nms, but every
means are used by the hfe insurance operator to
deceive his victim as to his chances, and to rob
him after he has made his first payment. Glow¬
ing promises, appeahng to all that is best in
man's nature, are used to secure customers; but,
once fsirly trapped, Ihe ingenuity of some of the
keenest, the most acute lawyers in the country,
are employed to swindle the unhapp.v patron of
these gigantic commercial nuisances. Some
day the statistics of Ipss wiU be given to the
world, and it will then be appalling to find what
enormous sums have been wasted by per¬
sons anxious to provide for their families, but
only to find themselves robbed of all they had
invested in these dishonest institutions. There
is a field for insurance, but it is one that plainly
should be occupied by the State or the nation.
The sale of annuities might be very safely un¬
dertaken by the Governinent; and; both Mr.
Gladstone and Napoleon IH frequently in¬
timated the desirability of the State's doing
wisely and economically for the general public
what the insurance companies now do so waste-
fully and ineffectually. We may recur to this
subject again; but, such of our readers as are
interested, either as investors in hfe insurance
or as men of business, who wish to understand
the value of existing agencies for serving econ¬
omical purposes, would do well to look over the
statistics of hfe insurance companies, comparing
the immense sums invested with the exceedingly
meagre results in favor of those who do business
with the insurance companies.

-----------> <^>> -*-----------

INVESTIGATIONS NEEDED.





It is a matter of regret that there is no availa¬
ble machinery by which the pubhc can obtain
information of the most vital facts in connec¬
tion with our great financial corporations. Mod¬
em commerce and banking have grown to such
gigantic proportions that the guards which were
thrown about these institutions when they were
smaU and struggling, and when the conductors
and promoters were jpersonally knovm to their
patrons, have been removed, they being now so