IS LIFE ASSURANCE PROFITABLE AS AN

INVESTMENT?

It depends upon what is meant by investment. Endowment policies and Debenture Bonds are compound policies in which indemnity and investment are joined. Unless the component parts of the compound be clearly comprehended misunderstanding and disappointment are more than probable. A due proportion of the premium paid to an assurance company-whether it be life, fire or marine-is for the purpose of paying losses and expenses. Any excess of premium beyond what is required in a wellmanaged life assurance company for these purposes can fairly be considered investment. To make permanent solvency certain every company must demand more premium than is likely to be needed for the payment of losses and expenses, but in a company like the Equitable, this excess is taken into account at stated periods, and credit given therefor to the assured. Το make this plain an illustration may not be out of place. Fifteen years ago a Toronto gentlemen took a fifteen-year endowment in the Equitable for $100,000. His life was, no doubt, a productive one, and he, like most intelligent men, realized that those interested in what it was producing needed protection against loss by reason of premature death. This protection was worth more than $4,000 per annum, even if a non-participating term policy had been taken, consequently this part of his premium was not for investment. The investment part was a little more than $4000 per year. Had this been invested annually at 6 per cent, compound interest, it would have amounted to less than $100,000 in 15 years. By combining indemnity with his investment, the total cash result amounted to more than $150,000. The cash result would have been nothing had he taken indemnity only at term rates.

The above is but one of thousands of results that might be given to prove that a large increase in the amount of premiums over term rates, or even ordinary life rates, has been exceedingly profitable to investors. If the total premium be considered an investment, the net result, in interest, to those who live until their policies mature, is not likely to be satisfactory. To suggest to a shrewd man that an assurance company

can pay its losses and expenses, and that it can also pay a liberal rate of interest on the premiums it receives, especially in these days of low rates of interest on investments, is well calculated to excite damaging suspicion. If, however, a fair dividing line be drawn through endowment premiums, and other premiums in excess of life rates, separating the investment part from what is required for assurance, it can be shown, on the basis of our actual settlements, that the investment part is likely to be very profitable. It could not be very profitable, however, while interest rates are so low, did it not reap some benefit from over-payments for indemnity.

If those who seek applications for assurance among men who are able to invest money, in addition to taking assurance, will separate the component parts above alluded to, it will be comparatively easy in many cases to largely increase the amount of premium after the amount of the policy has been decided, because most men are pleased with any plan in which they can see some benefit to themselves. To seek for large premiums in this way is fair to the investor and the result is likely to be satisfactory to all concerned.

If any agent believes that life assurance is profitable as an investment, when the total premium is taken into account, at the maturing of an endowment, he will do well to go carefully over the results given in the Red Book for 1900.

To answer, then, the question asked at the beginning, it can be stated that premiums paid for assurance is not profitable as an investment, save in cases of premature death, but it is more than probable that a liberal amount of premium added to the sum required for assurance will, in the future as in the past, be profitable.

W. H. B.

ANOTHER CASE OF "PUTTING OFF." One of my prospective candidates for assurance was accidentally killed last evening. Two months ago I tried to induce him to take some assurance, and only yesterday, the subject again came up, but he wanted more time. To-day he is a corpse.

He left a widow and mother. I simply want to state these facts as it is only another case of putting off a little too long. P. H. Schueler.

By laying aside one dollar a week you can become the possessor of a first-class cyclopædia and dictionary. If you can afford that luxury, you can certainly afford to invest in a Gold Debenture Bond for $1,000, yielding an income of 5 per cent. in gold for twenty years. For example, if you are forty-seven years old, one dollar a week would be the exact cost, for the premium charged is exactly $52 per annum.

If you have not yet reached the age of forty-seven you can make a larger investment for the same money. For example, if you are now twenty-five, you can, for about the same outlay buy a Debenture for double the amount ($2,000) as the cost per thousand at that age is only $26.03 per an

num.

THE PRESENT.

Do not crouch to-day, and worship
The old Past, whose life is fled,
Hush your voice to tender reverence;
Crowned he lies, but cold and dead;
For the Present reigns our monarch,
With an added weight of hours;
Honor her, for she is mighty!

Honor her, for she is ours!

See the shadows of his heroes

Girt around her cloudy throne; Every day the ranks are strengthened By great hearts to him unknown Noble things the great Past promised, Holy dreams, both strange and new; But the Present shall fulfill them, What he pron.ised she shall do. She inherits all his treasures,

She is heir to all his fame,
And the light that lightens round her
Is the lustre of his name;
She is wise with all his wisdom,

Living on his grave she stands,
On her brow she bears his laurels,
And his harvest in her hands.
Coward, can she reign and conquer
If we thus her glory dim?
Let us fight for her as nobly

As our fathers fought for him.
God, who crowns the dying ages,
Bids her rule, and us obey-
Bids us cast our lives before her,
Bids us serve the great To-day.
Adelaide Anne Proctor.

In a

A $5,000 SILK DRESS.

recent issue of the EQUITABLE NEWS the item "An Expensive Hat," reminded me of a somewhat similar case. A year ago I called on a gentleman living in Whitesboro, N. Y., at his own request, and he informed me that he wished to increase his life assurance. I thereupon wrote his application for a $10,000 policy. His wife listened to the preliminary conversation, and as I was about to leave, called him into another room. He came back alone, and said, "I have concluded to make this application for $5,000; a little later I will take the other $5,000."

Within six months I paid the widow $5,000. She then said to me, "This might have been $10,000 had I not wanted a silk dress when the application was written, and advised my husband to do as he did."

W. H. Cannon.

A WONDERFUL FEAT. Rendered possible only by up-to-date methods on the part of

(1) The Equitable Society.

(2) Uncle Sam's Post Office Department. (3) The railroads.

Proofs of death of H. H., assured under policy No. 16,355, were mailed in the "chute" in the Bee Building, Omaha, Neb., Tuesday, March 20th, 1900, and a check in payment of the claim dated New York March, 22d, 1900, was received at the Omaha office Saturday, March 24th, 1900, at II A. M.

This is what might be termed "Fin de Siecle." Further comment is unnecessary. W. H. Brown.

THE EQUITABLE NEWS

An Agents' Journal.

FRANK F. EDWARDS, Editor.

MAY, 1900.

E. BOUDINOT COLT.

It is with extreme regret that we have to record the death of Mr. E. Boudinot Colt, one of the old members of the Board of Directors of the Society.

At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Society's Board of Directors, held on April 16, the following minute was adopted:

"On the afternoon of the 12th of April, 1900, E. Boudinot Colt, one of the senior members of the Board of Directors of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, died suddenly and unexpectedly in the city of New York, shortly after attending a meeting of the Standing Committee on Acounts of the Society's Board of Directors, of which committee he had for many years served as chairman.

"Mr. Colt had been a director of the Society or very nearly a quarter of a century, having been elected a member of the board on the 5th day of December, 1877. In addition to his services as a member of the Committee on Accounts, Mr. Colt had for a number of years acted as chairman of the special committee of the board, appointed at the close of each year to examine the accounts and assets of the Society.

"Mr. Colt was a loyal friend of the Society, and was ever faithful and assiduous in the performance of his duties as a member of its Board of Directors. His steadfast integrity, cheerful and kindly disposition and courteous deportment endeared him to his associates, and it is with profound sorrow that we make this record of his death, while we extend our sincere sympathy to his family in their bereavement."

Mr. Colt was for many years a Governor of the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures, in which he took a great interest.

During the first quarter of 1900 the Society did a more satisfactory business, and gained more assurance in force than during the same quarter of any year since the panic of 1893.

Advance figures for the business of 1899, from the Insurance Department of thirtynine States show that in the aggregate the Equitable wrote during that year more business than any other company. It

wrote more business during the year in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maine, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Louisiana, Texas, etc. Now let us start in to beat all companies in all States during 1900.

There are many circulars and documents which should be valuable for the instruction of new agents; for example, the circulars of officers to agents, "How to sell Assurance," "How to be an Agent," etc. There are, however, only a limited number of these circulars printed, but if managers and agents will co-operate with us we will have a larger edition of each printed, so that copies can be obtained after the time the document or circular is sent out to the agents as a whole

This matter has been brought to our attention by requests from two managers for the President's circular of January 1st, the supply of which has, of course, been exhausted. We shall be pleased to print a larger supply of such circulars, if it is generally desired, but we do not wish to do this if the documents are likely to be wasted. Let us hear from you on the subject.

The series of papers now appearing in this journal entitled How to Be An Agent might have been headed How to Be An Equitable Agent, for they are not intended for the instruction of life assurance agents in general, but for the guidance of Equitable agents, and some of the suggestions may not be appropriate to the agents of other companies.

We observe that many of the insurance periodicals have done us the compliment to quote extracts from these papers, and for their benefit, and for the benefit of our own readers, it seems appropriate that attention should be called to the writer's point of view.

A BULL LOOSE.

A new policy issued by a well-known company of Cincinnati, Ohio, contains the following:

"If the assured should, without the written consent of the company, die by self destruction, this policy shall be null and void."

We trust that policyholders of this company who have felo-de-se intentions won't forget to write the company.

PHILADELPHIA ALIVE.

A GREAT AGENCY MEETING.

The Eastern Pennsylvania Agencies Meet.

One Agency Alone Promises $900,000 of Paid Business During April.

Who said Philadelphia was slow? All who attended the meeting at that city of the Eastern Pennsylvania Agencies of the Equitable, on April 10th, will take an affidavit that Philadelphia is very much alive and up to date. During the proceedings, one agency alone, in Philadelphia, promised $900,000 of paid business during April. The agencies represented at the meeting were those of Anson A. Maher, I. L. Register & Son, and Lewis S. Cox, of Philadelphia, and also those of J. L. Ramsay, of Allentown, and H. D. Underwood, of Harrisburg. Among the

distinguished Philadelphians present were Mr. C. C. Cuyler, a director of the Society, Mr. Bromley, his partner, and Mr. Pattison, president of the Commercial Trust Co. Those who attended from New York were Messrs. James W. Alexander, Gage E. Tarbell, Doctor Lambert, L. A. Cerf, W. E. Taylor, and A. C. Haynes.

In the evening a banquet was given at the Bellevue Hotel. Covers were laid for one hundred guests, and within one or two of that number attended. Speeches were made by the President and Second VicePresident, Doctor Lambert, and Messrs. Pattison, Maher, Cerf, Haynes, Register, Cox, and Graham. Full justice was done to the subjects discussed, and each speaker was enthusiastically received. Eastern Pennsylvania is going to do its share to make the last year of the nineteenth century a memorable one.

FABLES FOR AGENTS.

V. The Pot and the Kettle.

"Ah," said the Kettle, "I have an iron constitution. I shall live forever. As for you you poor frail earthenware Pipkinyou look half cracked already. You had better get your life insured at once. I can insure myself."

The Pipkin made no reply, for just as he was about to open his mouth, a party of picnickers snatched up the Kettle and took it away with them in a sailboat.

That afternoon the boat upset, and the Kettle was drowned. As for the Pipkin, he lived a long and useful life, respected

AS THE SHERIFF WOULD RUN IT. "Next week we will begin running this paper as Capt. Kidd would have run it. Delinquent subscribers may expect a call from us with their accounts stuck in the muzzle of a six-shooter. Otherwise this paper will be running as the Sheriff would run it." Bowersville Clarion.

[We would like to run the NEWS as the agents would run it. But if they don't send us items and suggestions, it will be running as seissors and paste would run it.-ED.]

Beauty no deeper lies

Than doth the skin; Men who are truly wise

Will look within;

The treasures of the mind

Are worthier far,

Yet will you always find

That it's the pretty girl who stands the best show of getting a seat in the car.

-Chicago Record.

THE BEST ADVERTISEMENT.

MANY GOOD SUGGESTIONS RECEIVED.

Strongest in the World-Protection that Protects-Statue Group-Mount Everest Suggested-One Correspondent Wants to Know About the Prize. The following letters from correspondents are well worth reading:

SUGGESTS UNIFORM TYPE.

I have read with interest the letter from "An Equitable Agent" in your March issue. The opinions expressed strike me as shrewd and to the point.

Many years ago when I first became identified with the Equitable an English fire insurance company, the London, Liverpool and Globe, advertised very freely. Its advertisement was very short, and never varied. Indeed, it was simply the name of the company, always printed in the same type-a very large, clear italic. No one else used that type at that time, and half an inch used in this way was more conspicuous than half a column in ordinary type. The name of the company became so fixed in my mind that to this day whenever the subject of fire insurance is broached in my presence I see before my mind's eye the name of that company, the London, Liverpool and Globe, and I have never had anything to do with fire insurance since without thinking first of that company. And it has always been a mystery to me why an advertisement, which must have proved so effective, and at the same time so economical, was not maintained without change. Probably the change was due to the fact that other advertisers began to use the same type, or because modern display advertisements rendered it less conspicuous than at first. But it seems to me that in some way the trademark thus impressed upon the minds of the people should have been retained. I mention this instance because it seems to me that it may suggest some practical idea for our benefit.

PREFERS SOMETHING PICTORIAL

I write in response to the suggestion made by "An Equitable Agent" in the last NEWS.

It would be a great thing if we could

have some one concise advertisement which could be used by every agent throughout the country. And with the best company to advertise the strongest in the world-whose motto is "Not for a day but for all time" we ought to be able to get up a better form than any other company can devise. It should be of a character which could be made to occupy a large space or a small space, according to circumstances. I am no believer in broadside advertisements. A short advertisement occupying a small space will do just as well as a large one if it is conspicuous and to the point. Something pictorial would suit me best. A great many good things of this kind have been devised by the Equitable. The lighthouse symbolizing a warning of danger and guidance into a haven of safety; our statue group (and the vignette on our policies) representing protection to the widow and orphan; the life preserver typifying the policy, and the life-boat rescuing the mother and child; the mountain range indicating strength, the several peaks by their altitude indicating the superior strength of the Equitable; all these are good and the question is, which one of these could be used to best advantage in the way suggested; or whether there is not some new idea which would be better than any of these? I, for my part, if nothing better could be thought of, would like to see the experiment tried of an advertisement inserted throughout the country by every agent of the statue "Protection," the name "Equitable," and "Strongest in the World" underneath it. I suppose the company would be willing to furnish every agent, without expense, with an electrotype of the statute group. I hope other agents will express their views. I should like to hear from Chapin and Woods and from the Editor.

What about the prize for the best practical idea?

WANTS ONE FORM ADOPTED.

I have read with much interest "An Equitable Agent's" letter about advertising, and I agree with him that if one good form can be hit upon and used, not only by the company, but by every agent throughout the world, the public will soon become so familiar with it that its value will be greatly enhanced. The old fable of the bundle of sticks applies just here. In union there