The extent to which this form of protection may be carried is almost unbelievable, and yet, new uses are being found for it almost daily. Many years ago the large jobbing and manufacturing interest decreed, and have continued so to decree, that those who pur chased goods from them on credit must carry fire in surance. We fancy, the time is not far distant when similar parties will insist on life insurance being car ried as an additional protection to the business in case the individual dies. In partnerships, in corporations, in a multitude of ways, this great principle of life in surance, which merely conserves the individual's ef forts, is coming into play and is doing its great work.
4. Group insurance.—Until recently life insurance has been like the old method of picking berries, in that it has been done one at a time. It is now realized that a greater service to the community can be provided with absolute safety by insuring people in groups, and many policies are being issued, covering all the em ployes of a given enterprise. These group policies usually provide for payment in case of the death of an employe equivalent to one, two or three years' earn ings, and it is quite needless to point out what that means to a family. The premiums on such policies are usually paid by the employers themselves. It is a business asset; it is a bit of welfare work; it has that about it which tends to make the relations between the employer and employe more satisfactory; all this, in addition to the positive good to the family, should the death of the .individual occur. The group policies do not require medical examination for the original group insured. Later additions to the group are usually subject to examination.
5. Ass6ssment insurance.—In the beginning of life insurance, say not further back than 1762, when the old Equitable was founded, the premiums were the same for everybody who joined the society. The age limitations were quite well established and they were placed rather low, but it was some years after this be fore an accurate knowledge as to the workings of the law of mortality were not merely understood, but acted upon. In connection with matters of insurance, man has, almost from the beginning of life insurance, attempted in one way or another to buck the law of mortality. It is, of course, and always will be, a losing game. He may use the law quite to his advantage and
adapt his practices in conformity therewith, but he cannot defy it successfully for any length of time.
Assessinent insurance is said to have first appeared in the United States some sixty years ago, tho at that time it was probably in a somewhat small, tenta tive affair, having a fraternal origin, the benefits be-. ing small and confined to the members of certain lodges.
6. United workmen.—In 1868 there was founded at Meadville, Pa., by Father John Upchurch, the ancient order of United Workmen, a trade union, as a matter of fact, but as an incidental feature, there was a requirement that there should be a con tribution of one dollar, paid into a common fund, on the death of a member, which should go to his widow. The organization grew, not because of this feature, but because of the other elements in the plan; but its growth soon brought it to the point where the indications were that benefits of one thousand and two thousand dollars and even much larger sums would be paid under the one dollar contribution. The amend ment was then introduced which fixed the maximum death benefit at two thousand dollars. This organiza tion had a remarkable growth, with a membership at one time of about half a million in the United States and Canada. The success of this organization led to the founding of others having the characteristics of lodges, altho there were many other societies which did not use the lodge system.
Up to this time the furnishing of insurance on this plan was associated with organizations whose primary purpose was something else. Some of them became more interested in the death benefit feature than any thing else and many were turned into what was known as business assessment organizations whose only pur pose or excuse for living was to assess the members for the death benefit and pay it out to the beneficiary. Probably very few, if any, were founded on sound actuarial principles, and they passed away.
Life insurance in the United States up to at least 1870 was more or less experimental. The belief was general that the cost of life insurance was actually much less than the life insurance companies charged for it. The question of the proper reserves was little understood, even among many engaged in the busi ness.