Two general benefits of life insurance

Two general benefits of life insurance not yet
discussed should briefly be referred to as vitally affecting the
entire community. These are:

1. Through their enormous investments life-insurance com-
panies have exerted a powerful influence in the upbuilding of
the industrial life of the nation. Two hundred and fifty-
nine companies, reported in the Insurance Year Book, 1913,
show total admitted assets of $4,658,696,337, of which
$1,617,873,512 represent investments in real-estate mort-
gages and $1,994,722,971 in corporate bonds and stocks. The
significance of these large totals becomes apparent when it is
stated that they represent the contributions over a long series
of years of millions of policyholders, each of whom has con-
tributed his little mite. The companies, in other" words, have
been the medium through which a vast aggregation of small
sums has been devoted to the furtherance on a large scale of
the nation's leading business interests. The investments of
nearly two billion dollars in bonds and stocks will be found
to be fairly well distributed over the principal transportation
and other corporate properties of the country and represent a
ven- substantial part of the total funds that have been neces-
sary for their development. The $1,600,000,000 of real-estate
mortgages also represent investments in properties located in
all parts of the country. Because of such loans, owners of
real estate have been enabled to erect buildings or otherwise
improve their properties. Xot only have large sums been
furnished for the development of cities and towns, but for
many years the companies have granted loans upon western
and southern farming lands, thus enabling the purchase,
stocking, and cultivation of large areas.

2. By carefully restricting the admission to membership
and by requiring answers to numerous questions relating to
intemperate habits, the applicant's attention is forcefully
directed to the close relationship between temperate living
and longevity. Physical ailments are also frequently dis-
covered for the first time as a result of the physical examina-
tions which the companies require all applicants to undergo.
The knowledge thus obtained leads to the application of
remedies, and results in the conservation of the value of many
lives for the benefit of the community.

The movement toward the conservation of health and life
is receiving increasing attention on the part of the com-
panies, and has been a subject for special consideration by
various prominent life-insurance associations. Various com-
panies are already pursuing a policy of disseminating advice
for the treatment of various diseases and of offering periodical
health examinations for the detection of ailments. While the
movement is yet in its infancy the tremendous possibilities
for good along this line cannot be overemphasized, and the
desirability of having life-insurance companies participate
actively in a comprehensive conservation movement is appar-
ent. The possibilities along this line have ably been set forth
by the Life Extension Institute, Inc. In a recent circular on
" Life Extension Service for Life Insurance Companies " the
promoters of this Institute show clearly the desirability of
" checking the life waste that is going on in our country as a
result of ignorance or defiance of the simple laws of health,"
and express their belief that " by the study of problems relat-
ing to national vitality, by disseminating knowledge of per-
sonal hygiene and the science of disease prevention, and by
offering and encouraging periodical health examinations to
detect disease in time to check or cure it, a substantial con-
tribution to longevity and to human happiness generally will
be made."


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