)J%„ ar Y 1308 CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY ■■> «»^' ;V le' TpE fllHElJICflS UpEljWHiTEll The Grand Prize Was Awarded The Prudential at ai The St. Louis Exposition. This is the Hig:hest Honor ever conferred upon a Life Insurance Company of this or any other country at any International Exposition! THE ^ N^ PRUDENTIAL J "j^^w ^^^^H INSURANCE / COMPANY / OF AMERICA. 1 ^^^^F THE ^^%^^H ^^f PRUDENTIAL < m ^^^V HAS THE fff.^^' W ^^m STRENGTH OF fV t ■ ^V GIBRALTAR ^ ■ Home Office; \ ^ •■ -^' ■^M 'K. Newark, N. J. i. -:-^ .^H JOHN F. DRYDEN. President. ^^Ifl^^^^^^^^^^ T|1E fl|9EHIGflN IJWWHITEH Founded in 1894 under Title of ^\VElSy\j ^"'^ ^° Published up to 1902 An Advocstc or All Sound Torms or Lire, Tire and Casualty Insurance copyright, 1904, by the thrift publishing company Special Vellum Number 1894 — New York — 1904 One Dollar per Copy 1894-A DECADE WITHOUT A PARALLEL-1904 IN THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN INSURANCE FOREWORD THE AMERICAN UNDERWRITER does not intend to claim all the credit for the fact, but a fact it nevertheless is, that its ten-year history is identical with by far the most notable decade in the history of the insurance business on this side of the Atlantic. In the ten years which have elapsed since the founding of this journal— originally published under the name of THRirr^the three leading branches of insurance — life, fire, and casualty — have made forward strides positively Brobdingnagian in comparison with their progress in any previous decade and out of all proportion to the advances made by other branches of American commerce, record- breaking though the last ten-year period has been in the commercial as well as political development of the United States. Only those who have had occasion to constantly keep in touch with the kaleidoscopic statistics of insurance development have any conception of the leaps and bounds by which that branch of American commerce has pressed forward in the last ten years, until it has built up an income materially exceeding the gross receipts of the United States Government, has accumulated assets of more than two and a half billion dollars — a sum considerably larger than the total amount of money in circulation in the United States and is now habitually paying to its policyholders and their beneficiaries more than a million dollars a day on every business day, year in and year out. Even restricting the survey to the legal reserve companies, and not taking into account the hundreds of fraternal orders, American Life Insurance has recruited an army of more than 12,000,000 policyholders about one-sixth of the entire white population of the United States — and holds for the security of its con- tracts an enormous trust fund of such magnitude as to thrice duplicate the combined capital of all the 4,451 4 TpE fllWE^ICflS OSDE5WSITE5 National Banks of the country, and almost equal the total deposits in aU the Savings Banks. This, Amer- ican Life Insurance has done; some idea of what it is doing may be gained by thinking over the fact that It annuaUy pays to its policyholders and their beneficiaries a sum of money sufficient to meet every dollar's worth of the yearly drafts upon the U. S. Pension Office, and incidentally defray the total cost of main- taining the United States Navy. In assets, income, payments to policyholders, policies in force, in fact all along the line, the life in- surance business has doubled the volume of its transactions in the last ten years. The comparatively youthful casualty branch of underwriting has practically trebled in magnitude. Even the venerable fire insurance branch of the business— and venerable it must be considered, for 57 of the 123 domestic fire companies now operating in New York State were established more than half a century ago— has made net gains of 54- 1 per cent, in its income in the last decade. In comparison with these mighty forward moves, the advances scored by the railways, the banks, the various branches of the U. S. Government, and the in- creases in the total wealth, manufactures and commerce of the country almost shrink into insignificance, remarkable as have been their respective developments, amounting to hundreds of millions in almost every case. In short, the work of the mighty army of insurance missionaries who have been teaching the practical workings of the Divine command, "bear ye one another's burdens," and sowing the seeds of business mu- tuality in every comer and every hamlet of the United States for half a century or more, has at last begun to produce the inevitable results, and in such volume that the records of only a few years ago seem ridiculously small and the prospective records of the future are without the range of even the most optimistic prophet. AU branches of American insurance have made gains in the last ten years which were undreamed of ten years ago, and the decade which has passed since the establishment of this journal has proved to be a de- cade without a parallel in the history of the insurance business-^r any other business, for that matter. The history of this decade without a paraUel would seem worthy of permanent preservation, but has not hitherto been written; hence this Special Vellum Number of THE AMERICAN UNDERWRITER whose aim has been to collate and present in readable form the story of the last memorable decade in the history of Amencan Insurance. We have endeavored to herein record the most notable achievements of the period, to group in certain tables-and picture in the graphic form of diagrams-the essential figures of each branch of the business, to trace the development of the leading companies in each field, and to chronicle the entrance on the insurance stage in the last decade of new actors, new companies, new policies new methods and new buildings. ' In so far as we are aware, this is the first issue of any American periodical to be printed on genuine Japanese vellum, and bound in the rare Imperial Vellum which is produced only at the Imperial Mills run by the Japanese Government. So-called editions de luxe of periodicals as well as books are now as common as Autumnal leaves in Vallombrosa, but we venture to believe that even the most carping critic will concede that this particular number of THE AMERICAN UNDERWRITER is de luxe in fact as well as name and forms an appropriate setting for the wonderful story which it presents. As an authoritative record of one of the most remarkable periods in the economic history of this country, we trust that it will prove historically use ful, as well as typographically ornamental, and with that hope commit it to the care of those into whose hands it may come. wuuse \^i ' (19,933,838,059 81.9 * Decrease. THE fl]HERlCflH 0S0ESWRITE5 Table VTI— Recapitulation or Total Net Gains of the Insurance Business in the Decade.— i 894-1 903, Inclusive Total Payments Risks and Policies in Force Year to Policyholders Total Risks and Policies Life Insurance Policies Amount Per Cent, of Gain Amount Percent of Gain Amoimt Per Cent of Gain Amount Per Cent, of Gain Amount Per Cent, of Gain Number Per Cent, of Gain 1903... 1893... $798,471,317 394,973,396 $334,849,151 208,673,950 $126,175,201 $2,681,045,825 1,241,617,255 $465,357,071 165,764,206 $44,245,061,481 24,311,223,422 18,280,231 7,243,874 GainR . . $403,497,921 102.2% 60.5% $1,439,428,570 115.9% $299,592,865 180.7% $19,933,838,059 81.9% 11,036,357 152.3% CHAPTER II Some Impressive Comparisons of Insurance Gains with Those of Other Branches of Finance and Commerce FROM the view-point of the man not accustomed to picking his way through statistical mazes, the preceding tables probably might be summarized as a mere mass of mUlions. To such a man — and men of that tj^pe generally regard statistics as an abomination of the Lord — the tables would probably be worse than meaningless, even the final figures which show the percentages of gains in the last decade conveying no very dis- tinct meaning. And yet, the aforesaid tables tell the story of the wonderful forward move made by American insurance in the last decade in simple and convincing fashion for the man who will take the trouble to study them, instead of taking fright at them and brushing them aside as undecipherable hieroglyphics. Granting that all amounts in excess of, say, a million dollars practically look alike to the ordinary, every-day, citizen whose brain cannot fairly grapple with hundred of millions, and bil- lions, the actual significance of even those colossal figures may be made perfectly clear by means of approximate comparisons with things of which he does have more or less tangible ideas. For instance, the bald statement that the total income of the American insurance business in 1903 amounted to ^798,471,317 as contrasted with ?394,973,396 in 1893 may not make a very deep impression on some men, and even the specific figures show- ing that the increase in the decade in question amounted to 102.2 per cent, may not make a very clear picture to their minds. And yet, if this percentage of gains were compared with the gains made by the manufactures, railways, and various branches of the United States Government, with which men of ordinary in- telligence are bound to have at least a speaking acquaintance; the excess of the insurance gain might be much more clearly pictured. Here are some comparisons of that sort which graph- ically show how much more rapidly insurance has forged ahead in the last ten years than has any other established branch of American commerce, or any department of the U. S. Government: Table VIII — Receipts and Values of Products m Other Lines Com- pared WITH Insurance Receipts in 1893 and 1903 1903 1893 Percentage ' of sain Manufactures, total value of $14,029,326,983 1,900,846,907 1,420,141,679 284,479,582 230,810,124 134,244,433 810,472,489,968 1,220,751,874 847,665,194 203,355,017 161 027,624 75,896,933 33.9% 55.7 67.5 39.8 43.3 76.8 Railways, gross earnings from operation Exports, domestic and for- eistn Customs, receipts Internal Revenue, receipts Post Office Department, receipts Totals $17,999,849,708 $12,981,186,610 Av. 38.6% AMERICAN INSUR- ANCE, GROSS RE- CEIPTS $798,471,317 $394,973,396 102.2% The above figures, with one or two exceptions, require no ex- planation, in almost every case being quoted from official reports. The estimates as to the total values of the manufacturing prod- ucts of the United States in 1903 and 1893 are calculated on the basis of the U. S. Census reports for 1890 and 1900, as presented in the synopsis of the "Territorial and Commercial Expansion of the United States," issued by the Bureau of Statistics, De- partment of Commerce and Labor. As the gain of nearly 80 per cent, made between 1880 and 1890 shrunk to less than 40 per cent, in the following decade, the ratio of gain during the last three years was probably lower than during any similar period in the previous decade, and in computing the value of man- THE fllHEKlGRH DpEHWSlTEH ufactures in 1903 we have therefore made a deduction of ten per cent, from the proportionate amount of gain made during three years of the last Census decade. Of course the figures for the odd years can only be approximated, but those presented in the above table are substantially correct. In the table, the railway earnings are quoted from the reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the items of exports, imports, cus- toms, internal revenue and Post Office receipts from the official reports in each case. The figures showing the percentage of net gains made in the several branches of commerce, and the various departments of the U. S. Government, diuring the decade, 1894^-1903, inclusive, make it manifest to the most casual student of insurance that the latter branch of American commerce far distanced all the other leading pursuits in the ratio of gain in income during the decade, and the ratio of gain materially exceeded the normal commercial expansion of the country. Including the values of manufactures and exports with the gross earnings of the rail- ways of the country and the receipts of the principal productive departments of the U. S. Government, the average gain for the decade in question was only 38.6 per cent, as compared with one of 102.2 per cent, in the gross income of the insurance com- panies reporting to the New York Insurance Department, which amounted to 3798,471,317 and thereby exceeded the gross re- ceipts of the U. S. Government in 1903 by many millions. If a similar comparison is made between the expenditures for wages and salaries on the part of the leading branches of com- merce and the insiurance companies' payments to their policy- holders, the gain made during the last decade, ending December 31, 1903, is no less remarkable, some of the comparisons being as follows: Table IX — ^Amounts Disbursed in Wages and Salaeies Compared WITH iNStTRANCE COMPANIES' PAYMENTS TO POLICYHOLDERS IN 1893 AND 1903 1903 1893 Percmtage of gain Manufactures, wages only Railways, wages and sal- aries - »2,445,038,720 718,113,995 S2,022,035,451 *480,000,000 20.9% 49.6 Totals »3, 163,152,715 $2,502,035,451 Av. 26.4% TOTAL INSURANCE PAYMENTS TO POLICY- HOLDERS. $334,849,151 $208,673,950 60.5% * Estimated. In the case of this table, the figures for the wages paid by man- ufacturers in 1893 and 1903 are computed on precisely the same basis as were the similar figures in the previous table, and the estimates of the amounts paid by the railways in salaries and wages are based on the reports of the Interstate Commerce Com- mission. These two principal industries are fairly representa- tive of the normal growth in the commercial prosperity of the country, and yet the average gain in wages in the first case and wages and salaries in the second case was but 26.4 per cent, as compared with an increase of 60.5 per cent, in the insurance companies' payments to their policyholders. In connection with this item of insurance development, it must of course be borne in mind that the payments to policyholders constitute only one factor of the benefits scored by the insuring class from the large increase in the income and assets of the business, a very considerable portion of its premium payments being added to the companies' reserves in accordance with the rigid laws on the subject, and the security behind the poUcies thereby being materially increased. For the moment eliminat- ing that important factor from the calculation, the above table verifies the statement made in the uitroductory article of this number to the effect that the insurance business "is now habit- ually paying to its policyholders and their beneficiaries more than a miUion dollars a day on every business day, year in and year out." As will be above noted, the total payments to policy- holders in 1903 aggregated 5334,849,151, or about ?1,070,000 for every one of the 313 business days in the year. No series of comparisons makes quite so apparent the com- manding position which American insurance occupies among the financial institutions of the country as does the presentation of the enormous assets of the business in connection with the total wealth of the country and some of the principal items of that wealth. Many such comparisons might be arranged, but none, we think, would put the argument quite as impressively as does the following table: Table X — ^The Total Wealth op the Country and the Re- sources OP Leading Branches op Finance and Commerce Com- pared with the Aggregate Assets of the Insurance Business IN 1893 AND 1903 1903 18»3 Percentage of gain Total Wealth of the Coun- try 8105,280,000,000 11,797,783,800 12,599,990,258 688,817,833 2,935,204,845 $73,815,963,700 7,516,981,481 9,894,625,239 682,975,512 1,785,150,957 42 6% Manufacturing Industries, 56.9 Railways, total capital. . . National Banks, capital. . Savings Banks, deposits. . 27.3 .8 64.9 Totals «133,301;796,736 »93,695,696,889 Av. 42 2% AGGREGATE ASSETS OF INSURANCE COMPANIES $2,681,045,825 $1,241,617,255 115.9% If any specific proof were needed to demonstrate that the in- surance business has fairly begun to take the lead of all American enterprises in its rate of progress, the above table would supply the necessary proof in indisputable fashion. To begin with, it shows (1) that the aggregate assets of the insurance companies reporting to the New York Insurance Department constitute about one fortieth-of the total wealth of the United States, (2) that the aforesaid assets amount to nearly twenty-three per cent, of the total railway capital of the country, (3) that the insurance companies' combined resources would capitalize all the National lO TpE fllWESlCflU OpE^W^ITER Banks in the country almost four times over and, (4) that the cash and convertible assets in the hands of the insurance com- panies are all but equal to the aggregate deposits in all the Savings Banks of the United States, amoimting to more than ninety-seven per cent, of the $2,935,204,845 carried in deposits by the Savings Banks in 1903. The figures in the preceding table are obtained from sub- stantially the same sources as were the corresponding figures in previous tables, the U. S. Bureau of Statistics' synopsis of the "Territorial and Commercial Expansion of the United States" supplying the data from which the approximate wealth of the country in 1893 and 1903 has been calculated, the Twelfth Cen- sus fmmishing the figures for the capital of the manufacturing industries, the Interstate Commerce Commission reports the exact figures regarding the total capital of the railways, and the reports of the Comptroller of the Ciurency the authoritative data regarding the National and Savings Banks. Including all of these items, the average gain made in them in the last decade, 1894-1903, inclusive, was 42.2 per cent. ; per contra, in the same period the combined assets of the regular insurance companies of the country increased by 115.9 per cent., or, in other words, by a ratio nearly three times as large. According to the latest available report from the Bureau of Statistics, the total amount of money in circulation in the United States was ?2,367,692,169, and as the combined assets of the insiurance companies on Decem- ber 31, 1903, amounted to ?2,681,045,825 we venture to believe that the statement in our introductory pages that the insurance business has accumulated "a sum considerably larger than the total amount of money in circulation in the United States" needs no further confirmation. Of course, an enormous increase in the amount of business in force has been the corollary of the increase in income, but, with the increase in assets has come an almost correspond- ing increase in liabilities, the insurance statutes oj all States re- quiring more or less reserves to be carried on account of practically every policy, oj whatever form, written by any oj the regular in- surance companies. That is to say, an increase in the amount of insurance in force of course means an increase in the companies' liabilities, and the following table shows how that increase in business, or liabilities, compares with the increases in the out- standing obligations oj the railways of the country, and of the U. S. Government: Table XI — The Outstanding Obligations of the Ratlways and U. S. GOVEENllENT CoMFAKED WITH THE AMOUNTS OF INSURANCE IN Force in 1893 and 1903 1903 1893 Percentage of Increase Railways, funded debt of bonds and other obli- 16,444,431,226 2,162,639,010 (5,225,689,821 1,598,111,156 23.3% 35.3— U. S. PubUc Debt Totals 18,607,070,236 16,823,800,977 Av. 26.1% TOTAL INSURANCE RISKS IN FORCE... $44,245,061,481 $24,311,223,422 81.9% These last figures require no very extended explanation, being respectively quoted from the Interstate Commerce Commis- sion's reports and the reports of the Secretary of the Treasury. They make dear the fact that while the funded indebtedness of the railways of the country and the Public Debt of the United States have increased about one-fourth in the last decade — to be exact about it, 26.1 per cent.— the policy obligations of all classes of insurance companies, or the amount of insurance in force, have increased just 81.9 per cent, in the same period. By way of security that every dollar of the maturing obligations on these pohcies will be met, the insurance companies' accumula- tions of reserves and other assets have increased by no less than 115.9 per cent, in the same ten years. It might naturally be inferred by any reasoning man from the notable increases in the insurance business all along the line, which we have recorded in detail in the previous tables, that the army of life insurance policyholders would of course show a decided expansion, and the man who has so guessed, guessed right the very first time. If he still has a lingering doubt about the reliabiUty of his own guess, the following table will dissipate the last vestige of his lack of self-confidence: Table XII— The Expansion in Population, Wage-Earners and Savings Bank Depositors Compared with the Increase in the Number op Life Insurance Policies in Force in 1893 and 1903 1903 189S Total Population Wage-Earners in Factories Railway Employes Savings Bank Depositors. 80,467,000 *5,500,000 1,312,537 7,035,228 66,456,000 4,570,436 873,602 4,830,599 21.1% 20.3 50.2 45.6 Totals 94,334,765 76,730,637 Av. 22.9% TOTAL NUMBER LIFE POLICIES IN FORCE 18,280,231 7,243,874 152.3% *Estiniated. The increase in population, wage-earners in manufacturing pur- suits, railway employes, and Savings Bank depositors in the last ten years seems to have been but 22.9 per cent., whereas the gain in the number of life insurance policies carried by the ordinary and industrial life companies reporting to the New York In- surance Department reached the amazing figure of 152.3 per cent. It is impossible to compute the precise number of indi- viduals who carry those 18,280,231 policies, but if the commonly- accepted theory of life insurance men be correct, and on the broad average each two persons insured carry three policies, the number of ordinary and industrial poUcyholders in the United States must be about 12,000,000, or nearly twice as many as are em- ployed in the factories and on the railways of the United States. Some of the companies reporting to the New York Insurance Department carry considerable foreign business, which is in- cluded in the above figures, but the business on the books of the life companies not reporting to the New York Department prob- ably woidd more than make good the elimination of the foreign business. THE fll«E5lGflB ll|lDE5W5lTEi{ 1 1 CHAPTER III A Review of the History of American Life Insurance for the Last Ten Memorable Years No history of the evolution of life insurance worthy of the name has yet been written, and possibly the man really competent to perform that mighty task has yet to be born. There have been essays and papers galore, and occasionally so-called histories, purporting to trace the origin and develop- ment of this wonderful sociological force, but only a man with the painstaking analytical genius of a Spencer and the historical powers of a Gibbon woiild prove equal to the subject, and such a man has yet to make his presence manifest in the life insurance world. Not only has no even passably complete history of this branch of the insurance business been written, but in so far as we are aware no serious effort has been made to bring together the sa- lient facts and figures of the last decade, with which this Special Vellum Nmnber of The Americam Underwriter exclusively deals, and to summarize in a few hundred words even the essen- tials of that ten-year history of American life insurance is no easy task. A tmdtum in parvo specialist is actually requisite for such a work, and with the extrernely limited space at our dis- posal we can only hope to here bring forward a, few of the more striking features of the life insurance story of the last ten memor- able years. Equally competent judges very possibly would radically dif- fer as to what have been the most important events of that period; the location of the artist's view-point makes a world of difference in his picture of the scene. To the man with blue-glasses the dominant color is always of sombre hue: and to the gouty pes- simist the spots on the sun are the most conspicuous objects in his astronomical perspective. The normal, healthy man en- deavors to see things as they are, and to mentally group them in the order of their relative importance, and so arranged the life insurance panorama of the last decade presents a won- derful picture, wonderful in what has happened, and still more wonderful in the promise of what is to happen. Probably the first incident of the period which would impress the unprejudiced person who made a casual study of it would be the fact that in the narrow span of the last ten years American life insiurance had more than doubled the volume of its income, assets and business in force — that is to say, in the ten years be- tween 1893 and 1904 had rolled up an income and a business which had not been attained in the entire previous history of this branch of insurance, covering at least half a century. And yet, impressive though the fact is, it is surprising only on account of the magnitude of the amounts and transactions involved. The large gains made in the population, wealth and general prosperity of the country in the ten years in question might naturally have been expected to promise a large increase in the number of the insured and in the amount of insurance carried by them, even had not the cumulative influences of the previous half-century's life insurance crusade been at work. But the products of cumu- lative influences increase in magnitude at a geometric ratio as time wears on, and the last decade has profited tremendously by the work of two previous generations of life insiurance crusaders. Every dollar of the hundreds of miUions of dollars paid by the life insurance companies of the country to their beneficiaries in by-gone years has contributed its mite of missionary work to the cause. And the agent of recent years has consciously or uncon- sciously found it just a bit easier to write a policy on the son or grandson of the man whom the agent of by-gone times had per- suaded to take out a policy, and keep it up until his heirs saw for themselves the advantages of that moderate self-denial on the part of their progenitor. Again, not only were all these powerful forces silently at work, as unpaid field-men of the modern life insurance companies, but both agents and companies were constantly in attendance at the school of ejcperience, and slowly but surely accumulating the most practical kind of expert knowledge regarding their calling. Thus it primarily was that the last ten years were so much more productive of life insurance results than any ten or even fifty years, which had preceded them, and hence small won- der is it that the, ratios of life insurance gains far outstripped those of population, wpalth, and most if not all the other leading branches of finance and commerce in the same period, as the tables on the previous pages of this number have conclusively demonstrated. So much for the mere magnitude of the gains of the decade. In so far as the basic principles of the business are concerned, there have been practically no changes of real consequence. To be sure, the so-called assessment plan of life insurance has all but disappeared, but even in its palmiest days that plan always was on the outs with scientific life insurance men, and the fact that that plan has now so proved its own impracticability that even the layman who runs may read, indicates no change of opin- ion — let alone no change of formulae — on the part of the math- ematical pilots of the life insurance craft. It was in the early 90's that assessmentism probably reached the zenith of its short-lived popularity, and at the beginning of the last decade it was as near the top of the wave as it ever 12 TpE fllUEHlCflU UpERWRlTEH came. Within the next two or three years the assessment craft began to find themselves rapidly drifting on to the rocks, and the crash of the Massachusetts Benefit Life, the Bay State Benefi- ciary, and some of the other leaders in the ill-starred squadron led to the sauve qui peut panic throughout the fleet which cul- minated in the adverse selection of a mad rush for the shore, leaving the deserted vessels to dash themselves to pieces on the rocks. With a mere handful of exceptions, all of the assessment associations of any importance have now reorganized on a basis in harmony with the inflexible laws of mortality, or gone where the woodbine twineth, and assessmentism pure and simple has practically been forgotten as a factor in life insurance com- petition. To be sure, fraternalism is still very much alive, but that is a very different proposition from the hat-passing assessmentism, which had all the weak points of the fraternal system of mutual insurance and none of its strong ones. Some of the leading fraternal orders of a quarter of a century ago, or even ten or fifteen years ago, like the American Legion of Honor for instance, have given up the ghost, and hundreds of the ephemeral insti- tutions of the kind all but died a-boming. The Royal Arcanum and some of the other important fraternal orders of comparative antiquity are still doing business at the old stand. Many of the orders are seriously endeavoring to place themselves upon a permanent basis, and it is within the range of the possibilities — if not of the probabilities — that the fraternal system will event- ually be so modified as to comply with the requirements of insur- ance mathematics, and continue indefinitely to supply a low-rate form of life insurance to a certain class of insurers. Next in importance to the passing of assessmentism as one of the conspicuous events of the decade is the extraordinary double- barreled expansion of the large industrial companies. Not only have they in their industrial departments far surpassed the regular life companies' ratios of gains, but since they have also entered the ordinary lists and have reorganized their mam- moth industrial machinery so as to apply part of its force to the quest for ordinary business, they have scored gains in the ordi- nary field out of all proportion to any other gains made by any branch of the insurance business in the last decade. The man who hasn't looked into this extraordinary fixture of the life in- surance calendar of the last ten years will be startled at the show- ing which the great industrial companies make in the following tabulation of the standing of their ordinary and industrial de- partments respectively at the end of 1893 and 1903: Table XIII — The Geeat Industrial Companies' Gains in Both Ordi- nary AND Industrial Business Ordinary Business Industrial Business Companies 1893 1903 1'93 1903 John Hancock. . . Metropolitan Prudential 815,918,049 9,259,471 12,441,733 $103,298,426 282,505,630 317,322,903 $73,043,678 343,917,746 218,199,566 $216,375,960 1,059,875,827 613,935,910 Totals $37,619,253 $703,126,959 $635,160,990 $1,890,187,697 As the above figures show, the industrial leaders, starting with a total of ?37,619,253 ordinary business in force at the end of 1893, in the next ten years rolled up a net gain of ?665,507,706. in that branch alone, or, in other words, made a gain of over 1,769 per cent, in the ordinary field. That this great leap was. not permitted in any way to interfere with the industrial work of the companies in question is shown by the fact that during the same period they also made a net gain of Jl, 255,026,707, or more than 197 per cent, in their regular field. Alongside of these gains of 1,769 per cent, and 197 per cent., made by the industrial companies, the gains of 116.1 per cent, made by the life insurance business, as a whole, and the gain of 51.5 per cent, made by the fire insurance business, in the last decade, would seem ahnost meaningless. Indeed, were the three big industrial com- panies eliminated from the argument, aU the rest of the life insurance companies reporting to the New York Insurance Department would show a net gain of barely ninety per cent, in business in the last ten years. Hence it was that we above characterized the extraordinary double-barreled expansion of the large industrial companies as one of the conspicuous life insurance events of the last decade. Aside from this change in the policy of industrial companies, or companies which had formerly given practically their entire time to work in that field but in the last decade became actively iden- tified with the strenuous competition for ordinary business, there were no radical changes in the general policies of the life companies, to the best of our recollection. In the ordinary course of the busi- ness, of course scores, perhaps hundreds, of new forms of policies were issued, all having their new or novel kinks and provisos^ and the tendency all along the line was in the direction of less, restrictions, and more benefits and options, for the policy holders> the climax of liberalization being reached in 1899, when the New York Life issued its famous incontestable-from-date-of-issue policy. Both through the increasing effort on the part of the field force- to place limited-payment policies wherever possible instead of whole life policies, and the increasing popularity of endowment and twenty-payment policies, the proportion of limited-period contracts has decidedly increased in the last ten years, and at the end of 1903 endowment policies constituted 26.3 per cent of the total amount of ordinary policies in force, as contrasted with a percentage of 22.2 at the end of 1893. The agency forces of the three leaders among the regular life companies so materially increased in the last decade, and those companies all pushed the campaign so vigorously, that some people seem to have half-believed that "the big three" companies were gradually foreclosing a mortgage on the entire life insurance- business in America. If anybody has labored under that im- pression, the ofl&cial figures of the companies in question will satisfy him of his delusion — in fact, the returns show that these companies had a considerably smaller percentage of the total income and total business of the life companies of the country at the end of 1903 than they had ten years before, on December 31, 1893. THE fllWERlGflS UPEHWHITER 13 Table XIV — ^The Gain Ratios of "The Big Three" Compared WITH Those of All the Life Companies in 1893 and 1903 Total Income Business in Force Companies 1893 1903 1893 1908 Equitable Mutual New York. . . . $42,022,606 41,953,146 33,863,647 $73,718,351 77,333,713 88,269,531 $932,532,577 802,867,478 779,156,678 $1,409,918,742 1,445,228,681 1,745,212,899 Totals.... $117,839,399 $239,321,595 $2,514,556,733 $4,600,360,322 All Companies $236,683,206 $534,161,859 $5,156,863,065 $11,142,534,054 As the above figures demonstrate, in 1893 "the big three" had a combined total income which amounted to 49.7 per cent, of the aggregate receipts of all the life companies operating in New York State; in 1903, the aggregate income of the three com- panies was but .44.8 per cent, of the grand total. In 1893, the trio of leaders wound up the year with business on their books which was 48.7 per cent, of the total carried by all companies; by the end of 1903, the ratio of its business in force to the whole amount had declined to 41.2 per cent. These ratios of "the big three's" business are computed on the basis of including the industrial business in the total amount of business of all compa- nies in both cases. Even were the industrial business eliminated from the computation, the percentages of the three giants' busi- ness in 1893 and 1903 to the total amounts of ordinary business then in force would have been respectively 55.7 at the end of 1893 and only 49.7 on December 31, 1903. In point of ratio of their combined assets to the aggregate assets of all legal reserve companies operating in New York State, the position of the three big companies is practically the same at this writing as it was ten years ago — in fact, the ratios have been surprisingly uniform for the last decade. Thirty years ago, at the end of 1874, "the big three's" assets were but 32.27 per cent, of the total assets of all the legal reserve life companies operating in New York. By 1889 the percentage had risen to 49.56, and by tbe end of 1893, the fifty per cent, mark was reached, and this position has since been maintained with but slight variations. The figures at the end of 1893 and 1903 were as follows: Table XV — The Assets of "The Big Three Compared with the Grand Aggregates of Life Assets in 1893 and 1903 Companies 1E93 1903 Amount Percentage of Aggregate Amount Percentage of Aggregate Squitable. . $166,297,409 184,935,691 148,700,781 379,704,790 401,821,662 352,652,048 Mutual New York ! Totals $499,933,881 51.4^ $1,134,178,500 50.9^ Aggregate Assets of all Companies. .. $971,857,224 $2,226,423,202 1 Condensed in a single sentence, the figures of the two prepeding tables show that during 1903 the total income of "the Three Diagram I — Life and Fire Companies' Respective Assets in 1893 and 1903 250 500 750 1.000 1.250 1500 1.750 2 000 2.250 IN 1893 / LIFE / insurance/ COMPANIEy\ ASSETS \ IN 1903 \ IN 1893/ FIRE insurance companies'" ASSETS IN 1903 \^ 893/ =1 Z.SOOi MILLIONS H THE A]«[Et{IGA|l llHDEi?WKlT£( I .a II B.'H ■a 5 00 « ■ ^ 00 r- o en o o) 1^ • C4 CO . «o OS W3 CO eo -* CI OS . 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K^V^COCDOUSUSCDCOOO<^<^OOUS^^IA^^rnf?; ooooooosooooooooooooooooosoooooooowSSooSSwmSSS^ 5S£;t:°**^'^H ,„ «> M ^ -2 S 8 S.9 Ssl •=§>»« THE mUEKlCflH UpEWlTEft 15 Giants" amounted to 44.8 per cent, of the aggregate income of all the legal reserve companies doing business in New York, and that at the end of the year they carried 49.7 per cent, of the total amount of business in force (industrial business excluded), and had in their strong boxes assets amounting to 50.9 per cent, of the aggregate assets of the business. In other words, the three leading companies, practically rubbing elbows in a single city, have nearly one-half the total income, just about one-half the total assets, and carry on their books approximately one-half the total amount of old-line life insurance in force in the United States. Hence it follows, "as the night the day," that these three com- panies naturally set the pace for, and practically shape the course of, American life insurance. A few of the other companies have endeavored to jog along on the old lines, and resist the pressure of the strenuous life mapped out for the business by the big fellows, but very few of them have succeeded in so doing, and most of the companies which have made the attempt have lost their places in the line. Even the companies which have most strongly resisted the pressure, have here and there consciously or uncon- sciously been compelled to yield to it, and the leadership of "the three giants" is simply indisputable. Such being the case, fortunate it is for the business that in the last year or so the leaders have shown signs of a tendency to get together on certain measures which are unquestionably for the good of the business at large. For one thing, they have agreed to do all in their power to put a stop to the circulation of so-called "competitive literature," by their agents, the "literature" which was once as much in evidence the year around as are the snow- flakes in Winter, the "Kterature" whose sole purpose was to show how much better this company was than that, and how undesirable a company the other one was, anyway. Then, again, "the big three" have bound themselves by a solemn compact not to bid for each other's successful agents, or make raids on each other's agency forces, and have even gone so far as to practically bind themselves not to engage in the vicious practice of "twisting," or endeavoring to persuade the man who carries a policy with Company A to let it lapse and replace it with one in Company B. In various other ways, the pace-makers of late have taken meas- ures to raise the dignity of the business. In their addresses before colleges. Life Underwriters' Associations, and various other bodies, and in their published papers, their oflScers have urged upon the American people the prospects which the life insurance calling— or "profession," as they are beginning to term it- holds out as a life-work for men of education and standing in the community. Several years since, the Equitable Life established a summer-school for recent college gratuates. in which young men of this class are gladly taught the rudiments of Ufe insurance work, and as a result of the modem expansion and elevation of the life insurance crusade, Yaie, the University of Wisconsin, and several other leading umversities have added insurance courses to their regular curriaila. Furthermore, there are now about forty Life Underwriters' Associations in the country, and, while these associations have not yet completely sanctified the business and eliminated all the evils and abuses which are attendant upon the keenest business competition, they have made life insurance field-men know each other better, have made at least some of them realize that an attack upon a rival company is very apt to prove a boomerang in the long run, and thus have done something to raise the moral tone of their calling. As for the rebating practice, perhaps the less said about that matter the better, for the rebating in life insurance as well as in the making of railway freight rates still exists, and probably always will exist until the moral sense of the community becomes so refined as to weed out the last man willing to thus practice unfair dis- crimination. As long ago as 1887, the first law specifically pro- hibiting rebating in life insurance was enacted by the General Court of Massachusetts, and twenty-five States now have similar laws on their statute books. Under date of September 4, 1895, Insurance Commissioner Merrill, of Massachusetts, issued a proclamation to the twenty-nine life companies operating in his State, urging the advisability of concerted anti-rebate action, twenty-four of the twenty-nine agreed to act on the suggestion, and at a meeting of their officers or representatives held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City, October 12, twenty-three of the companies signed an agreement since known to fame as "the Anti-Rebate Compact," by which they bound themselves and their agents not to rebate, and to dismiss and not employ for one year thereafter any of their agents whom the official referee of the Compact might find guilty of rebating. Ex-Governor William E. Russell, of Massachusetts, was ap- pointed referee, he named Commissioner Merrill as Secretary, and on the death of Ex-Governor Russell, in October, 1896, the Hon. Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of the House of Representatives, was appointed his successor. In 1899, the Compact was dis- solved, and various attempts at founding another compact have since been made, but without practical result. During the life of the Compact, a few imfortunates were found guilty, and meta- phorically himg, drawn and quartered in so far as the Compact could enforce its penalities, but about the only practical result of the whole proceeding was a general discoiuragement of rebating, and the interpolation in most of the life companies' forms of appli- cations for agency contracts of a promise not to rebate. In other words, sad to say, the much-heralded Anti-Rebate Compact proved merely a flash in the pan. The figures presented in Table I show that the number of life companies doing business in New York increased from 32 in 1893 to 42 in 1903, but a considerable part of the seeming in- crease is apparent rather than real. Three of the companies which were operating in 1893 reinsured and retired, and five of the companies which were doing business in the State in 1903 were also there operating in 1893, but on the assessment basis at that time, and hence not included in the statistical tables in which the regular companies alone figured. The companies of 1893 which retired during the decade were the Brooklyn Life, the Commercial Alliance, and the United States Industrial. The new companies formed during the decade and admitted to New York State are the Life Association of Amer- ica, the Colonial Life, the Columbian National Life, the Reliance i6 TQE AIVEKIGAH U]4DEtW$ITEt{ Life and the State Life (of Indianapolis), and the companies which have reorganized on an old-line basis and are included in the tables for 1903 in the New York Reports are the Bankers' Life, of New York; the Fidelity Mutual Life, the Hartford Life (on a stipulated premium basis), the Minnesota Mutual Life, the Mutual Reserve Life, and the Security Mutual Life, of Binghamton. During the decade the Michigan Mutual Life and the Pacific Mutual Life were also admitted to New York, and were still operating in the State at the end of 1903. During the decade, the presidents of ten of the regular life com- panies which were doing business in New York in 1893 either died or resigned, the presidents in question and their present successors being as follows: Henry B. Hyde, president of the Equitable Life, succeeded by James W. Alexander; William R. Plunkett, Berkshire Life, succeeded by James W. Hull; Thomas W. Russell, Connecticut General Life, succeeded by R. W. Huntington, Jr.; George H. Ripley, Home Life, succeeded by George E. Ide; Edward M. Needles, Penn Mutual Life, suc- ceeded by Harry F. West; Sheppard Homans, Provident Sav- ings Life, succeeded by Edward W. Scott; James G. Batterson, Travelers, succeeded by Sylvester C. Dunham; Amzi Dodd, Mutual Benefit Life, succeeded by Frederick Frelinghuysen; Charles Dewey, National Life, succeeded by Joseph A. DeBoer; and George H. Burford, United States Life, succeeded by Dr. John P. Munn. Within the necessary limitations of space for this article it is of course impossible to more than mention some of the more prominent figures in the life insurance world who have either entered the business, or advanced to particularly conspicuous positions in the last decade, but a review of the life insurance business during that period would be noticeably incomplete, however brief it might be, which did not at least make mention of the prominence attained in the last ten years by such men as Mr. Robert H. McCurdy, general manager of the Mutual Life; Mr. James H. Hyde, Vice-President, and Mr. Gage E. Tarbell, Second Vice-President, of the Equitable Life; Mr. Darwin P. Kingsley, Vice-President, and Mr. John C. McCall, Secretary of the New York Life; Mr. Wilbur S. Tupper, Vice-President of the Conservative Life; Mr. John B. Lunger, Vice-President of the Travelers, and Mr. Frederick L. Hoffman, statistician of the Prudential. There of course have been scores of other gen- tlemen who have become prominently identified with the life insurance business, or attained important positions in it, in the last decade, but those we have named, together with the new presidents of companies above mentioned, have been brought before the business world with particular prominence. Not including the numerous new companies which died in the process of organization, or after a very faint struggle for exist- ence, there were twenty-eight regular companies on the life in- surance tapis at the end of 1903 which had been organized dur- ing the previous decade. Some of them give considerable promise of making their presence felt, but, as the appended list shows, up to date the entire twenty-eight have only built up a combined gross income of ?8,274,183 and placed business to the amount of 2184,259,555 on their books. The complete list of the new companies doing business in this country at the end of 1903, and their respective incomes during that year and amounts of business in force at the end of the year, are as follows: Table XVII — Complete List of New Life Companies of the Last Decade Which Are Now Doing Business Name Location Date oi prgan- ization Gross Income' inltOil In Force Dec. ai, 1808 American Central American Indianapolis Des Moines Omaha Des Moines Jersey City Cincinnati Boston Los Angeles Chicago Davenport.Ia. Baltimore Indianapolis Cincinnati Kansas City New York Indianapolis Chicago Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Indianapolis Gr'nsboro.N.C PhUadelphia Lincoln, Neb. Philadelphia Richmond Greensboro Indianapolis Madison 1899 1899 1897 1896 1897 1902 1902 1900 1900 1903 1897 1897 1901 1895 1903 1897 1901 1903 1903 1897 1901 1902 1895 1895 1900 1903 1894 1895 *363,376 88,507 244,411 160,158 512,843 36,629 382,030 838,575 109,304 30,652 59,881 575,142 76,435 129,281 210,034 60,698 79,772 543,305 167,579 275,465 96,780 96,478 91,283 1,092,264 108,235 8,867 1,748,490 87,709 $7,571,955 2,155,425 Bankers' Reserve Central 6,911,500 4,363,786 Colonial *10,545,818 194,000 Columbian National. . . ♦9,385,159 21,743,690 Federal 4,590,208 344,500 545,633 7,760,335 2,033,297 2,155,100 4,698,000 2,008,965 2,699,679 6,004,257 1,314,650 5,439,650 2,040,900 4,163,250 2,901,376 17,154,338 3,191,162 243,180 49,713,796 2,385,947 Guaranty Mutual Immediate Benefit Inter-State of Ind Inter-State of Ohio Life Association of Am. Meridian Life & Trust. Mutual Life of lUinois. Pittsburgh Life & Trust Reliance Reserve Loan Security Life & Annuity Security Life & A. of Am. Security Mutual Security Trust & Life. South Atlantic Southern Loan & Trust State Wisconsin Totals $8,274,183 $184,259,555 'Including industrial business. TpE fiJUEHlCfiS UJIDEHWHITEH 17 CHAPTER IV A Retrospective Bird's-Eye View of the "Anti" Legislation Epoch of American Fire Underwriting TTNESPITE the widespread rush of Anti-Compact legislation, ^^ the wholesale enactment of vicious Valued Policy Laws, the far-famed rate war in the metropoKtan district ia 1898 and occasional rate-wars on a smaller scale in various other dis- tricts, on the whole American fire insiurance had a very favorable experience during the last decade, and is to-day on a stronger and much more scientific basis than it was ten years ago. In the fire insurance business, as in every other business, there are some men who are congenitally averse to ever admitting that things in their line are looking up, but we venture to assume that even the most pessimistic fire underwriter will hardly be disposed to dispute the accuracy of our general summary of present fire underwriting conditions as compared with those of ten years ago. If such a caviling old cynic there be, he may have the privilege of filing his general denial, but we warn him right here and now that we shall insist on his backing up his denial with a bill of particulars. But the fact remains, nevertheless, that fire underwriting is an exceptionally hazardous business, that half a dozen companies fail where one succeeds, and that the men who have advanced the capital to establish a fiore company which proves a successful one receive only moderate returns on their money in view of the decidedly precarious nature of the investment. A single big fire like the recent blazes at Paterson, N. J., or Rochester, N. Y., at any moment may wipe out of existence any ordinary fire company which happens to have carried large lines of insurance in that particular city, and a conflagration like the Baltimore calamity is apt to mow down the fire companies by the dozen. To state the case fairly and squarely, the fire loss ratio has not yet shown any pronounced inclination to steadily decline, but various agencies are at work which promise to eventually reduce the rating of fire risks to a more scientific baMs than it has yet attained, and,unless the perennial crop of new apd untried hazards should counterbalance the prospective improvement in the classifi- cation of risks, the movement of the loss ratio should be downward rather than upward. But, whenever scie;ice or scientific plans come in contact with the demagogue in politics," the best laid schemes o' mice and men gang aft a-gley," and by means pf a flood of Anti- Compact legislation the vote-hunting politicians have perhaps more than counteracted any advances that have been made in scientific fire-rating. The Anti-Compact notion first manifested itself in the Michigan Legislature more than twenty years ago, and in the early 90's a veritable craze for legislation of this variety seemed to break out in State Legislatures at all points of the com- pass, and the Texas, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, and Nebraska experiences are too fresh in fire underwriters' memories to call for any recapitulation here. At this writing, we believe, there are Anti-Compact Laws specifically aimed at fire insurance companies, or Anti-Trust Laws incidentally applicable, in force in more than a dozen States, and probably the end is not yet. Within the last ten years there has also been a flood of Anti-Coinsurance Laws, Resident Agents' Laws, Retaliatory Laws, Valued Policy Laws, and Heaven only knows how many other forms of laws directly or indirectly leveled at the fire insurance interests, and the decade might be appropriately known as "the Anti Legislation Epoch." Now, as tb the actual experience of the fire companies during the last ten years. There is no better authority on such a subject than the National Board of Fire Underwriters, and at its thirty- eighth annual meeting in May last the following authoritative resumd of fire underwriting results for the last ten years was pre- sented by President Henry H. Hall: Ten Years, 1894 to 1903, Inclusive Premiums, fire, marine and inland, ten years ?l,454j361,669 Losses paid, fire, marine and inland, tenyearsi ?826,891,246 Losses outstanding and all other claims — increase 3,841,860 Unearned premiums, reserve — in- crease 57,777,845 Actual expenses, ten years 538,214,020 Profit for ten years, 1 90-100 per cent of premiums 27,636,698 Totals., ?1,454,361,669 $1,454,361,669 There have been many improvements in the system of inspection in the last ten years, the corps of field-men who supervise inspec- tions in the various districts has been materially enlarged, and various organizations of technical experts have been formed which play much 'the same role in fire insurance as do the examining specialists occasionally called in by the life insurance companies. The National Fire Protection Association, which was established at New York in 1896, has rendered excellent service, and many other associations with similar aims have sprung up at various points. Siiice the wholesale introduction of electric light and power, a distinct department of fire insurance inspection has i8 Tp ANHtilCAH l/|4D£t{Wt{ITEt{ Table XVIII — The Leading Fire Insurance Companies' Expansion During The Decade — 1894-1903, Inclusive Compmniei (New York State Companies) Agricultural Assurance Buffalo German Commonwealth Continental German Alliance Germania German-American Glens Falls Globe and Rutgers Hanover Home Niagara North River Phenix Queen Rochester German Westchester Williamsburgh (Companies of Other States) ^tna. American (N. J.) American (Pa.) American Central Boston Camden Concordia Connecticut Delaware (Pa.) Detroit F. & M Equitable F. & M Fire Association Fireman's Fund Firemen's (N. J.) Franklin German.(Freeport) Girard Hartford Home Fire and Marine Ins. Co. of North America Lumbermen's Milwaukee Mechanics National (Conn.) National Union New Hampshire Northwestern National Orient Pennsylvania Phoenix Providence-Washington Reliance St. PaulF.&M Security (Conn.) Springfield F. & M Spring Garden Traders United Firemen's Com- 1 menced 1853 1897 1867 1886 1853 1897 1859 1872 1850 1899 1852 1853 1850 1822 1853 1891 1872 1837 1853 1819 1846 1810 1853 1874 1841 1870 1850 1835 1866 1860 1817 1863 1855 1829 1866 1853 1810 1864 1792 1873 1852 1871 1901 1870 1869 1872 1825 1854 1799 1844 1865 1841 1851 1835 1872 1861 Total Admitted Asseto at End of Year 1903 S 2,617,756 1,186,100 2,208,553 1,246,634 14,192,178 1,304,229 5,849,834 12,074,306 4,046,681 1,960,531 4,062,057 18,040,794 3,859,762 1,175,724 7,407,092 6,164,736 1,605,689 3,447,004 2,473,913 15,190,888 5,002,148 2,863,032 3,817,728 3,814,634 1,042,801 1,016,428 5,172,037 1,775,210 1,559,890 1,250,434 6,330,904 5,128,535 3,320,722 3,141,594 4,712,607 1,989,096 14,516,361 1,469,696 11,196,063 1,290,984 2,926,281 6,463,829 1,632,757 3,877,847 3,619,986 2,210,386 6,260,271 6,853,661 2,392,458 1,190,180 3,688,244 1,432,674 6,282,402 1,543,321 2,753,373 1,757,958 1893 i 2,312,676 * 1,631,386 645,710 6,433,171 3,206,984 5,997,403 2,249,553 2,070,334 9,008,834 2,214,193 536,460 5,903,963 3,645,938 905,899 1,821,550 1,747,258 10,759,913 2,342,939 2,683 115 1,572,303 2,791,764 257,051 695,061 2,831,089 1,495,727 1,153,248 549,784 4,971,123 2,529,220 1,875,063 3,130,589 2,918,479 1,656,569 7,372,092 964,685 9,285,198 947,278 2,016,505 3,244,006 2,162,564 1,633,979 2,087,394 3,855,558 5,494,044 1,217,302 816,264 2,101,154 566,213 3,505,495 1,233,406 1,696,810 1,294,840 Total Income Durinf Year 1903 $ 1,344,814 722,585 569,082 388,734 6,726,750 484,939 2,334,843 6,294,322 1,442,327 1,709,652 3,030,832 8,843,886 2,623,037 775,976 5,428,267 3,272,773 1,055,990 2,139,613 1,218,154 6,031,251 2,173,645 1,791,960 2,010,649 1,615,784 542,070 676,603 3,081,087 945,426 482,821 907,388 3,940,985 3,470,788 959,250 856,582 3,120,757 538,230 10,523,327 1,065,257 7,257,713 285,893 1,445,820 4,231,439 782,754 1,865,797 1,517,606 1,132,881 2,897,140 3,806,712 2,001,125 632,639 3,148,865 930,206 3,422,766 755,475 1,555,629 530,899 1893 S 1,074,707 533,271 230,168 3,228,004 1,206,991 3,265,955 774,115 973,348 5,624,943 1,722,624 256,317 4,907,471 2,289,277 570,250 1,398,565 612,403 4,644,787 676,284 1,963,094 896,867 1,155,350 22,847 500,161 1,765,390 903,942 334,2^8 281,908 2,356,863 1,830,180 .488,358 657,250 1,686,548 551,849 4,376,560 456,671 6,081,587 207,860 972,285 2,120,968 1,088,865 705,418 1,513,308 1,766,761 3,603,465 971,167 278,337 1,577,812 459,030 1,918,704 426,611 745,728 348,933 Net Surplus over Scrip and Capital at End of Year 1903 * Blank spaces indicate that companies in question were not organized in 1893. S 711,597 250,822 1,521,027 430,284 6,563,429 '501,406 2,518,464 5,633,250 2,475,877 338,293 630,227 6,574,751 1,206,562 261,198 1,670,200 3,003,708 572,455 1,248,623 1,229,617 6,056,863 2,165,876 346,884 1,249,598 1,819,746 302,710 134,475 1,414,494 ' 157,397 695,126 165,616 920,303 1,541,496 1,527,318 1,045,086 1,305,596 598,034 3,911,206 386,590 2,327,960 612,623 1,386,806 1,806,998 325,276 1,193,546 1,099,810 703,111 2,508,099 1,572,972 383,972 216,975 982,133 193,444 1,614,295 153,761 1,068,256 199,041 1893 « 261,200 1,005,549 22,110 1,576,595 960,333 1,655,835 1,272,008 219,320 519,935 303,419 16,136 161,437 1,029,779 205,173 327,471 597,390 2,948,200 1,170,219 71,945 162,923 1,114,497 106,241 27,299 339,693 94,216 536,529 33,971 413,714 72,489 912,337 953,732 672,175 465,896 2,290,770 302,753 1,665,900 337,493 1,003,572 199,110 434,650 310,184 318,396 1,260,998 713,196 19,304 182,264 421,750 28,519 362,421 124,544 591,685 76,878 TpE fllUEHlCflS UpEllWl^ITEH Table XVIII— The Leading Fire Insurance Companies' Expansion During The Decade— 1894-1903 Inclusive (Continued) 19 Companies (Foreign Companies) Aachen and Munich Atlas British-America Caledonian Commercial Union Hamburg-Bremen Ins. Co. Salamandra Liverpool & London & Globe. . London Assurance London and Lancashire Manchester Munich Re-Insurance North Brit. & Merc Northern Norwich Union Palatine (London) Phcenix Prussian National Royal Royal Exchange Scot. Un. and Nat Skandia Sun Thuringia Union Western ....'. Ad- mitted to N. Y 1899 1895 1874 1890 1871 1873 1899 1850 1872 1879 1890 1898 1866 1876 1879 1900 1879 1899 1851 1896 1880 1900 1882 1900 1891 1874 Total Gross Assets at End of Year. 1903 I 1,092,748 1,279,594 1,427,305 1,734,354 4,294,554 1,834,178 1,132,640 12,056,918 2,113,003 2,801,622 1,734,222 3,302,914 5,940,988 3,400,488 2,631,429 1,946,036 2,978,912 1,019 090 8,520,383 2,181,319 4,840,110 1,024,144 2,911,882 1,273,489 1,696,535 2,392,813 1893 $ 1,108,937 1,879,499 3,555,200 1,231,116 8,598,271 1,603,603 2,641,029 2,085,549 3,419,141 1,657,091 1,823,461 2,420,112 763,509 7,469,681 2,543,249 2,449,543 841,967 1,652,577 Total Income During Year 1903 t 932,288 990,015 1,547,737 1,145,641 3,157,116 1,756,061 1,058,111 7,286,573 1,481,070 1,995,329 1,438,803 3,658,293 3,883,064 2,419,891 2,113,818 1,311,576 2,568,806 699,091 5,741,421 1,643,175 2,072,718 793,948 2,128,445 1,141,422 1,127,169 2,676,595 1893 t 966,717 1,669,977 2,952,576 1,196,621 5,969,230 1,046,848 2,129,287 1,729,361 2,535,669 1,298,678 1,606,655 1,960,370 442,579 5,176,924 1,360,395 2,083,836 468,292 1,856,374 Surfdus beyond Deposit Capital (1893) and Surplus over All Liabilities (1903) 1903 t 401,387 573,332 476,747 741,631 1,392,226 436,693 383,515 5,160,542 834,136 1,003,995 574,575 769,744 2,642,938 1,097,600 854,651 852,835 859,292 408,045 3,315,513 1,003,003 2,787,107 377,860 960,128 346,842 878,264 784,808 S 198,374 169,059 738,883 80,663 2,826,525 414,814 478,832 293,169 795,778 240,472 210,415 361,294 194,819 1,995,842 842,216 348,531 326,721 304,743 * Blank spaces indicate that companies in question were not organized in 1893, or were not then doing business in this country. developed, but new hazards are cropping up every day, and if any business on earth has occasion to appreciate the fact that man even yet knows comparatively Uttle about electrical forces fire underwriting certainly has. In 1894, laws establishing the office of State Fire Marshal were enacted in Massachusetts and Maryland, and several other States have since followed suit, the newly-created office being generally gifted. with,'arnple powers for the prompt investigation of fireSj^lhe" arrest ot any person suspected of incendiarism, the' issuance of mandatory orders for the removal of any particularly inflammable iiaterial or the improvement of dangerous conditions, and the compilation of statistics regarding fires, their causes, etc. The State Fire Marshals as a rule are working in harmony with the fire insurance companies, and the new office promises to prove a very useful one to the community as well as to the companies. Perhaps no single one of the new organizations of fire insurance men established in the last decade has attracted quite so much attention as the National Association of Local Fire Insurance Agents, which was formed at Chicago in September, 1896, and held its ninth annual convention at St. Lpuis in October last. At the outset, before the Association had fairly found itself, there were fire underwriters who feared that the new organization, might prove of doubtful advantage as a means of improvirig the' relations between the companies and the agency force, but the conservative forces in the Association have prevailed, and it is now generally agreed that the National Association of Local Fire Insurance Agents is operating for the distinct advantage of American fire insurance. Many pf the leading fire underwriters of the country have deUyered heartrtb-heart^ talks to the agents, assembled at the various coflventions of the Association, and it can hardly be ques- tioned that the organization will bring the companies and the ageijts into closer'harmonya^tlicne. wears on<' ^ ' >. , No summary of fire ■'ihsuf ance histoiry for the last ten years would be complete if it did not include at least some mention of the far-famed rate-war in the metropolitan district in 1898, the rate-war which, after all, proved a blessing in disgv{ise, as it led to the organization of the New York Fire Insurance Exchange, which has done so much to place fire underwriting in Greater New York on a stable basis. , In the Spring'^of 1898, things had steadily gone from bad "to worse in New Ydrk, an(| on April 29 the Tariff Association of New York, which had bfeen the ra,te- making'powerin that district^ since 189J, was closed, and con- cluded itS'ireign: by resolving "that, all rate? and rules be sus- pended." P^demonium followed in the metropohtan field for the next three months, commissions went skyward, and rates, like the luckless ger^tlemen of the Hibernian name, went hunting for the bottom ofJhe sea, the premium receipts of the metropolitan district dropping about sixty per cent, while the war was on. 20 Tp fllHEHlCJlH U]4DEftWIlITEH Of course conditions like these could not last forever, and on the call of Mr. E. C. Irvin, President of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, a number of meetings were held with a view to organizing a new Tarifi Association, and in January, 1899, pre- liminary steps were taken for the organization of the present New York Fire Insurance Exchange. By the following March all but nine of the fire companies operating in the metropolitan district had signed the agreement, and the Exchange became an accom- plished fact, and has since been in operation. Of course there have been some dissatisfied and disgruntled members, but in the main the Exchange has proved generally satisfactory, and promises to direct fire underwriting in New York for many years to come. Although those will-o'-the-wisps, the Lloyds, had attained some prominence in the United States in 1892, the influx of the pests in droves in New York did not occur until 1894, when a loose-jointed addition to the New York insurance laws presented a crack through which scores of more or less bogus Lloyds prompt- ly put in an appearance. Section 54 of the revised insurance laws of 1894 had made the law applying to fire insurance organ- izations, associations, individuals or corporations of other States applicable to those of this State, and when objection was made to the revised laws as interfering with certain bona fide Lloyds which had been doing business in New York for years, a clause was added to Section 57 which exempted such Lloyds as were lawfully engaged in the fire insurance business at the time of the- passage of the law.. Certain "Artful Dodgers" saw great possi- bilities in the supplemental clause, proceeded to get up the nec- cessary papers and affidavits- on demand to prove that any desired number of Lloyds were lawfully engaged in business at the time of the passage of the law, and thus were spawned and unloaded on the community scores of hitherto-unheard-of Lloyds. For a fane, the new-comers had things their own way, the New York Insurance Department kept its hands off, and it was not until 1896 that indictments were brought by the New York Grand Jury against several organizers of allegedly old-time Lloyds on demand. The prosecution and incidental litigation dragged along until June, 1898, when Justice Russell filed his opinion in the test case of the People's Fire Lloyds, and enjoined it from continuing to do business. A few of the more promising Lloyds reorganized as stock companies, but the bulk of them disappeared in a night, so to speak, and the New York fire insur- ance atmosphere has been practically free from these travesties on fire insurance companies for several years past. More than one hundred of these concerns gave up the ghost after the New York Attorney-General's office began its crusade against them in 1896, but recently a second crop has been organized under the remarkably-permissive laws of Illinois, and there are about a hundred Lloyds, good, bad and indifferent, still in supposed activity in the United States at this writing. While it is true that the loss ratio wobbled more or less in the last ten years, as was inevitable, with a few exceptions the period in question was singularly free from really serious disasters, those at Jacksonville, in 1901, and Waterbury, Conn., and Paterson, N. J., in 1902, having been about the only genuine conflagrations m the United States during the decade which tended with 1903. The last two years proved exceptionally satisf acory from an under- DiAGRAM II— Life and Fire Companies' Respective Incomes in 1893 and 1903 SO 100 ISO 20O 250 300 350 400 4-50 500 MILLIONS IN 1893 f LIFE 1 INSURANCE V* C0MPANIE5*>\ INCOME I IN 190? 1 iHl^^liii^HIIHHI^H ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^1^ 1 IN 1893/ FIRE 1 Ibh^^^^^h INSURANCEy COMPANIES'^i INCOME IN 1903 y pm^^^^^^^^^^H THE A^tEHlGAH UpEt{WHlTEtt 21 writing point of view, especially 1903, during which the extra- ordinary underwriting profit of 8 61-100 was scored according to the report of the National Board of Fire Underwriters in May last; then, by way of keeping up the average, came the Baltimore conflagration, which more than wiped out the entire underwriting profits of the last ten years, and put several of the smaller com- panies out of business. During the last decade 25 of the 103 joint-stock American companies, three New York mutuals, and five of the twenty- four foreign companies which were operating in New York State in 1893, reinsured, reorganized, or retired from the State, and two New York companies, the Globe and Rutgers, have consolidated. The complete list follows: New Yohk Companies — American, Broadway, Citizens, Eagle, Farragut, Manufacturers and Builders, Globe, New York Bowery, and Rutgers. New York Mutuals— Erie County, Duchess County, and Mutual of New York. Companies of Other States — Armenia (Pa.), Atlanta Home (Ga.), Boylston (Mass.), Citizens (Pa.), Columbian (Ky.), Firemen's (Mass.), First National (Mass.), Grand Rapids (Mich.), Home Mutual (Cal.), Manufacturers and Merchants (Pa.), Merchants (N. J.), Merchants (R. I.), North American (Mass.), Reading (Pa.), Sim (Cal.), and Sun Mutual (La.) Foreign Companies — Guardian (London), Imperial (London), Lancashire (Manchester), Lion (London), and Palatine (Man- chester). In December, 1898, the Globe and Rutgers Fire Insurance Companies of New York City, which were respectively organized in 1863 and 1853, were consolidated under the name of the Globe and Rutgers Fire Insurance Company, with a paid-up capital of ?400,000, the aggregate amount of the combined capitals of the two original companies. , , In the same period fifty companies were either organized, re- organized under new names, or admitted to New York, the companies in question being: New York Companies, organized or reorganized since 1893 — Assurance Company of America (1897), British American (1898), Buffalo Commerical (1896), Caledonian-American (1898), Colon- ial Assurance (1896), Dutchess Insurance (1900), German Alliance (1897), Globe and Rutgers (1899), Indemnity Fire (1898), Lafayette Fire (1897), Liverpool and London and Globe (1897), North British and Mercantile (1897), .North German Fire (1899), Northern (1897), Pelican Assurance (1899), Victoria Fire (1896). Companies of Other States — Camden Fire Association (N. J.), Colonial (D. C), Columbia (N. J.), Georgia Home (Ga.), German American (Md.), German (111.), German of Freeport (111.), Granite State (N. H.), Home (Md.) Indianapolis (Ind.), Mechanics and Traders (La.), Milwaukee (Wis.), National (Pa.), National Union (Pa.), Potomac (D. C), Security (Md.), Virginia Fire and Marine (Va.), Virginia State (Va.), Western Under- writers' Association (111.) and Home Fire and Marine (Cal.). Foreign Companies — Aachen and Munich Fire (1899), AlU- ance Assurance (1897), Atlas Assurance (1895), Cologne Re- insurance (1900), Insurance Company of Salamandra (1899), Law Union and Crown (1897), Moscow Fire (1899), Munich Re- insurance (1898), Netherlands Fire (1898), Palatine (1900), Royal Exchange Assurance (1896), Skandia (1900), Svea Fire and Life (1897), and Thuringia (1900). CHAPTER V The Story of the Latest Ten-Year Period in the Evolution of the Composite Casualty Insurance Business AS might be expected of the very youngest member of the insur- ance family, the casualty branch of the business shows by far the largest proportional gains for the decade end- ing with 1903. It may also be said without fear of contradiction that casualty underwriting underwent more radical changes, and opened up more new fields of work, in the last ten years than did any other arm of the insurance service. While the comparatively staid old fire insurance business was scoring modest gains of 54.1 per cent, in total income, 57.3 per cent, in assets and 51.5 per cent, in the amount of risks in force, and the younger and more strenuous life department of American underwriting was booking gains of 125.7, 129.1, and 116.1 per cent, in those respective directions, casualty underwriting was making its gains by leaps and bounds, its net increase in total income being 275.5 per cent., in assets 318 per cent., and in the volume of risks in force, 285 per cent. Otherwise stated, the business practically doubled both its income and its assets each five years, and of course such enormous gains would only be pos- sible in the case of a business as yet comparatively in its infancy — or at most, in its adolescent state. In the early 90's, before the soap bubble of assessmentism had bvurst, so-called mutual accident associations were everywhere in evidence, and the "Handbook of Life and Accident Insurance on the Assessment Plan" for 1903 presents the figures for sixty- two of those associations, whereas but eighteen stock casualty companies all told were then doing business in New York. The sixty-two assessment accident associations in 1893 collected from their members the sum of $3,123,400, and the eighteen casualty companies' combined premium income was but about three {Continued on page 23) 22 THE JH«EHlCflK U|lDEl{WHlTEtl THE lllBERIGIlli OHDERWHITEH Pn AwocATt or Aa Scum Tomis or Lrt riRc and Osiwi-tv iNsunmct ISSUED MONTHLY BY THE Thrift Publishing Company EDWARD BUNNELL PHELPS, Editor Washington Life Building, Broadway and Liberty St. Room 1307 TbLBPHORB, 6229 CORTI.AHDT New Youk City Two Dollars per Annum : : Twenty- Five Cents per Copy advertising rates furnished on application " We will thrive, lads, we will thrive." — Merry Wives of Windsor, i, 3 1894 — New York — 1904 TEN YEARS OLD! SO we are editorially ten years old to-day — at least were editorially ten years old, the other day — ^and this Special Vellum Number is really our tenth anniversary issue; how the years do trip by, when the gray hairs have begun to put in their appearance! By looking over the list of our more or less esteemed contemporaries in the last issue of the authoritative Cyclopedia of Insurance in the United States, we find tiiat, not counting the dead ones, twenty-three insurance journals are chronologically entered after our name on this particular roll of honor, so it would seem that we are now out of both the kindergarten and the primary school of insurance journalism, and are fairly in the grammar-school, so to speak. We also note that forty-four journals are ahead of us in the order of their coming, and with this vision of forty-four before us, and twenty-three behind us, and the recollection of many a tilt which we have had for better or for worse with these sixty-seven "others" in the last ten years, we are forcibly reminded of those immortal lines of Tennyson's: "Cannon to right of them. Cannon to left of them. Cannon behind them Volley'd and thunder'd." These little bouts with the foils have been but a trifling incident of our ten-year experience, but about them we can talk; about what we have attempted to do, or may, or might, have done, others must do the talking, if any talking there is to be on that subject. All we can say about it is that we have tried to do our duty as we have seen it, and, while our views of insurance matters and problems have undergone some very decided changes since we first took up the editorial pen in this field, we may say that that duty as we saw it away back in 1894 was just as real and just as sharply defined from our point of view as is the course we are now attempting to follow. In ten long years one's opinions on any complex subject are apt to radically change, his observations being from the moving, rather than the fixed, point of view. In the inaugural head-lines of this issue we have observed that the ten-year period of our service in the journalistic ranks has proved "A Decade Without a Parallel in the History of American Insurance," and have endeavored to make that fact clear in the text and tables and diagrams which make up the issue. To here refer to the developments of the business as a whole, or of any of its branches, would be a work of superfluity; if we have not already established the proposition which we set out to prove, we could have no hope of here so doing. We may, however, venture to reiterate the statement that the cumulative forces which were primarily responsible for the enormous growth of the business in the last ten years are un- doubtedly gaining strength at a geometric ratio, and with these agencies — and a steadily-increasing army of human agents — at work, the insurance possibilities of the next decade are practically incalculable. To the insurance ofiicials and companies whose co-operation has made possible a tenth anniversary number of The American Underv^triter in general, and this Special Vellum Number in particular, we beg to express our sincere appreciation, and renew the assurances of our distinguished consideration; to our journalistic neighbors, we return our thanks for ipiany courtesies; to our many insurance friends in the agency field, we express the hope that the last ten years have been the best decade they ever have had, and the worst they ever will. have. And, in parting, we trust that all our friends will be on hand when the twentieth anniversary of this particular insurance journal works around, and the insurance business is several times as big as it is right now. E. B. P. TpE flJUEHlCflp USOE^WftlTE^ 23 (Continued from page 21) times as large, personal acddent, employers' liability, plate glass, steam boiler, and surety business included. In tiiose days, the clashes between assessment companies and stock companies, or at least between their respective basic prin- ciples, were almost as common as between the assessment and old-line companies in the life field. Accident policy forms were comparatively few in nutnber, so were the conflicts between the different stock companies, and to a certain extent the accident battle of the day was between rival forces, or diametrically dif- ferent principles, rather than between individual companies. 1 But it was about 1893 or 1894 that the assessment principle as applied to the accident business reached the summit of the hill of progress, and began to descend, and, with the forced retirement of their former common enemy assured, the stock companies found time to devise ways and means of advancing their individual attractions. Thus was bom the plan of raising the bars, so to speak — ^in other words, of appeaUng to the pubUc by means of new and novel policy forms, steacEly becoming less and less restricted in their conditions, and more and more liberal in their promised benefits and indemnities. This rush of the accident companies for the acme of liberality continued until the maximum of returns was conditionally promised at a minimum of cost, and as a result of the boom in the business there speedily came an influx of new casualty companies. . Instead of limiting their efforts to the personal accident or employers' liability fields, as the majority of the older companies had done, the new-comers started in with divers and suhdry departments, that is to say, attempted to grasp everything within reach. 'This wholesale effort natiurally made, it necessary for the new companies to promptly book agents of experience in the various fields which they had entered, and then came a scramble for the seasoned business-getters of the established companies. This "twisting" of agents was bound to indirectly result in the "twist- ing" of the business which the twisted had placed, or controlled, and of course the scramble for agents compelled the scramblers to try to outbid each other. The original offers of superior com- mission inducements were supplemented with propositions of bonuses, gold watches. Eastern trips for Western agents, and vice versa, and so the Ultima Thule-— at least the apparent Ultima Thule of the present day — was reached. In 1891, the International Association of Accident Under- writers had been organized, but the Association with the high- sounding, globe-encircling name, was in reality merely a handful of representatives of assessment accident associations, and up to a year or so ago the Association continued on practically the same lines. In 1903, representatives of a few of the stock com- panies attended the Association's convention, Mr. Edson S. Lott, general manager of the United States Casualty Company, was elected president, and re-elected in 1904, and under his energetic administration the Association has built up a member- ship of fifty or more associations and companies, and promises to really do good work in the way of promoting a general acquaintance and useful interchange of experience. In so far as we are aware. ■ the International Association was the first casualty underwriters' organization of any consequence in the United States, although the casualty business was nearly thirty years old when the Asso- ciation was formed. Employers' liability insurance had been introduced in this country in 1886, but it was not until March, 1896, that the preliminary steps were taken by liabihty under- writers which resulted in the organization of the so-called Lia- biUty Conference, and the establishment of its Bureau of Liability Statistics which has since collated the experience of the members and from time to time recommended to the Conference such rates as the tabulated experience seemed to render advisable. Thus was the weighty task of rate-making transplanted from fire underwriting to casualty underwriting, and Mr. George F. Seward and the late George M. Endicott were the moving spirits in the organization of the Conference. Personal accident insurance in this country dates back to its introduction by the late James G. Batterson in 1863, steam boiler insurance was introduced by the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company in 1866, plate glass insur- ance came along in 1874, and surety and fidelity insurance was established • in 1884. Consequently, all these branches of the casualty business are in a sense old-timers, the competition for these lines of business is more restricted than in other lines and there have been less radical changes and less pronounced uncer- tainties rin their conduct in the last decade than in the case of some of the newer fixtures of the business, such, for instance as health, credit, burglary, and sprinkler insurance. Of course, the keen rivaby' between the handful of companies engaged in plate glass insurance has occasionally made the fur fly, as for ex- ample in 1898, when there was a vigorous rate-slashing bout, and the Plate Glass Compact went to smash, but the loss ratio lines in plate glass underwriting can be much more accurately calculated in advance — unless a rate-war is on — than they can in the newer forms of the business where experience as yet is extremely limited. ;: Xake health insurance, for instance. It was launched in a smalll way in the late 90's, at once showed signs of becoming popular, in 1902 had built up a premium income of nearly half a niilUon dollars, and in the very next year more than trebled that income, the companies reporting to the Connecticut Insurance Department charging themselves with a health insurance prem- ium income of,?l,618,452 in 1903. Obviously, it has come to stay, and will become a permanent fixture of casualty under- writing — if for no other reason, because casualty agents insist on carrying this particular attraction in their sample cases, and are inclined to keep away from a company which cannot, or will not, supply them with it. Biurglary insurance and credit insiur- ance — especially the latter — are even more uncertain hazards, but they, too, have come to stay. The percentage of casualty failures, or reinsurances, in the last ten years to the number of companies engaged in the business at the beginning of the decade is far smaller than in the case of thie iire insurance business, and even smaller than in the case of the life business, in fact is almost nil, but two of the eighteen casualty companies operating in New York in 1893 having since 24 Tp AIVIEHICAH ONDE^WHITEH disappeared. In 1899, the Interstate Casualty Company, of New York, which had been organized in 1893, reinsured in the Pacific Mutual Life; and in December, 1903, the Union Cas- ualty and Surety Company, which had been established at St. Louis in 1893, reinsured in the Maryland Casualty Company, of Baltimore. During the decade, fifteen domestic casualty com- panies were organized, three foreign companies, and two Amer- ican companies — the North American Accident, of Chicago, and the City Trust, Safe Deposit and Surety Company, of Phila- delphia — were admitted. The complete list of the new domestic companies of the period, and the foreign companies admitted to New York during the decade is as follows: ^Etna Indemnity, Hartford, 1897; American Bonding, Baltimore, 1895; Bankers' Surety, Cleveland, 1901; Casualty Company of America, New York, 1903; Continental Casualty, Hammond, Ind., 1897; Em- pire State Surety, Brooklyn, 1901; Frankfort Marine, Accident and Plate Glass, Frankfort, Germany, admitted, 1896; General Accident, Perth, Scotland, admitted, 1899; General Accident, Philadelphia, 1899; Maryland Casualty, Baltimore, 1898; Na- tional Surety, New York, 1897; New Amsterdam Casualty, New York, 1899; Ocean Accident and Guarantee, London, ad- mitted, 1895; Philadelphia Casualty, 1900; Title Guarantee and Trust, Scranton, Pa., 1901; United States Casualty, New York, 1895; United States Fidelity and Guaranty, Baltimore, 1896; United States Health and Accident, Saginaw, Mich., 1901. Table XIX — The Leading Casualty Companies' Expansion During the Decade — 1894-1903, Inclusive Companies ^tna Indemnity American Bonding American Surety Bankers' Siirety Casualty Co. of America City Trust, S. D. & S Continental Casualty , Empire State Employers' Liability Fidelity & Casualty •Fidelity & Deposit Frankfort General Ace. (Scotland) General Ace. (Pa.) Great Eastern Guarantee Co. of N. A Hartford Steam Boiler Lloyds Plate Glass London Guar. & Ace Maryland Casualty Metropolitan P. G. & Cas National Surety. New Amsterdam Casualty New Jersey P. G New YorkP. G North American Ace Ocean Ace. & Guar Philadelphia Casualty Preferred Accident Standard Life & Ace Title, Guar. & Trust Travelers (Ace. Dep't) United States Casualty United States Fidelity & Guar. . United States Guarantee ■United States Health & Ace Com- menced Business 1897 1895 1884 1901 1903 1886 1897 1901 tl886 1876 1890 tl896 tl899 1899 1893 1872 1866 1882 tl892 1898 1874 1897 1899 1868 1891 1886 tl895 1900 1893 1884 1901 1864 1895 1896 1890 1901 Total Admitted Assets at End of Year 1903 1940,185 2,111,240 5,627,955 693,156 953,199 3,156,426 1,470,865 479,020 2,375,201 5,792,354 5,787,267 1,226,757 581,227 198,954 262,543 1,197,718 3,126,815 769,099 1,478,902 3,062,674 583,630 1,611,556 712,136 276,513 603,894 294,578 2,298,489 744,558 1,152,330 1,898,147 2,198,813 7,908,398 1,654,280 3,187,671 565,276 373,111 1893 $3,371,039 1,190,977 1,992,618 148,707 629,879 1,862,501 599,237 396,763 383,205 130,399 205,669 ....19,303 344,756 704,605 2,527,848 339,678 Total Income Durins Year 1903 t 340,962 845,157 1,627,978 155,326 96,958 332,139 1,857,162 266,165 2,293,387 5,284,346 1,556,616 1,218,267 425,569 117,910 194,147 254,853 1,464,314 462,689 1,233,862 2,054,357 361,448 912,856 543,155 176,597 473,175 341,604 1,658,185 366,474 1,177,712 1,575,980 218,481 5,449,254 1,112,586 2,035,185 169,599 655,334 1893 S885,261 969,875 2,308,545 20,641 266,856 799,215 404,616 119,544 247,089 37,918 179,371 ..77,269 404,149 902,814 2,533,055 90,420 Net Surplus Over Capital at End of Year 1903 I 22,792 101,656 1,999,300 115,128 242,466 199,244 118,895 80,607 463,728 1,163,793 2,797,227 162,268 61,140 45,874 42,157 747,689 722,528 247,766 250,896 823,596 184,440 186,738 75,359 81,489 231,278 98,554 987,237 155,044 239,609 384,183 320,043 2,886,694 650,000 295,944 209,373 108,322 1893 «811,630 222,657 75,378 11,469 147,358 123,288 90,420 39,398 143,089 4,231 2,262 ..15,833 123,045 51,134 210,986 27,069 * Blank spaces indicate that companies in question were not organized in 1893 or were not then doifig business in New York State, t Date of establishment of American office. TpE A9SEt{I6A9 U|lt)EtWt{ITEt{ 25 DiAGSAu ni — Casualty Companies' Total Incomes and Assets in 1893 and 1903 60 MILLIONS IN rasa/ ASSET5< IN 1903 CHAPTER VI Necrology of the Decade IN the case of so large a fraternity as the insurance community of the United States, and especially one including so many men whose membership has dated back a generation or more and so many men of prominence in the business world, the death roll of a decade is bound to be a long and notable one. The number of insurance workers of at least local prominence who passed away in the ten-year period, 1894-1903, inclusive, must have run into the thousands, and it is of course impossible 10 even attempt to here present anything like a complete list of the insurance dead who in their day were men of national reputa- tion. In order to complete this history of the period, however, we have compiled a list of some of the more notable characters who in the memorable decade passed to that undiscover'd coun- try from whose bourn no traveler returns, and here present it. Died in 1894^George H. Balch, president, Boylston Insurance Company, of Boston; Leonard M. Finley, president. Sun Mutual, of New Orleans; Jeremiah Griswold, a well-known fire xmder- writer and author; Frederick Schroeder, assistant secretary of the Mutual Life Insurance Company for thirty-four years; James Ayres Taber, the Equitable Life's general manager at Paris; and Charles G. Wood, treasurer of the John Hancock Mutual Life. 1895— Benjamin G. Bloss, founder of the Mutual Reserve; George N. Carpenter, Boston agent of the Massachusetts Mutual Life; Charles Cavaroc, president of the New Orleans Insurance Assod'ition; Martin V. B. Edgerly, president, Massachusetts Mutual Life; E. B. Harper, president. Mutual" Reserve Fund Life; Henry Harteau, president, Metropolitan Plate Glass; Nathan D. Morgan, one of the organizers of the Mutual Life, Connecticut Mutual and ^Etna Life; George C. Ripley, presi- dent, Home Life ; Michael Shannon, chief-examiner. New York tisurance Department; Andrew J. Wright, president, Spring- field Fire and Marine. 1896 — Frank H. Ballard, agency superintendent. Equitable Life; Charles E. Bliven, well-known Philadelphia fire under- writer; Samuel Borrowe, second vice-president. Equitable Life; Lloyd R. Coleman, president. Mechanics and Traders of New Orleans; Benjamin F. Dyer, general manager. New England Mutual Accident; Nat. B. Freeman, editor, the Insurance Record. 1897 — Benjamen S. Calef, manager the Eastern Department of the Manhattan Life, and the donor of the " Calef Loving- Cup" to the National Association of Life Underwriters; Henry Thayer Drowne, president. National Fire of New York; C. C. Hine, editor of the Insurance Monitor, Emil Oelbermann, pres- ident, German- American Fire; John C. Paige, well-known fire underwriter of Boston. 1898 — Ernest L. Allen, president, German- American Fire; 26 Tp fllHEHlCflJl UpEf{Wl?ITE[j; George Ellis, secretary, Travelers" Infeurance Company; Geo'rge ■ ]S|. Endicott, U. S. manager, Employers' Liability; Sheppard Homans and George W. Phillips, the actuaries; Charles Sewall, I^. S. manager. Commercial Union; Archibald H. Welch, second vfce-president. New York Life; George W. Wensley, U. S. man- ager, Manchester Fire; Ben. Williams, Western manager, State Mutual Life, in whose memory the "Ben Williams Vase" was given to the National Association of Life Underwriters; Charles E. Willard, formerly president, Provident Savings Life. ; 1 1899 — Martin Bennett, U. S. manager, Scottish Union and I^ational; Rodney Dennis, ex-secretary. Travelers Insurance dampany; John A. Finch, compiler of "Finch's Digest," and wipU-known authority on insurance law; Fred H. Harris, presi- dent, American Fire of Newark; Henry R. Hayden, editor of the Weekly Underwriter, Henry B. Hyde, president and founder of the Equitable Life; George B. Rhodes, president, Stuyvesant Fjre; George H. Ripley, president. Home Life; William D. Whiting, the actuary and examiner for. various Insurance De- partments. "*.<■-('-, ',:'',.. *;:V,r.-':- ;%:",' '1900 — John C. French, president. New Hampshire Fire; Ed- Ward N. Gibbs, treasurer, New York Life; Eugene Harbeck, , Western Department ^manager for the Phenix Fire; Augustus F. Harvey, the Missouri Department actuary; Major George S. Merrill, ex-Insurance Commissioner, Massachusetts; Daniel A. Heald, president. Home Insurance Company; Gideon I. McKean, formerly editor, Chicago Independent. " 1-901-^ JatiifeS-Xj/'iBatterson, founder and president, the Trav- elers Insurance Company; John S. Bloomingston, editor, the Investigator; Henry E. Bowers, formerly U. S. manager. North British and Mercantile; Cyrus K. Drew, editor, the Insurance Agent; Edward M. Needles, former president, Penn Mutual Life; Alfred Pell, formerly U. S. manager, Liverpool and Lon- don and Globe; West Pollock, U. S. manager, St. Petersbiu-g Fire; Col. Chauncey M. Ranson, editor, the Standard; Thomas ■ W.' Ra,ssellJ,>p5rgsident,' ^dnnectieut general Life; Robert J. Smith, Secretary and manager, the Traders of Chicago; Caleb E. TilUnghast, formerly vice-president, Provident Savings Life. 1902 — James W. Arrott, president. National Union Fire, of Pittsburg; Timothy Y. Brown, well-known New York fire under- writer; David N. Holway, Eastern manager. Union Central Life; James C. Houghton, pr6|identJ National Life; Egbert O. Weeks, vice-president, ^tna Fire, of Hartford. , 1903 — Ed. P. Ackerman, well-known-insurance journalist, "Matthew Marvel"; Jereniiah M. Allen, founder and president, -ITartfgi^.^jSam'i Boiler,;- HUlary "B^U, editor, the Insurance Economist; George W. Corliss, editor, the Insurance Critic; S. H. Davis, editor, Insurance; Joseph B. Ecqlesine, founder of the Weekly Underwriter; William McCabe, managing director. North American Life of Canada; Robert I. Murray, New York general agent. Provident Life and Trust; WiUiam R. Plunkett, pre^sident, Berkshire Life; Capt. Wm. H. Stratton, manager, Factory Fire Insurance Association. CHAPTER VII The Leading Companies' Progress in the "Decade Without a Parallel in the History of American Insurance" MUTUAL RESERVE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY. OF all the scores of once-successful assessment life associations in the United States, the Mutual Reserve Life Insurance CJompany was the largest of those which have succeeded in reorganizing as legal reserve companies and proving their right to live. Not only has the Mutual Reserve so done, but it can to-day point to the largest premium income and the largest amount of business in force of all the life insurance companies of equal age in this cotmtry, its premium income in 1903 having amounted to 14,293,790, and the company having entered upon 1904 with business on its books amounting to 1119,596,827. Its Provident Department has proved remarkably successful for a departure of the kind, and promises exceedingly well. tion, and i/Lr. George P. Sheldon, then vice-president, was elected to suc- ceed him and has since held the office of president. In its entire histoy for more than fifty years, tbe company has had but two presidents. For a tiine, the Phenix wrote inland and ocean marine business, but since 1887 has devoted its entire attention to fire insurance. From its organization ddwn to December 31, 1903, its premium collections amounted to $140,- 529,181, ahd losses aggregating *66,714,683 were paid, the company having been credited with the honor of being the first company to begin payment of losses on the great Chicago fire. PHENIX INSURANCE COMPANY. 'TpHE Phenix Insurance Company stands in the fronfc rank of, the New A York fire insurance companies, both in point of age and size, having been organized in September, 1853, only a few months after the Home was founded, and having had assets of 17,407,092 on December 31, 1903. At a preliminary meeting for organizatibn, held February 18, 1853, Stephen Crowell was elected president of the prospective company and continuously held that post until April 19, 1888, when he decUned re-elec- HOME LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY. TN the last decade the Home Life Insurance Company has made very A satisfactory gains in assets, premium income and business in force, these gains practically amounting to one hundred per cent, in each case, and has more than ever before prpved its right to the title of "a policy- holders' company." Its assets increased frbm «8,246,604 at the end of 1893 to $15,102,841 at the end of ld03, its premium income from 11,535,056 to $2,747,783, arid its business in force frorii $39,220,329 to (69,410,582. At thfe beginning of 1904 the company had a surplus to policyholders of $1,126,770, and including its deferred-dividend fund of $1,142,219 the sur- plus really amounted to $2,268,989. TpE mWEHlCflll U5DE1?WI?ITE5 27 COLUMBIAN NATIONAL LIFE INSURANCE CO. AS we have pointed out in the preceding review of the life insurance business for the last ten years, twenty-eight life companies organized in that period are now doing business, but comparatively few of them seem to really be filling any long-felt want. One of the twenty-eight which has made a decided forward move is the Columbian National Life, of Bos- ton, which only conmienced business in the Fall of 1902, but at this writing promises to wind up the year 1904 with approximately *23,000,000 of busi- ness in force. The company is officered in the main by young and ener- getic men, has identified many men of prominence in the financial world with it, and has very promptly proved its light to live. Its remarkable success in its first two y^ars is almost without a parallel in the history. 6f American life insurance. HARTFORD LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY. OF late years, all the pc^cies issued by the Hartford Life Insurance company have been written on the legal reserve plan, and the company is now licensed in New York State on the stipulated prem- ium basis, and writes all forms of ordinary life, Umited-payment and endow- ment policies, as, well as non-participating and return-premium contracts, T;he company was granted a special charter by the Connecticut legislature in 1866, has certain distinctive features in accordance with thp unusual concessions of its charter, and since its organization has paid to its policy- holders and their beneficiaries more than J25,500,000., At the beginning of the last decade, its assets were 11,683,652; ten years later, at the begin- ning of 1904, the assets l^ad increased to »3, 133,403, and in the same period its premium income mounted from Sl,342,164 to $2,415,478. .(ETNA INSURANCE COMPANY. WITH only two exceptions, the Mtna. Insurance Company is:jthe oldest of "the millionaire fire insurance companies" of this coun- try, dating back to 1819, and during its long and eminently hon- orable career has collected no less than $181,623,558 i^j, premiums (up to the end of 1903). In. the last ten years its assets iticxeased by nearly fifty per cent, and its net surplus from $2^948.200 to «6,056,863. The company is now erecting a massive office building on the site of its former home, and it is expected that the building will be r?ady for occupancy early in 1905. The building is a fi.ve-story structure, measures 95 feet jn width by 160 feet in depth, and has a fajade of Indiana limestone richly adorned with Cor- inthian columns four feet in diameter and 36 feet in height. The exterior is abeady completed, and the building impresses the visitor as one of the handsomest structures in Hartford. HANOVER FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY. IN April, 1902, the Hanover Fire Insurance Company rounded out its first haU century, and yet in the decade with which this issue deals it substantially doubled its assets and trebled its net surplus and total income, thus really making more progress in the last ten years than it had made in all th^ , forty-one previous years. On December 31, 1903, its assets amounted to *i,062,057 as compared with assets of «i2,070,334 at the end of 1893, its total income during 1903 was $3,030,832 as against $973,348 in 1893, and the.net surplus at the end of 1903 amounted to $630,227* as contrasted with a net surplus of $219,320 ten years before. The greater part of these large gains has been made since Mr. Charles A. Shaw became president of the company, in May,. 1900, and the balance sheet for 1903 proves that year to have been the most successful in the entire history of the Hanover. In 1893 the company built for itseU a substantial tep-story building on Pine Street, and in the Spring of 1903 purchased an additional twenty-foot lot on the east side of the building, put up a thirteen-story addition, and carried the original building up to that height, and despite a most annoying experience with protracted strikes will probably have the completed structure delivered to it in January, 1905. UNION CENTRAL LIFE INSURANCE CO. MR. John M. Pattison was elected president of the Union Central Life Insurance Company in 1891, and the history of the Union Central under his administration is therefore substantially identi- cal with the decade with which this issue deals. But, even leaving out of the calculations the first year or so of Mr. Pattison's energetic manage- ment, the gains made by the company in the last decade are sufficiently remarkable to command life insurance attention. In the ten years from 1894 to 1903, inclusive, the company's assets grew from $10,933,708 to $38,630,328, its total income from $3,397,885 to $8,804,971, its surplus from $1,032,982 to $6,014,433, and its volume of business in force from $70,874,751 to $197,040,899. While making these great advances in assets, income and business, the company has still retained, its leading position as a dividend-payer, and is generally recognized by life insurance men as one of the very best life companies in the country. MUTUAL LIFE OF NEW YORK. WITH the single exception of the staid old Presbyterian, Ministers' Fund, of Philadelphia, which commenced business in Quakertown on January 11, 1759, more than seventeen years before Thomas JeJFerson and the other patriots got together in that city and promulgated the Declaration of Independence, the Mutual Ljfe Insurance Company of New York is the oldest life insurance company in the United States, and is univer- sally regarded as the dean of the Am,erican life ii^urance corps. Not only in age, but also in point of assets and total payments to its beneficiaries, the Mutual Life stands at the very head of the business, its accumulated assets now exceeding $425,000,000 and its payments to policyholders and their bene- ficiaries since organization having amounted to more than $650,000,000. In brief, the Mutual Life has paid and now holds for the benefit of its policy- holders a sum exceeding one biUion dollars, a record equaled by that of no other institution of the kind in the history of the world. PHCENIK MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY. ON the very eve of the publication of this Special VeUum Number, we npte in the daily papers that Mr. Jonathan B. Bunce has retired •from the presidency of the Phoenix Mutual Life after fifteen years service ih thai capacity, and that Vice-President John M. Holcombe, who has been connected with the company for the last thirty years, has suc- ceeded Mr. Bunce as president. The new president is a, charter member of the Actuarial Society of America, has had a long and broad experience as an executive officer, and his election to the management of the Phoenix Mutual promises exceedingly well for the future of that company. In the last ten years, by the way, the company has ma^e steady progress, having more than doubled its income and business in force, and nearly doubled its assets, which on December 31, 1903, amounted to $17,011,162. At the end of lS03, the company had business in force amounting to $76,- 663,067, and during the year had a total income of $3,782,876. CONTINENTAL CASUALTY COMPANY. THE Continental Casualty Company, which writes personal accident and health insurance, is the result of a consolidation on a. stock basis of several assessment accident associations of the West, and is by far the most notable instance on record of a successful amalgamation on these lines, having a paid-up cash capital of $300,000, admitted assets of something more than $1,500,000 and an annual cash income of nearly $2,000,000. But five of all the thirty-five other casualty companies oper- ating in New York in 1903 had as large an income as the Continental, and this remarkable position was attained by the company in barely six years. The company was formed by consolidating the Railway Officials and Employes Accident Association, one of the most successful assessment associations in the West, which was founded in 1889; the Metropolitan Accident Association of Chicago, which was established in 1885; the North- 28 TpE AIWEHIGAH ll|lDEl{Wi{ITEt{ western Benevolent Sodety, of Duluth, which was organized in 1891, and the Continental Assurance Company, from which the consolidated company takes its name. Mr. Charles H. Bunker, formerly president of the Met- ropolitan Accident Association and also president of the Internationa) Association of Accident Underwriters in 1898, is president of the company, and Mr. H. G. B. Alexander, second vice-president and general manager. MASSACHUSETTS MUTUAL LIFE. THOROUGHLY conservative though it is, and always has been' the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company has more than doubled its premiiun income, total income, assets, surplus and the amount of business in force in the last ten years, and has thereby made a record of which any company might well be proud. And these notable gains all along the line have been made without abating one whit of its Mass- achusetts caution in its methods of getting business, or very materially in- creasing the amount of business, annually written, thus showing that the business which it writes is the business which sticks and pays. Here are the figiures for some of the principal items in 1893 and 1903: Assets (1893) 114,480,481, (1903) 133,590,999; premium income (1893) »2,911,105, (1903) S6,015,011; total income (1893) (3,554,086, (1903) 17,634,216; surplus (1893) $1,023,718, (1903) »2,635,778; business in force at end of year (1893) *83,760,969, (1903) 1169,668,456; business written (1893) *19,742,615, (1903) (24,677,440. SUN mSURANCE OFFICE. ALTHOUGH comparatively a new-comer in this country, having made its entry into the United States in 1882, the Sun Insurance 0£Sce is really the oldest fire insurance company in the world, having been founded in London in 1710. In its early days it maintained a quaint old fire engine and a force of men to handle it and look after the salvage of property insured by it, and on both its liveried retainers and on the houses insured by it appeared the supposed fac-simile in miniature of that some- what older habitue at fires. Old Sol himself, from which the company takes its name. Even to this day this insignia remains the trade-mark of the Sun Insurance Office. On its admission to New York, the Sun bought out the Watertown Fire Insurance Company, of Watertown, N. Y., and at first there maintained its United States headquarters, but in 1886 Mr, J. J. Guile, the present United States manager, succeeded Mr. Uri S. Gil- bert, and transferred the office to New York City, where it has since been located. On December 31st, 1903, the Sun had admitted assets of (2,911,882, during 1903 had a total income of (2,128,445 and closed the year with a net surplus of (960,128. TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY. THE Travelers is the pioneer accident insurance company of America, having been founded as an accident company in 1863, but in 1866 it secured an amendment to its charter permitting it to also write life insurance contracts, and for the last thirty-seven years has been actively engaged in both branches. Some idea of that dual activity may be gained from a casual study of the figures for its assets and total income in both departments at the end of 1903 as contrasted with the same items ten years before, the records for the end of 1903 and 1893 making the following showing: AcciDENx Department — Admitted Assets Total Income 1903 (7,908,398 (5,449,254 1893 2,527,848 2,533,055 Life Department — 1903 32,197,451 6,221,636 1893 13,486,281 2,744,022 ' As will be noted, in the case of both departments both of the above es- sential items considerably more than doubled in the last ten years, and the recent introduction of participating policies in the company's life depart- ment in all probability means that the gains in the life department in the next decade will be materially greater. In its accident department, it now issues health, employers' liability and general liability contracts in addition to personal accident policies, and its contracts are backed with the largest capital and largest surplus carried by any accident company in the United States. Evidently, the familiar maxim, "Insure in the Travelers," has proved a business-getter, and, emphasized by a thoroughly-organized agency corps, has kept the pioneer accident company of the country at the head of the procession. SPRINGFIELD FIRE & MARINE INSURANCE CO. CONSERVATISM is one of the trade-marks of New England, and the Springfield Fire and Marine Insurance Company of the dty whose name it bears is one of the most typical fire insurance products of New England soil. It is also one of the largest fire insurance companies in the country, completing its first half century in 1899, and up to the end of 1903 had collected in premiums since its organization (54,602,390, or more than a million dollars on the average for each year of its existence, and had paid in losses (32,215,930. In the last ten years, its assets had increased from (3,505,495 at the end of 1893 to (6,282,402 at the end of 1903, In the same period ite total income had grown from (1,918,704 to (3,422,766, and on January 1 last, including its capital of (2,000,000, it had a surplus to policyholders of (3,614,295. In April, 1895, Mr. A. W. Damon suc- ceeded the late Mr, Andrew J. Wright as president of the company, and under his direction the Springfield is now erecting a large and beautiful home-office structure which will cost about (300,000, will be the most ornate and costly building in Springfield, Mass., and will probably be com- pleted and ready for occupancy by March, 1905, UNITED STATES CASUALTY COMPANY. THE United States Casualty Company only recently completed its eighth year, but despite its comparative youth its premium income passed the million-dollar mark in 1903, and for several years past the company has led all the casualty companies of the country in the ratio of its underwriting profits to net premium collections. As is universally admitted by underwriters, the amount of underwriting profit, or loss, is the supreme test of a company's management, and to this test the United States Casualty rings right every time, and in proof of that fact can point to a net surplus of (650,000 at the end of 1903— which, by the way, was consider- ably larger than the surplus of any other casualty company of similar age in the United States, with a single exception. From the day of its organ- ization, in 1895, down to date, the company has consistently pursued a broadly liberal policy in its dealings with honest claims, and the inevitable results of those relations vrith its policyholders are manifest in its rapidly- growing premium income. The company writes personal acddent, em- ployers' liability, health, sprinkler and steam boiler polides, and in its pres- ident and general manager has, respectively, a gentleman of national repu- tation as a public-spirited man of affairs, and one of the best casualty under- writers in this country, Gen. Benjamin F. Tracy, ex-Secretary of the Navy, being the company's president, and Mr. Edson S. Lott its general manager. NATIONAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY. TN the last ten years the National Fire Insurance Company, of Hartford, A has practically doubled both its assets and its total income, and has made an even greater gain in its net surplus, the figures at the end of 1893 and 1903 having been as follows: admitted assets (1903) (6,463,829, (1893) (3,244,006; total income (1903) - (4,231,439, (1893) (2,120,968; net surplus. (1903) (1,806,998, (1893) (199,110. Although.the youngest of the Hartford fire companies, with the single exception of the Orient, which commenced business about a month later, the National attained almost immediate success, and by 1889 had built up a total income of more than a million dollars and assets of nearly two and one-half millions. It accordingly felt justified in erecting a, home-office building of its own, pur- chased a lot with a frontage of seventy-one feet on Pearl Street, in the heart THE A^EHIGAH DSdEHWHlTEt ot the Hartford fire insurance district, and there erected a three-story build- ing of the Italian Renaissance order of architecture. The base course is of Milford pink granite, Kibbe Quarry Longmeadow stone is used for the fiist-story front, and above that Roman or mottled brick with a terraHE Provident Savings Life Assurance Society was established in 1875 with i view to supplying sound insurance at the least possible cost, so*alled renewable-term poUcies being one of the special features Of its original .plan. The novel offering met with model-ate success, but it was not until Mr. Edward W. Scott became president of. the Society, in December, 1896, that the Provident Savings really readjusted its original plans to the modern life insurance demands, and began to rapidly forge ahead. Mr. Scott had been superintendent of agencies of the Equitable Life, and subsequently a vice-president of that Society for many years, and had thereby acquired the broadest life insurance experience, and the results of his expert training were promptly made manifest in the vigorous develop- ment of the Provident Savings under his direction. When he assumed its management, the Society had assets of S2,110,772 and an income of (2,235,877; seven years later, at the end of 1903, its assets had increased to $7,310,138, and its income to <4,205,081, the excess of income over dis- bursements having incidentally increased in the same period from S92,288 to S851,413. A considerable amount of the original renewable-temi busi- ness has been replaced with ordinary whole-life, limited-payment and en- dowment poUcies, the agency force has been materially increased, and dur- ing 1903 new business amounting to (33,827,944 was written, thus bringing the total amount of insurance in force Up to (105,138,035. LIVERPOOL & LONDON & GLOBE INSURANCE CO. THE Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company prac- tically ranks as the American pioneer among the foreign fire com- panies operating in this country, although the Phoenix Assurance Company of London established some agencies inl the United States, and maintained them for a time prior to the War of 1812. At the outbreak of that war the Phoenix was compelled to withdraw from America, and from that time up to the advent of the Liverpool and London and Globe, in 1848, no foreign fire company had attempted to do business on this side of the water. The ephemeral American experience of the Phoenix:^ Assurance nearly a century ago has long since been forgotten by everybody .except the historians of the business, and the L. & L. & G., which is the unques- tioned leader among the foreign companies in this country, has therefore come to be regarded as the pioneer. During its fifty-five year experience in this country up to the end.of 1903, the company had collected (154,226,654 in premiums in the United States, and paid losses amounting to (92,163,693, and in the decade ending December 31, 1903, it made a net gain of (3,458,647 in admitted assets and one of (2i334,017 in its net surplus. In all the long and honorable history of the United States Branch of the company there have been but four United States Managers, Mr. Alfred Pell having been the Chief Executive Officer up to the time of his death in 1869; his son, Mr. Alfred Pell, succeeding him; Mr. James E. Pulsford, who had been associated with the New York office since 1857, becoming Resident Manager on Mr. Pell's retirement in 1876; and Mr. Henry W. Eaton, the present Resident Manager, succeeding Mr. Pulsford in 1887. Mr. Eaton had become connected with the company's Home Office at Liverpool in 1866, in 1876 became the Resident Secretary of the West of England Branch, and in 1878 was made Deputy Manager of the United States Branch. In 1897 he was elected president of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, is one of the foremost fire underwriters in this country, and during his sixteen year-service as Resident Manager the United States Branch has increased its assets from (6,793,576 to (12,056,918 and its total income from (4,114,103 to (7,286,573, or, in other words, made net gains of more than seventy-five per cent, in each case. HOME INSURANCE COMPANY. THERE are several hundred fire insurance companies in, the country, - and several of them bear-the name of the Home, -but the Home In- surance Company of New York leads them all in assets, income and surplus, and is recognized from one end of the United States to the other as typical ■ of fire iijsurance stability and fair dealings.. From the very outset, the Home has had an atmosphere of exceptional stability about it, having been founded in 1853 with a. capital of (500,000, more than double .that, of any fire insurance company, then doing business, and from time, to time has increased its capital until it now amounts to (3,000,000. . . ^ In 1870, a branch office was opened at Hamburg, Germany, andfor seven or 30 THE fll«EHlCflB USOEIIWRITEH eight years the company wrote policies in nearly all European countiiss. In the late 70's the innovation was abandoned, and the Homp now confines its attention to risks in this country, Canada and Mexico being included in its field of operations. Its agents now number more than 5,000, and it carries risks aggregating $1,200,000,000 in round figures. Mr. D. A. Heald, for many years president of the company, died in 1900, and was succeeded by Mr. John H. Washburn, who had been associated with the company for more than forty years, and during the current year Mr. Washburn retired on ac- count of ill health, and was succeeded by Mr. Elbridge G. Snow, who joined the office force of the Home in 1862, was its Massachusetts State Agent for many years and in 1888 was elected one of the vice-presidents of the com- pany. In February last, the Home of course met with a heavy loss in the Baltimore lonflagration, amountng to approxmaely tl,000,000, but the loss was met, and promptly met, without even disturbing any of its securities. The figures presented in the detailed records of all the leading fire companies on another page of this number convey a fair idea of the strength of the com- pany, and of its remarkable progiess during the last decade. At the beginning of the ten-year period its assets were (9,008,834; at the end of the period, on December 31, 1903, they had'increased by (9,031,960, '.he Home being one of the very few older companies to double its assets in the decade and inddent- ally thereby recording the largest gain in assets made by any fire insurance company doing business in this country. In the same period it made a net gain of 13,218,943 in gross income, and one of S6,054,816 in surplus, and its payments during the decade brought its total !oss payments since organiza- tion co the commanding figure of (89,694,792. Such is the history of the lar- gest and strongest fire insurance company on this side of the Atlantic. PRUDENTIAL INSURANCE COMPANY. IN addition to their wonderful work in the industrial field, by actively entering the competition for ordinary business in the last decade the industrial companies have tremendously increased their possibilities of expansion, and many competent life insiu-ance' judges have predicted that the day may come within the time of men. now living when the indus- trial coinpanies will lead all tlie companies in the World in ordinary, as well as in industrial, business. The Prudential Insurance Company of Amer- ica was the pioneer industrial company of America, practically led the iiidus- trial companies into the quest for ordinary business on a wholesale scale, and here are the results of its expansive policy in the l^t decade: End of Year Assets Prem. Income Total Income Surplus 1903 $72,394,760 11,021,445 $36,028,402 9,084,844 $39,025,128 9,521,912 $10,193,398 1893 2,735,561 NET GAINS $61,373,315 $26,943,558 $29,503,216 $8,457,837 End of Year Ordinary Business Industrial Business Number of Policies Amount Number of PoUdes Amount 1903 270,851 10,472 $317,322,903 12,441,733 5,176,456 1,941,533 $613,935,910 1893 218,199,566 NET GAINS 260,379 $304,881,170 3,234,923 $395,736,344 It was in 1886 that the company wrote its first ordinary policy, and in the next seven years it had placed 10,472 policies of that description insuring $12,441,733; in the next decade, its ordinary business expanded so as to include 270,851 policies aggregating $317,322,903, an amount of ordinary business equaled by that of only five other life insurance companies in Amer- ica, the youngest of which had been writing ordinary business for more than forty-three years, whereas the Prudential had been operating in the ordi- nary field less than eighteen years at the end of 1903. Such has been the record for the last ten years of the company known from one end of the world to the other by its motto, "The Prudential Has •the Strength of Gibralter," and of course its income and assets have cor- respondingly expanded, as the figures above given demonstrate. The great home-office structure, which was erected in 1892, was found utterly inadequa;te for the needs of the growing company, and in 1901 the company took t)ossession of three more enormous buildings which had been buUt on adjoining land, the four buildings aU told occupying one and a-half acres of ground. NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY. '_ d THE Hon. John A. McCall became president of the NewjYork Mie Insurance Company on February 12, 1892, nearly two years before the beginning of the decade with the insurance- history of which this Special Vellum Number of The Amebican Undeewbiter deals, but as it takes time to set rolling a ball of ^uch magnitude as a great life insurance company, the history of the rejuvenated and revivified New York Life In- surance CoxapStay of the present time is really identical with the^decade in question. When Mr. McCall assumed the presidential direction of the company, the New York Life had been doing business for more than forty-six years, and was already one of "the big three" life companies, and had, accumu- lated assets more than twice as' large as any life company in the country outside of New York City, but in the twelve years of President McCall's regime, up to December. 31, 1903, it made far more progress than hi all the forty-six years of its previous history. . Here is a statement of the com- pany's progress in the last twelve years in a nutshell: . ,- . A 'Comparison por the Twelve Years, 1891-1903, Inclusive. . Dec. 31. 1891 Dec. 81, 1908 Gain in 13 Yeais Assets, 1125,947,290 »352,652,048 (226,470,758 Income 31,854,194 88,269,531 56,415,337 Dividends of Year, to Policy- holders 1,260,340 5,339,293 4,078,953 Total Payments of Year to .., Policyholders, .... Ii2,671,491 34,604,247 21,932,756 Number of Policies in Force, 182,803 812,711 629,908 Insurante in" Force, premiums paid . (575,689,649 (1,745,212,899 (1,169,523,250 Any comment on such a showing as the above would be a work of superer- ogation, gains of almost three-fold magnitude in the narrow space of twelve years eloquently speaking for themselves. It might, however, be added that at a recent meeting of New York Life agents, Mr. McCall casually remarked that the company would celebrate its sixtieth anniversary in 1905, and hoped to then be able "to report that we have reached two biUions of insurance in force; that we have 1,000,000 jjolicies in force and that we have secured $100,000,000 in premium and other income." If the New York Life so does — and it is's^fe to take any predictions of that kind from Mr. McCall as inspired utterances — this one particular company in 1905 will have more insurance in forCe and a larger total income than had all the twenty-nine legal reserve companies wliich were operating in New Y 1904 ' LIABILITIES »4,783,228 00 Capital Stock, 617,715 00 Reserve for Re-insurance, 354,855 22 Reserve for Unpaid Losses, 336,779 80 Special Reserve, 371,250 57 Net Surplus, Total Assets, $6,463,828 59 Surplus to Policy-holders, Dallas General Agents (1,000,000 00 3.173.451 55 417,118 II -50,000 00 1,823,258 93 «6,463,828 59 92.823,258.93 Tp fllWEniCflS UpE^WHlTER 37 1849 SPRINGFIELD FIRE & MARINE INSURANCE 1904 CO. Largest Fire Insurance Company Chartered by the State of Massachusetts Annual tStatement, Januars^ 1, 1904 Cash Capital, Assets, _ _ _ Liabilities Except Capital, Surplus to Policy-holders, Losses Paid Since Organization, $2,000,000 6,282,402 2,661,912 3,620,489 32,215,930 00 21 94 24 A. W. DAMON, - - President CHAS. E. GALACAR, Vice! President W. J. MACKAY, F. H. WILLIAMS, 2d Asst Secretary Treasurer Manager JVestern Department, A. J. HARDING, A. F. DEAN, - - Asst. Manager Chicago, III. Manager W. A. BLODGETT, Pacific Coast Department, San Francisco, Cal. GEO. D. DORNIN. - Manager JOHN C. DORNIN, GEO. W. DORNIN, zd Asst. Manager Asst Manager Agencies in all Prominent Localities throughout the United States FREDERICK A. BURNHAM, President GEORGE D. ELDRIDGE, VicePres. and Actuary L MUTUAL RESERVE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEIV YORK A Mutual Old-Line Life Assurance Corporation which has paid its Policy-holders $58,000,000 in 2^ years. Straight Life Contracts and those with investment features are issued by this Company in any amount ranging from $50.00 to $50,000.00. AGENCIES THROUGHOUT THE AMERIC/IS AND EUROPE Offer Reliable Men Exceptional Contracts . / Address AGENCY DEPARTMENT MUTUAL RESERVE LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY Mutual Reserve Building. 305. 307. 309 Broa^dway, New York 38 THE J1]«IE$IGAH UpE^WtlTEt An Irresistible Magnet MORE THAN FIFTY Y^ARS OF SUCCESSFUL LIFE HAVE ESTABLISHED AN UNASSAILABLE FINAN- CIAL STRENGTH ; HAVE AFFORDED VALUABLE EXPERIENCE IN THE CREATION OF INCOMPAR- ABLE POLICY CONTRACTS ; HAVE WON A PRICE- LESS REPUTATION FOR HONORABLE DEALING, AND THAT HIGH PRESTIGE ENJOYED BY AN INSTITUTION WHOSE AFFAIRS ARE PRUDENT- LY, CONSERVATIVELY. ECONOMICALLY, YET PROGRESSIVELY, MANAGED. THESE COMPEL THE ATTENTION OF MEN AND WOMEN OF CHAR- ACTER AND ABILITY DESIRING A PERMANENT AGENCY RELATIONSHIP. WITH SUCH WE IN- VITE CORRESPONDENCE AND CONFERENCE. Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company SPRINGFIELD, MASS. * Incorporated, 1851 rf t9^lir3^ ^ ..y'^^Hf ' Secretary ft General ManaKer. THE fl]WERlGflS 11HDE5W5ITE5 39 rACILE PRINCKPS SSMPER PARATUS S6c "HTWffl? INSURANCE 11 v/ItIiL. company^ ^ V ^ V ^ ?6 CBDAK ST.. NEW YORK ORGANIZED J853 - CasH Capital, Assets, January 1st, 1904 .... L.iabilities, (Including Capital,). NET SURPI^US Over all I^iabilities - SURPLUS AS REGARDS POLICYHOLDERS Losses Paid Since Organization, over $3,000,000 $18,040,793 ll.4O6.Of 2 6,574,751 - $9,574,751 $89,000,000, Past record certifies Reliability . Present condition assures wtaDlllty Preparedness for future guarantees wftlCty Insurance on personal 'effects of tourists and temporary sojourners anywhere in the United States, Canada' or > ^ Mexico. * Insurance against loss from Fire, Lightning, Windstorm' or Tornado and Inland Transportation Risks. i Indemnity for loss of Rental Incomes, Use and Occupancy^: Earned Profits and Commissions by fire or ligntning. ' V The Home has an extensivei well organizeds field etaS erf- Competent and Experienced \Gejidral,, State and Special Agents residing in the various States of the United States and Canada' and Mexico,'ensuring pron(pt response and capable attention to the requirements of its local agents and the insuring pubUc. and affording IMMEDIATE SERVICE FOR» THE ADJUSTMENT ANlj SET^TLEMENT OF LOSS CLAIMS. ; ', ' A recent report of a Committee appointed by the American Bar Association redbgnizes the great importance of insin:ance as an indispensable of our Industrial and Commercial fabric in tiiese words : ? part ALL WILL ADJWIT THAT WITHOUT THE SUBSTANTIAL COLLATERAL AFFORDED BY INSURANCE THE. COJWPLEX STRUCTURE OF JWODIRN BUSINESS ENTERPRISE WOULD CRUiWBLE AND FALL." * ^HOME insurance: COMPANY, NEW YORK has paid to its policyholders as indemnity for losses sustained by them during the last ten years nearly (28,500.000, that is to say at the rate of' $9,367.43 pqr day ij ^ {or every business day in that period. , " i*; V' ^ It acknowledges and fulfills its obligations to the Public and to its Agents, each of whom in turn has recognized the worth of TH E HOME, as the following figures testify: ., Premium income year ending Dec. 3r, 1894 . $4,806,579 - ■^.r ■■'-'' .. '-..-- u " " ipo3 38,0 76,120 Assets year ending Dec. 31, 1894 1903 $9,153,836 „ $18,X>40.7^a^' EEnergy i ANCE COMPANY in a position of preparedness, pecuniary and otherwise, to furnish suitably prompt indemnity in full measure under our obi&atipns ip einf times as well^s gcjpd, and iii every-day, usual conditions as well as in the face of the uncommon and extreme contingencies. ' ■S!UC^E#i^*hature of bxir ej^agen&nt and • the .fulfillment to which we are pledged. .-« ' t . , \ . ^ ■ ' - ELBRIDGE G. SNOW, President EMANUEL H. A. CORREA, Vice-President FREDERICK C. BUSWELL, Vice-President CLARENCE A. LUDLUM, Asst't Secretary » AREUNAH M. BU^^TIS, Secretary WILLIAM H. CHENEY, Secretary HENRY J. FERRIS, Asst't Secretary 40 TQE A]ll[Ef{IGil]l UpEt^Wt^ITEl? The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York Has agreed to pay its policy-holders on existing contracts the sum of $1,530,000,000.00 The Company has accumulated a fund of over $423,000,000.00 With whidh to meet the claims as they mature. FROM THB DATE OF ITS ORGANIZATION UNTlIv OCTOBER I, 1904, The Company has paid its policy-holders, under similar contracts and conditions, over $650,000,000.00 THE MUTUAL LIFE Insura^nce Com pany of New York RICHARD A. McCURDY, President. NEW YORK CrTY TJE flUEHlCllH UpE^WHlTEH' 41 PU r M I Y INSURANCE n C ll I A COMPANY OF BROOKLYN, N. Y. NEW YORK OFFICE: 68 WILLIAM ST. 42 Tp fl]WE5lGflS HSDE^WRITEH' A STOCK. COMPANY CHIEF OFFICE ^s. Liverpool «^ LONDON «^ Globe Insurance Company of Liverpool, England 45 William Street NEW YORK THIS COMPANY was established in the year 1836 as the Liverpool Insur- ance Company. In 1848 it became the Liverpool and London Insurance Company, and on the acquisition of the business of the Globe Insurance Com- pany in 1864, the title was further changed to the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company. In the year 1848 it commenced business in the United States. This Company, by its world-wide business, depending on no particular local- ity, and large accumulation of funds, affords to insurers and stockholders ample protection. The ability and disposition of the Home Ofl&ce to supplement its United States resources, whenever necessary, was abundantly illustrated by the action taken in the case of the great fires of Chicago, Boston and Baltimore. As an evidence of the estimation in which the Company is held in England, it may be noted that £100 stock sells for about £2,200. NEW YORK BOARD CHARLES H. MARSHALL, Chairman JOHN A. STEWART JAMES E. PULSFORD JOHN CROSBY BROWN EDMUND D. RANDOLPH HENRY W. EATON, Resident Manager GEORGE W. HOYT, Deputy Manager J. J. MARTIN, Agency Superintendent r TpE fllHEHlCflfl UJDESWHITER 43 Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (INCORPORATED BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK) The COnPANY OF the People, BY the People, FOR the PEOPLE PROOF OF PUBLIC CONFIDENCE This Company has more pre- mium-paying business in force in the United States than any other Company, and for each of the last 10 Years has had more New Insur- ances accepted and issued in Amer- ica than any other Company. The nnmber of Policies in force is greater than that of any other Company in America, greater tban all the Begular Life Insurance Com- panies put together (less one) and can only be appreciated by compari- son. It is a ^eater nnmber than the Combined Population of Greater New York, Chicago. Philadelphia, Boston, Montreal and Toronto. Paid to Policyholders since Organization, plus the amount now invested for their Security, Amount of Outstanding surance, December 31, 1903, $238,295,968.84 £ $1,342,381,457.00 RECORD OF GROWTH IN TEN-YEAR PERIODS Income Assets Surplus Pols, in Force Ontstand'glnB. 1883— $2,083,519.05 $2,186.6-