The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 31, 1906, Page 5

To the Field Force GENTLEMEN : It 15 our custom to address you Superintendents’ Convention January, 2nd the topic c of the Company. This'ye: middle of December, and obviously tb and it would be premature to set fc bustness and finences. We sball you before we close object is to tell you about our plans INDUSTRIAL 4 You have bear us witness beralit hes been one of progressive I tion of the Compeny began. T! polick re unknown to In and ev any essive years have benefits offered to policy-holders bursing the enormous sum of dividends upon non-pdr amount of unpromised d dollars to Industrial policy-t dividends on death claims and We bave been enabled ¢ few years our edly nses s been so coat improveme in ratio of we thought the time had come of the technical features of the ously and m mortality ed were taken m the experience with tables tak rom improvement iu merta In the startling. Take, for and ; a s 49.3 deaths per th ree the figures are respe 8, and thls im te adults there s aiso & marked These facts comvince us that the time has come to con: of benefits founded upon our pon which ot aced to 34.7; 16 t0 9.5; 111; sides mortality involved in = table As you knmow, our ratio of expense for some years; this year the redu reach, we think, by the end of the year, & saving of mearly one and a half millions of dollars! lower ratio of expense for 1906 than has been experienced by any Indus- trial company in the world. One other element goes into the construction of tables of benefits; end that is the maturity of the policies. TAFT 15 FEELING ROOSEVELT FAGES JTRENUOUS. DAY New Year’s Ro(*elvtinn Pro-| PUBLIG PULSE Will Run for the Presi- dency if Sentiment Points to Him as Logical Leader FRIENDS ARE ZE;\LOUS;CITIZENS COME EAST | SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE CLEVELAND, Dec. Taft, Secretary of War, will be a ca CALL. nomination in 1808, if the of the party sentiment within the next few months points to him as the logical leader, so the Leader declares in a dis- patch from Washington. Furthermore, Kentucky, his friends in Ohio, Minne- sote and other States, it is asserted, have been asked to determine how for- midable & following it will be posszme to rally under the Taft banner. Mr. Taft is mot en active aspirant| for the Presidency. On the contrary it has been with considerable reluctance that has consented to place himself in the hands of his friends as a "ten- tative candidate. Mr. Taft's real am- bition lies in the direction of the Su- preme Bench of the United States. “Mr. Taft,” says the Leader's dis- patch from shington, “is widely re- garded as the man best qualified to carry on the administrative policies of President Roosevelt. He is looked to as the man who stands distinctively for the things that have so popularized the Roosevelt regime, and it is almost gen- erally accepted that if the country de- sires to ‘stand pat’ by Roosevelt in 1908, it could be given no more fitting oppor- tunity to express that desire than | would be found in the opportunity to elect Secretary Taft as President Roosevelt's successor. “President Roosevelt would be great- ly pleased to see his war secretary nominsted as his successor. Mr. Roose. velt's personal regard for Mr. Taft and his high opinion of Mr. Taft's ability have been attested time and again. /But this does not mean that Mr. Taft is to be made the administration candi- date, for President Roosevelt is kesnly lalive to the fact that the American ipeople might resent any attempt on his part to control or dictate the selection.” the Superintendents meet in conventlon the | have something very 1ave accomplished ; but our immediate | DEPARTMENT. known from numerous sddresses, both oral and written, m has been for years in the Industr! that our tre be very first ye ince ons and bountles up to its date been marked by progressive gifts and and this year the Compa. Industr n twelve years to about tem sélllons of 2 the form of dividends on premiums, creases of benefits upon existing polict lapse rate and decreasing expense rate ed to you frem year'to year, but perhaps from th . progressiveness—you have failed to make & busipess. into our mortaiity and drawn of Into verious periods our experisnce of The mortality tables upon which our present tabigs are found- e experience of other periods has shown a steady stance, age two next birthday. 2 and 24.8; ment T d In our conviction by the fact that a table drawn Ir shows a better experience than that of the full, decade. to us just to base these tables upon the experience of white lives; efits based upon the improvement which we feel certaln is | w great this improvement is we lllustrate by a few figures the last ten years age ten 5.5 to 3.4; age forty 19.3 to 14.8. - |tary OUR WATCHWORD : (INCORPORATED BY THE STATE OF NEW YORK. “First, last and all the time, a business iné?ery respect be&o'ild reproach”, = ; ' 2 STOCK COMPANY) B The Company OF the People, BY the People, FOR“ the People " each year st the time of our annval is held about the middle of | y the Ann Statement record of the year is not made the progress of the Co: pleasant to say to e up, r next year. fal part of our busi- | ment of the policy-holders sinee the present administra- of its incumbency Paid-up dustrie] insurance in this country— then something hes beeh ‘done for ade In the policies. Bull y ever promise has been dis- wiions of doilars in voluntary 1 policles; bringing the total | t100 W this work all thesa years steady extensions of bu e in force, by watchfulness | , resulting in a decreasing death | These Improv by | to | Uy year we have told you our aim , to better the policies, to >rtiopate amount unt | sements for death claims have ss in proportion to income and our n so steady an improvement, that {fic resurvey, o to speak, We hsve made investigetions of 1890-1894. A comparison of this case of children the result is reaily Our present table table 18¢6-1905 shows but 38.9; age age five 16 and 0.8; age through the Infantile table. improvement. uct new and we are | m the years | And | experience of 1896-1905 ; present benefits are based with a Deaths per thousand: age two age three 82 to 22.5; age four 21.5 | age twenty 10.5 to T.1; The other element be- of benefits is of course the expense. to premium Income has been falling ction has been phenomenal! and will three per oent! This alone means We shall show a When we made up our present | | has been that It largely increased the reserve. "x-f,- Bulletin No. 475—New York, December 8th, 1906 table we were convinced that the public was enamoured of endowments, Our Industrial business has been Issued for ten years, as you know, malnly upon Endowment tables—Increasing Life and Endowment policies and Twenty-year Endowments forming a very large proportion, in some years over 90 per cent, of our total business. One disadvantage of this tabic Our children's Increasing Life and Endowment poilcies have been endowments payable after perfods of 47 years and upwards according to age at issue. Compared wiik the Whole Life tables issued by other companles these have made necessary the sccumulation of an increase of many millions of dollars in reserve. Unthinking persons come to the conclusion that this piles up the wealth of the Company, forgetting that slong with the Increase of assets runs the increase of liabilities, and that the wealth of a company consists in its swrplus; and completely overlooking the remerkable fact that we have deliberately kept down our surplus to about ten per cent of our assets by eanual distributions of the excess of surplus earned to the policy-hoiders who contributed to it. Public opinion has changed and mow carcs more for death benefits than endowments. We are In business to please the public. We have a good deal of evidence that Ordinary Life and Limited Payment Life contracts are thought preferable to Endowments. We have resolved therefore to discontinue our Increasing Life and Endowment polictes, which were designed to meet the public demand formerly exist- ing, and which were, we belleve, the first tables ever really scientifically constructed for Industrial policles. Our new Industrial policies will there- fore be Whole Life contracts. But we think tat as to these there are signs of a beltef on the part of the public that payment of premiums ought to cease with old age. It is hard for people to see what to any mathemati- clan is self-evident, that In life insurance the companies are enabled to pay the polictes in full on lives of those who die soon after insurance only by the receipt of premjums from those who live out and beyond thelr stions ; and tbat the apparent hardsiip upon those who live long ¥ the contribution to the unfortunate which is the escential basis iife insurance. However, it is possible of course to make tables for of limited payments, and the problem ls therefore to fix an age that shall e 8o young as to raise the premfums or (what !s the same in Indus- trial insurance where the unit s the premium and mnot the amount of insurance) to reduce the benefts unduly; and on the other hand to fix { the age mot so old that the benefits of the limits of payment of premium sball be lost. We have fixed age 75 as the limit of payment of premiums because at that age we are enabled to only siightly reduce the beneflits dur- ing life and because we have not received many complaints of the neces- sity of paying premlums up to that age. And to the occasional complaint that “people never live to such old age,” we may answer that in 1906 we shall have voluntarily, as matter of grace, pald about 2700 claims as En- dowments on policies issued as Whole Life on persons reaching age 80 after paying premiums for 15 years or over. Constructing a table of benefits upon these four principles—Whole Life instead of Endowments; our recent mortslity experience instead of our old; a loading proportioned to our reduced expenses; acd the pay- ment of premiums ceasing after age 75—we shall put forth for 1907 new tables in the Industrial department which are better tham any compasy has beretofore issued and better than we have ever before this felt it safe to iasue. Thke most striking change is in the Infantile table, because there we substitute Life tables with payment of premiums limited to age 75 for our comparatively short Increasiug Endowment tables now in use; and are therefore enabled to pay in benefits what we have been compelled to hold as reserve llability upon the endowment features. Our new Infaniile tables will pay neariy as much in death benefits for @ weekly premium of five cents as we have herctofore paid for a weekly premium of ten cents. It is of course understood that the law fixes & meximum of benefits payable upon children and this we camnot exceed. We have therefore Increased the bemefits at the later ages for persistence. Thus at age two at entry the benmefit in case of death at age nine is $173, while the benefit at age three at entry dying at age nine is $160, and the benefit at age four at entry dylng at age nine is $165, and so on. This is a recognition of the additional years for which premiums have been paid by those entering at earller ages when death occurs at the same age. It follows from this large increase of benefits for five eents that hereafter no policy will be issued under the Infantile tables for a total premium of more than five cents. And to meet a desire for less insur- ance, especially in large families, we have a table with proportionate bene- fits for a weekly premium of three cents. Our Adult tables show an increaae of benefits for the same premium based strictly upon our tables of mortality. At age ten the increase is 12% per cent over our present Life table and nearly 18 per cent over our Increasing Life and Endowment table. At age 20 the increase is over nine per cent and over 23 per cent respectively; at age R0 the increase is nearly six per cent and nearly 20 per cent raspecrl\-ely at age 40 the | terms non-participating. Increase is two per cent and over 13 per cent r¢ tively, and so on. And in comparing these tables with our present Whole Life tables (and with those of most of the other Industrial companies) ¥ moak dot b forgotten that these old tables provide for payment of premium during the whole of life, wlile under our new tables payment of premiums ceases at age 75. We have increesed the !mmediate benefit~ under all of these policies in accordance with the rule we made retroaci o this year, to hali-benefits during the first six months and full benefits thereafter. We have introduced into all of these policies new fentures in the way of surrender values. Paid-up policies will be granted after three years In- stead of five; extended Insurance will be granted after three years at the optjon of the holder ; and cash surrenders will be pald after ten years. The polfeies will be In new and attractive forms, with three pages instead of two, In order to set forth all of the concessions, making the rights of the policy-holders so plain that any one will be able to tell what he s entitled to. And the whole contract will be expressed in the policy, doing away entirely with the necessity of a eopy of the application, using the form m this respect for all policies which we adopted many years ago for policles under $300. ORDINARY DEPARTMENT. One’of the most striking results of the Armstrong Investigation was the adoption of a provision restricting expenses for the first year of the life of the policy. And what is most Interesting as well as complimentary to the METROPOLITAN is the fact, which appeared in the newspaper dis- cussion at the time of the adeption of the report and bills, that this re- striction by law was justified by the experience of this Company in the matter of expense as shown by an analysis of its annual reports. It Is true that this Company kept its expenses almost within the limit pre- scribed by the new statute. But the statute Is a penal one and we cannot run eny risk of overrunning the limit of expense. This necessitates a re- duction of commissions, but the reduction will be very much less than that made necessary by the companies issulng perticipating policles. This Company 1will not issue ofter this year any otker than mon- policles. In fact, in the true semse of the term we have not issued any other fer nearly fifteen years; for, as we have often explained, the Inter- mediate and Special Class policles were based upon stock or &-nonm-par- ticipating loading and the dividends promised, if earned, were expected to be derived from the mortality. These policles were entirely novel and we had little experience to guide us. The Intermediate policies were based upon our Industrial table of mortality snd were designed for Indus- trial risks who could afford to pay annual instead of weekly premiums ; and the mortality of such a class couid not be foretold. The Special Class policies were for sub-standard risks as to which the mortality could not be accurately predicted. What we undertook to do was to pay back to the policy-holders the gain from such improvement in mortality over the expected as should be actually experienced. As participating policies sre based upon a higher or so-called mutusl loading out of which dividends are expec to be earned, we claim that our Intermedlate and Special Class poiicies based upon a stock loading were in principle non-participat- .Ing.. All of our other policies in the Ordinary De ‘ment. were by thefr The law has justifi in the: principles we adopted fifteen years ago, and today the Armstrong laws and the similar ones prepared for other States are a vindication of the METROPOLITAN prin- ciples in which you have been trained. We have now an experience of Intermediate and Special Class risks which enable us to prepare non-par- ticipating tables. The tables of premiums as to these policies have hereto- fore been completely readjusted. We think you will find them most attrac- tive. We realize that we shall henceforth have more competition in non- participating policles. Other companies have announced their purpose to restrict their issue to this form. We have therefore thought it im your Interest as well as our own and in the Interest of the public, which is su- perior to both, to use a part of the reduction of commisslon to effect some reduction of premium. New tables have been prepared which we think will be attractive to our customers and which therefore will be profitable to you. In adjusting these commissions we have thought it only just to restore to the Superintendents an interest in them which we were com- pelled to withdraw a few years ago and which you remembersthe Vice- -President promised at the time to restore when we should be able to arrange it. And we have also recognized the good work of Assistant Su- perintendents by giving them an interest in the work of their agents. We realize that the dutles of Superintendents and Assistants include the instruction and training of Industrial agents in the work of the Ordinary Department. We want all of our agents to be all-around insurance men. Our Superintendents and Assistants have Imposed upen them a duty the supervision, the constant help and encouragement and the education of their agents. We have made It an interest as well as a duty. Our new policies will be found most attractive in form and even more attractive in substance. They contain all of the advantages and conces- sions which we can afford to give and which the public have a right to expect. The surrender values wiil be found to be gemerous and take the optional forms of extended insurance, pa!d-up Insurance and cash. They are the standard forms of the New York Department, the work of experts which has legisiative approval. They are as plain to the understanding a8 they can be made. We have d!scontinued many plans as unnecessary. We shall issue Ovdinary Life, Limited Payment, Endowment and Term plans: and we have appifed for permlesion and hope to issue in addition three plans which.the publle bave stamped with thelr approvai—namely, the Optional Life or Endowment, under & new name, the Modiled Endow- ment with Life Option; the Guaranteed Dividend. also under a mew and more descriptive name, the Guaranteed Increased Endowment: and the Reduced Premium Life under lts new name, Life with Reduced Premium after 20 Years. Gentlemen, we are entitled to say that the Armstrong Investigation was a vindication of the methods and practices of the METROPOLITAN LIFE. The Armstrong laws are in many respects a dlistinct recogaition of the work we have doue together these many years. See that you appreciate this fact to the utmost. Show that you do by making the year 1907 an unexampled year for the Issue of more policies, for larger insurance, for greater gain, for less lapses and not-takens, at & less expense, at a greater return to policy-holders than you have ever dome. Live up to your bless- ings! Show that you appreciate the reward which the Legislature has conferred upon your good work of the past! Make 1007 the greatest be cause the best year in the Company's history! Tars Yzar, 1006, You have started well. Last year, the year of the investigation, you d1d the largest business we had ever done. The first part of thls year the paralysis which seemed, unreasonably and unnecessarily, to have tallem upon the business in generai, appeared to have affected even you—-evem more unreasonably and unme “ssarily. Finding this to be the fact, the Vice-President appealed to you in personal conferences with the Superin. tendents in lfttle groups all over the country; pointed out to you the facts and conclusions of the Armstrong inquiry and the results as embodied In legislation ; showed you the essential approval we had received In our work in both departments, and asked you to respond to all this for the re- mainder of the year by making the best record you had ever made. This was in May and Jume. It would be most ungrateful not to make this public and general acknowledgment of your response to the appeal, and on behalf of the Viee-President I give to you his personal thanks and add our official acknowledgments. The year i not yet ended and we cannot therefore tell the whole story. But for the months July to November, Inclusive, compared with the same months of previous years: You made the largest amount of Industrial increase which the Come pany ever made, except In 1894 and 1903, The agents wrote the largest amount of Industrial Dusiness, average per man, of any of the last ten years. ‘The average increase per man was larger than for any of the past ten years. The ratlo of lapses was the third lowest for ten years past. The number of transferred accounts was the lowest for eight years, notwithstanding the larger force of men with which we started and the larger reduction In the force we have made this year. The collections were the best in the history of the Company. The death cialms reached the lowest ratio for the last 25 yw withstanding the inereased average age of the policy-holders. The special salary to agents averaged the iargest amonat in the last ten years; and yet we saved $100,000 In the total compared with last year. The saving In total cost in these items alome, medical fees (because of a reduction In number of applications), Assistants’ salaries and special salary, was at the rate of a million dollars a year. ‘We may add that the Paclfic Coast kept up with the procession by the remarkable feat of covering for the year the enormous lapse caused by the earthquake and !s certain to close the year with a handsome Increase. In the Ordinary Departni®nt September about equalled September of last year, white October and Norember largely exceeded the correspending months of last year. and December promises to be a record-breaker ! And taking the last six montha for comparison—June to November, Inclusive—you wrote more Ordinary than ever was written by the Com- pany in the corresponding months and exceeded 1905 by over six milllons and & half; and this it must be remembered by more than 3000 less men! ‘We are proud of this record and we are grateful to you for your gen- erous response. We cannot say more than to wish for you and yours the happlest and most prosperous year of your lives ln 1907! Very sincerely yours, John R. Hegeman, President PACIFIC COAST HEAD OFFICE, Jefferson Square Buflding, 935 Gelden Gate Avenue, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. s | | | gramme Will Keep President Very WASHINGTON, Deec. Loeb and Colonel tion. | 11 a. m.—The Vice P; | the_ Cabinet, the Dfj 20 a. m.—The C clate Justices of the United States; the peals of the District of Columbla, the of the Supreme Court of the District of bla, the judges of the esident, the Meml nd ministers of the United St Delegates in Congress, the com: judiclal offices of the the nav; of the Distriet of Colu.nbé: 2z 12:15 p. m.. e rej ang ret Seithsontan Tnstitution, the 1N sersize | Assistant Attorneys General, \mlFH‘l’ Generals, the Treasurer of the States, the Librarian of Oongress, th rinter, stitation for the Deaf and the A-oclltad Vetetans of the muéury order ¢ Men, the Sons of the members of flxe Oldut Inhabitan of the District of Columbia. 1ip m—w‘molcltm New Year’s at Del Monte Busy ¢ 2 80.—Arrange- 30.—William H. | ments have been completed by Secre- Charles S. didate for the Republican Presidential | Bromwell, the President’s military aid ystalization | for the President's New Years recep-‘ The programme in detail follows: 3 of the Judges of the Court of Ap- United States Ci former members of the Cablyet. am. | :30 a. m.—Senators and Mpmunl ves and eion District of Coln mbia. 11:45 8. m.—Officers of the army, officers of officers of the marine corps, command- ing general and general of staff of the militis service c-lul committee, the interstate commerce commission, the isthmian canal commission, assistant secre. taries of tl‘vmmemjé the Solicitor General, o Assistant _Post. the heads of bureaus in the severa departments, the president of the Columbian In. m.—The Soclety of m Cme the W innati, Wflfiflmv ENI]S I LOVE AFFAI Young Woman 1Is Shot by Man Whom She Would Not Promise to Marry HE WOUNDS HIMSELF NEW YORK, Dec. 30.—A young wo- man, who, with her companion, Sydney Kaufmann, was shot while both were guests at the Hotel Knickerbocker, on the east side, early today, died at Belle- vue Hospital this afternoon. Kauf- mann also is expected to die. The dead woman was Mrs. Eva I. Totten, the wife of John Totten of Tot- tenville, Staten Island. She was 23 years old and her husband 1s in his eighty-third vear. They were married two years ago. Her companion at the Hotel Knicker- bocker was Sydney Kaufmann, aged 30 vears, the son of wealthy parents living in East Seventy-fourth street. The latter today said their son had not been himself for some time and was almost constantly in the care of attendants. Hotel employes attracted by the re- port of revolver shots found Kaufmann and the woman unconscious the room assigned them last night. Kauf- mann had been shot in the head and his companion in the abdomen. When con- vinced that she could not recover, Mrs. Totten told the police that Kaufmann and she were in love and that he de- sired to marry her at once. She did not wish to wed until she had secured a divorce. Over this they had quar- reled. GENERAL MILLER DIES PENSACOLA, Dec. 30.—General cus Miller, U. 8. A, mll'd. dl.‘ at| Fort Barrancas ¥ nnrt fl-— ease, aged 71 the| WATSONVILL: bers of | udises o5 countied. ate: oners of United ably clear a During the courtship a young man guelmmnlifl‘ilodlu ~and admires her dirples, but } RIVER ENGROAGHES ON FARM LANDS Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties to Act in Accord in Preventing Damage PAJARO IS ERRATIC SPECIAL DISPATCH TO THE CALL. Dec. 30.—Property owners along either side of the Pajaro River, from a point where it enters the valley to the mouth of the river, are about to present to the Supervisors of Monterey and Santa Cruz countibs a pe tition asking that the. protective di trict be formed in the territory named and under the supervision of the two The necessity has arisen through the encroachment of the river upon valua- ble holdings and the great danger that ultimately the present ubiquitous chan- nel, through being allowed to become overgrown with willows and its course interfered with by sand deposits, may take it upon its erratic course to swal- low up a number of good farms. Fur- ther, it has been discovered that the|gaj, ries of the Pajaro River may some day bring it through a thickly settled portion of the valley—perhaps through ‘Watsonville itself, and it is ths inten- tion already outlined to take up the matter of clearing and keeping reason. JPANESE. ROVALTY T WEDDING Details of Brilliant Marriage of Hallie Erminie Rives at the Tokio Embassy NOTABLES PRESENT SEATTLE, Wash., Dec. 30.—A special to the Post-Intelligencer from Toklo, in describing the marriage of Hallie Erminie Rives, American novelist, and Post Wheeler, second secretary of the American Embassy and well-known litterateur, In the drawing-room of the embassy at noon Saturday, says: The ceremony was witnessed by uu-quls and Marchioness Ito, Marshal Oyama and Marchioness Oyama, Generdl Oku, Admiral and Madame Togo and many other members of Japanese rovalty and persons prominent in the diplomatic and soclal world. The ceremony was performed in the west drawing-room of the embassy, which was set for the occasion with growing bamboo and decorated with cherry and plum blos- soms. American flags swung from the Miss Rives wore the same gown worn by her on her presentation at the British court, of royal rose point lace, stain girdle and court train embroid- ered in white flowers and white orchid water. The danger of a CHLEAN RESENTS RAISULI 70 HOIST FURDPE'S SLURS Senator Laskano Favors Re- duction of Country’s Lega- tions Because of Slights EIiWARD’S 'ACT CITED SANTIAGO, Chile, Dec. 30.—In the | retires. Senate Fernando Laskano; recently a candidate for the Presidency, advocated a reduction of the Chilean legations dwelt upon the lack of consideration of European governments toward the dip- GEAMAN FLAG pretender. German commercial firm which inl |to enter into pessession when When he learned of his who was | pulsion from Morocco, Raisuli sent mountain house headquarters of Beni Arros tribe, while he Zinal prepared to follow at any iIn Europe. The speaker last year King diplomats in London to a banquet ex- cept those of South American countries. This, Senor Laskano continued. was | MONTANA LAWYERS DECIDE due to the old prejudices against South America which still survive in Europe, stated that Zinal has been sold to & family and fortune to the inaccessibl ON GENERAL INCREASE ON FEES