232 INSURANCE 



vented, griefs and sorrows soothed, the briny tear wiped from off 

 the cheek, the balm of consolation imparted, the widow's heart 

 made to rejoice with gladness, and the helpless orphan to sing for 

 joy! This is no flight of the imagination, no picture of fancy, no 

 figure of speech; it is sober reality, the voice of experience, and the 

 simplicity of truth." 



Of the problems of social well-being there are few of greater import- 

 ance than the development of voluntary thrift and resulting eco- 

 nomic freedom of the masses. What Mill calls " self-regarding 

 actions " and " actions which are not primarily or chiefly self- 

 regarding " admirably illustrates the fundamental difference between 

 insurance and mere saving habits. The hope of an earlier day has 

 been realized, and life insurance at the outset of the twentieth century 

 is a universal provident institution. The view prevails, as expressed 

 by Marshall, that "at last we are setting ourselves seriously to 

 inquire whether it is necessary that there should be any so-called 

 lower class at all." Life insurance precludes the necessity of abject 

 poverty and pauperism. Life insurance eliminates, for all but the 

 lowest and most depraved, the possibility of a pauper burial. It 

 has placed within the reach of the large majority at least a temporary 

 barrier between death and dependence and the poorhouse. We are 

 still far from having realized all that is implied in the insurance idea 

 and we still suffer much from an unsound social philosophy. We 

 are constantly in danger of delusive schemes of social reform not 

 based on individual effort and voluntary adaptation to existing 

 economic conditions. The tendency, however, I believe, is in the 

 right direction, and every year sees an advance toward a higher 

 degree of social well-being. Social reform of the right kind must 

 come from within; must be the result of individual character and 

 individual struggle. This is the social aspect of insurance - - that is, 

 prudently to economize, to save, to invest, to insure for the financial 

 protection of self and others in old age or at death. There is nothing 

 in the annals of the poor more remarkable than the rise and progress 

 of provident institutions, from burial clubs and friendly societies to 

 the different varieties of life insurance adapted to every stratum of 

 society. For wage-earners, or the industrial element of the popu- 

 lation, industrial insurance may rightfully claim to meet the require- 

 ments of Currie of " its being such a system as the circumstances 

 and conditions imperatively require, namely, the provision of means 

 whereby they are enabled to help themselves and their families 

 without depending upon the assistance of their neighbors or com- 

 promising in the smallest degree their independence of character." 

 I may also quote his conclusion, applicable to the conditions of 

 to-day, that " every poor man is now called upon to fulfill his most 

 sacred obligation, an obligation as binding upon the hard-working, 



