LIFE INSURANCE AS A SCIENCE 235 



humane institution. Life insurance should not, therefore, be con- 

 sidered as an interference in any degree with the course of Providence, 

 which some rashly assume it to be, but, on the contrary, the taking 

 advantage of a means kindly offered by Providence for our benefit." 

 This is the view which prevails at the present time and which gives 

 religious as well as moral sanction to the development of life insur- 

 ance as a universal provident institution. 



I have only given consideration to the most important depart- 

 ments of science in their relation to insurance, but had time per- 

 mitted, a more comprehensive survey would have disclosed other 

 important relations tending to confirm the view that insurance is by 

 right entitled to the position assigned to it in the classification of 

 the sciences as adopted by this Congress. As a comparatively new 

 department of human inquiry and action, insurance found no place 

 in the earlier classifications by Bacon, Comte, and Spencer, but no 

 scientist of the future and certainly no economist can rightly ignore 

 what, in time, will become a tremendous force making for the mate- 

 rial well-being and the economic independence of the vast majority 

 of civilized people in all portions of the earth. 



It is equally certain that the insurance manager of the future 

 will give more and more consideration to the teachings of both the 

 abstract and concrete sciences, with the aim to adjust the practical 

 administration of insurance to sound scientific theory derived from 

 extensive investigations into the vast range of related sciences. 

 For the future conduct of the business the demand will be for trained 

 minds, qualified to deal with problems more complex and involved 

 than the problems and difficulties of the past. As it has well been 

 pointed out by the Honorable John F. Dryden in a paper on " In- 

 surance as a Career ": " In a general way it may be said that the 

 scientific temperament is most likely to lead to success in home office 

 administration, for scientific training, as well as all higher educa- 

 tion, distinctly qualifies a man for administrative responsibility." 



Insurance is to-day the foremost social institution of civilized 

 countries. The business has assumed enormous proportions, and the 

 tendency of the " insurance idea " is toward an ever-increasing area 

 of general usefulness. To both the individual and the state, insur- 

 ance is to-day an indispensable method and means for the main- 

 tenance of our standard of social security and progress. In the 

 struggle of the masses for economic freedom and a more equitable 

 distribution of wealth, insurance aids and sustains all other forces 

 making for this much-to-be-desired end. Insurance in its final 

 analysis is simply a business method to make the world a better 

 place to live in, than w y hich no aim or purpose could be a higher or 

 more worthy one. 



