CHAIRMAN'S OPENING ADDRESS 205 



course, prudent in their day, but the circumstances were such that 

 they could not help making frequent and large losses, with corre- 

 spondingly large gains when successful. They were enterprising 

 speculators, and were never free from the anxiety which besets 

 speculation. The gambler in stocks lives in an exciting and unnat- 

 ural atmosphere of hopes and fears, but he can escape from it by 

 closing his accounts. The merchant adventurer of old times lived 

 constantly in such an atmosphere. 



" Again, we may remind ourselves of the fear of fire which for 

 many centuries oppressed the minds of all whose savings or inherit- 

 ances consisted in houses or merchandise. In those old days cities 

 like London were built of wood, small fires happened frequently, 

 and conflagrations occurred at irregular intervals which were never 

 many years apart. Householders covered their fires at night with 

 the greatest care, and sprang from their beds whenever the cry of 

 fire arose. The fire danger was always imminent, and always a 

 matter of anxious fear. 



" Those of us who are old enough can remember the days when 

 the greatest necessity for saving oppressed the young man with a 

 growing family during those very years when he needed most to live 

 almost up to his small but increasing annual earnings. The more 

 prudent such a young man was, and the more he cared for his wife 

 and children, the more he felt the burdensome necessity of saving, 

 and saving heavily, so as to leave at least a little for their support 

 in case of his early death. Notwithstanding everything that he 

 could do in the way of frugality, with his wife doing the housework 

 and his children going barefoot, his savings before middle life were 

 indeed small as compared with the needs which he was struggling to 

 provide for in case of his death. Insurance has rid the world of 

 the worst of those fears. Frugality is still necessary, but the burden 

 of it no longer comes heaviest in a man's younger days, when his 

 earnings are usually least and his necessary expenses usually greatest. 



" By substantially banishing a whole class of fears insurance has 

 prolonged men's lives and made men happier and more useful. It 

 is one of those agencies of civilization which have in various respects 

 tended to reduce the element of fear in human affairs. Just as we 

 have almost ceased to think of the various kinds of fear from which 

 insurance has relieved mankind, we find it hard to realize all those 

 other fears which have dwindled as a result of civilization. Every 

 kind of danger which has been reduced by modern progress was 

 formerly a source of acute fear. Our early ancestors were in con- 

 stant fear of wild beasts, of bad neighbors, and of open enemies, 

 passing their days with arms in their hands and their nights with 

 some one on the watch. They feared uprisings of their inferiors, 

 and they feared the tyranny of their superiors. They feared pain, 



