EDITOR'S TABLE. 



237 



If there were any practical utility in it, 

 we might analyze the premium into three 

 functions : the insurance value of the in- 

 surance by the company, the insurance 

 value of the self-insured, and the endow- 

 ment-value function, making, in the present 

 case, $51i;i5=$50.42+$135.9'7+$324.'76. 



At the end of five years, in the case of 

 this policy, the reserve or self-insurance is 

 $595.82, and the " insurance value " is re- 

 duced to $37.90. According to the absurd 

 rule, imported from England, no regard is 

 had to "insurance value" withdrawn, but 

 only to reserve, and the " surrender charge " 

 is from one-third to two-thirds of the lat- 

 ter. Of course, no one would think of sac- 

 rificing a " paid-up " policy at such a rate. 

 Prof. Bartlett recommends that in this 



case the company should deduct the en- 

 tire " insurance value " and pay $55'7.92 as 

 the "surrender value." My own opinion 

 is, that eight per cent, of the " insurance 

 value," or $4.03, is a suflScient charge to 

 keep the company whole. This charge of 

 eight per cent, is based on two assumptions, 

 either of which seems to me reasonable : 

 First, that the members who will select 

 themselves out of a mutual company will 

 not be collectively as much as eight per 

 cent, better than the average. Secondly, 

 that eight per cent, of -the "insurance 

 value" deducted from the reserve will be 

 more than sufficient to replace that with- 

 drawn with others as good. 



Elizur Wright. 

 Boston, April 22, 1ST4. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION. 



HOW shall this nation behave it- 

 self when it comes to be a hun- 

 dred years old? Something extraor- 

 dinary must be done to signalize that 

 event. For we are a great people, 

 spread over a great continent, on which 

 are great lakes and rivers, and prairies, 

 and coal-fields, and copper-mines ; and 

 we have had a great war, and got a 

 great debt and a great common-school 

 system, and how shall we pose in a man- 

 ner befitting all this greatness when the 

 nation has cortie to be as old as a very 

 old man? To be sure, a large propor- 

 tion of this greatness affords no very ob-* 

 vious ground of self-exaltation. The vast 

 continent, with its mighty resources, 

 we certainly did not make, and have 

 got possession of it by means that are 

 not greatly creditable, while neither a 

 great civil war nor a great debt grow- 

 ing out of it is a thing to be much 

 boasted of in this age of the world. 

 N"evertheless, our people do not care to 

 discriminate very nicely in this way; 

 they have got a "big thing" in hand, 

 and manifestly a great destiny before 

 them ; and by much contemplation of 

 these things they have engendered a 



self-consciousness of greatness, which 

 it is calculated will reach the explod- 

 ing point by the Fourth of July, 1876. 

 What manner of demonstration will 

 befit that occasion is now the perplex- 

 ing question. 



The special event to be commemo- 

 rated is undoubtedly political. The 

 act of severance by which we estab- 

 lished our national independence was 

 a political transaction. We refused 

 any longer to accept a foreign rule, 

 and decided to shape our own gov- 

 ernment and do our own governing. 

 We worked out a measure of political 

 reform by laying down the simple prin- 

 ciple that the people living here are 

 better judges of what they want than 

 people on the other side of the world. 

 It was a step of rational advance in the 

 management of public affairs, and was 

 significant not so much for any vast or 

 absolute good immediately attained, 

 as for opening the way for other and 

 better things in the future. We aban- 

 doned monarchy and a state Church, 

 toggled up an arrangement called the 

 Constitution, and entered upon the 

 experiment of shaping civil institu- 

 tions in accordance with reason. After 



