460 GILBERT E. ROE 



As he knows that some of his associates are certain to die and 

 receive the agreed amount of insurance before they have con- 

 tributed a like amount to the common fund, he becomes a 

 voluntary contributor to the benefits received by others, and 

 to that extent he sows that others may reap. In another 

 view, life insurance is no less beneficent, though in a sense self- 

 ish. It enables the head of the family to provide even after 

 death for those dependent upon him during life. It enables 

 all of us to furnish financial help to those who are the objects of 

 our care, our bounty or our love, when death has deprived 

 them of our service. The average life insurance policy is less 

 than twenty- three hundred dollars in amount. The large 

 majority of all premiums paid represent stern self denial on 

 the part of those paying them. It is a story of comforts 

 omitted and often necessities denied that the fife insurance 

 premium tells to the officers receiving it. Under these circum- 

 stances it surely is not too much to expect rigid economy and 

 strict fidelity on the part of those whose duty it is to collect 

 and disburse this money. 



If I were to attempt to be strictly logical in the treatment 

 of my theme, I should probably begin with a discussion of the 

 excellent work done by the state legislative committee con- 

 ducting the insurance investigation, and follow that with an 

 analysis and condemnation of the evils which that investiga- 

 tion has shown to exist, and then propose a remedy for the evil 

 conditions disclosed. A little reflection convinced me, how- 

 ever, that by this method I could only cover a small part of the 

 field in the limits of the present article, and that I would be 

 obliged to leave unsaid, for lack of time, the most important 

 things to be said, on the subject; moreover, this method of 

 treatment, which is the only one thus far accorded the subject 

 that I have observed, has resulted only in confusing the public 

 mind and rendering it less capable than before to deal intelli- 

 gently with the momentous question presented. 



Neither is it any part of my plan to indulge the very 

 natural feeling of resentment against unfaithful insurance 

 officials by calling them names. We can truthfully say of each 

 leading life insurance official thus far investigated, as Anthony 

 said of Caesar: "But yesterday" his word "might have stood 



