SECTION F- INSURANCE 



(Hall 10, September 21, 3 p. ra.) 



CHAIRMAN: DR. EMORY MCCLINTOCK, Actuary, Mutual Life Insurance Company, 



New York. 

 SPEAKERS: MR. FREDERICK L. HOFFMAN, Statistician, Prudential Insurance 



Company, Newark, N. J. 

 PROFESSOR BALTHASAR H. MEYER, University of Wisconsin. 



IN opening the Section of Insurance the Chairman, Dr. Emory 

 McClintock, of New York City, spoke as follows: 



" Our old proverbs embody and represent the experience and 

 wisdom of many generations. One of them w r arns us not to put all 

 our eggs in one basket. When this idea is carried out logically, it 

 really means that we should not put more eggs in one basket than we 

 can afford to lose in case of a smash. Insurance is a development 

 of civilization which was not known to those wise forefathers who 

 invented these proverbs of ours, and insurance has made this par- 

 ticular proverb, excellent as it is, practically obsolete. The object 

 and effect of insurance is to enable us to put as many eggs as we 

 please in one basket. This is accomplished by an agreement or 

 arrangement, by means of which, whenever one lot of eggs gets broken, 

 the loss is distributed among many owners of other lots. By means 

 of insurance you can safely invest your whole fortune in one ship, 

 or in one building, or in one mortgage; you can devote all your land 

 to a single crop which may be destroyed by hail in half an hour; you 

 can send all your gold across the country in one conveyance; you 

 can leave your whole property in a house unguarded, or in the charge 

 of an employee unwatched; and you can, if need be, live upon and 

 enjoy the use of the bulk of your earnings without anxiety, provided 

 you apply the remainder in such a way as to protect your dependents 

 in case of your death and to secure an income for your own old age. 



" There are few corporations, and still fewer individuals, who 

 have absolutely no occasion for insurance. Indeed, insurance is 

 sometimes expedient even in cases where there is little or no logical 

 reason for it. I confess I should be puzzled if Mr. Carnegie were to 

 ask me why he should insure his life; but there are few business men 

 who, like him, have wound up their affairs while living, and whose 

 executors would, therefore, have no use for life insurance money 

 instantly available upon their death. There are corporations which 

 have their eggs in so many baskets as to enable them mathematically 

 to carry their own risk partly or wholly, yet which carry insurance 

 rather than incur reproach by going without it. There are great 



