68 A HISTORY OF NATIONAL TUBERCULOSIS ASSOCIATION 



tively to the various addresses made by Mr. Fiske, Dr. John 

 Henry Huddleston, Dr. Augustus S. Knight, one of the medical 

 directors of the Company, and others. In the course of the 

 address by the author of this history the suggestion was made 

 that the time had come when life insurance companies should 

 take a deeper interest in the tuberculosis problem, and very 

 profitably might begin by taking care of their own tuberculous 

 employees. The suggestion was taken up by Mr. Fiske and his 

 fellow officers, and on June 20, 1914, a model sanatorium for the 

 tuberculous employees of the company was dedicated at Mount 

 McGregor, N. Y. This institution has been in operation ever 

 since and has done a splendid life-saving service. 



Thus as far back as 1908 the Metropolitan Life Insurance Com- 

 pany had evinced an active interest in the prevention of tuber- 

 culosis. In 1911 the Company began an intensive educational 

 and nursing campaign among its policyholders which has resulted 

 in the saving of millions of dollars and thousands of lives. Be- 

 cause of the fact that about one in every five people in the United 

 States is insured in this Company, the Metropolitan has con- 

 sistently extended its service and support to enterprises that did 

 not reach its policyholders directly but that affected them through 

 the general population. 



In line with and as an outgrowth of this broad interest, Dr. Lee 

 K. Frankel, third vice-president of the Company, proposed to 

 his board an experiment to demonstrate if it was possible to con- 

 trol tuberculosis in a limited area. This proposal was accepted 

 and on May 3, 1916, Dr. Frankel wrote Dr. E. R. Baldwin, then 

 president of the National Tuberculosis Association, the following 

 letter: 



"The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company is much interested by reason 

 of the fact that over 16 per cent, of the deaths in its Industrial Department 

 are due to tuberculosis. In 1915 the Company paid claims of over $4,000,000 

 on the lives of 14,325 policyholders dying from this disease. 



"The Company believes that an intensive experiment might well be made 

 in the United States to determine whether it is possible to substantially reduce 

 the mortality and morbidity of tuberculosis in the hope that the disease may 

 eventually be eradicated. 



"To this end, we are prepared to place at the disposal of The National Asso- 

 ciation for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis the sum of One Hundred 



