ach of trust. But
how can such sums of money be lawfully made out of life insurance stock
as to justify the price the records of the Committee on Insurance show
have been paid for it? Life insurance is or ought to be a benevolent
institution. Its management is or ought to be a trust, and every
trustee who makes use of his position to make money for himself is
false to his trust, and should never be appointed to another. Life
insurance is not to be made the sport of speculators, and the only
reliance of the unfortunate made the football of gambling operations.
Most if not all of the troubles which have arisen in the business are
to be traced to this attempt to make money out of it, honestly if
possible, but to make money at all hazards. The way to end this for
ever is to allow the policy-holders to vote, not for a minority of the
trustees, but for all of them. Representation should be equal, or it is
worthless. The representation which would leave the power to elect a
majority still in the hands of the stock-holders is not equal or just.
Money paid for premiums is as good as money paid for stock, and should
have equal voice in the management. But when you have given the
policy-holders votes, you should also see that the opportunity was
afforded to them of voting. Most of the elections are held without any
other notice than an advertisement in the corner of a crowded column of
one or two newspapers. Every policy should have printed on it the date
of the annual election, and all the information necessary to enable the
holder to be present and vote, or to be represented by proxy. Under the
present practice, few holders of policies know whether they have votes
or not, and hardly any of them ever heard of the time of holding the
election. If the present discussion of life insurance affairs does no
other good than to awaken the policy-holders to a sense of their own
responsibility for abuses of management, it will not have been in vain.
It is safe to say that watchfulness on their part would have prevented
the lavish expenditures, the unwise real estate investments, the
enormous salaries, which the investigation of the Assembly committee
has discovered. The same conservative power held over managers would be
a constant check upon any tendency to depart from the safe and regular
open pathway of honorable dealings. Under its influence there would be
few if any cases of commissions in addition to salary of officers, less
tendency