and unwelcome burden! The simple suggestion is enough to carry
with it a sense of obligation to lovers of humanity to see that a
premium is not placed upon infanticide and kindred crimes. If such
insurance is to be effected at all, which is extremely questionable, it
should be under the strictest restraints of law.

Another serious objection to the system is that it necessitates nearly
double the cost of even regular level-premium rates, from the fact that
weekly collections of five and ten cents must be made by agents employed
for the purpose.

Of course a large part of these collections, wrung from the poor, are
absorbed in agents' fees, the balance going to the company. The lapses
also must be very numerous, and but little benefit is ever realized by
those who part with these pittances from their scanty earnings. It is a
well-known fact that companies realize very large profits from this
business, and in some instances the writer has been credibly informed
the expenses of the general business are met by the profits of this
branch. This article is written in no spirit of hostility to
level-premium insurance; it is simply a criticism upon its defects and
its abuses. Properly administered, there is an ample field for the
prosecution of its business. There will always be those who will prefer
to pay the larger price, for what to them may seem the better form of
insurance; but there will be large numbers, as now, who will prefer
assessment insurance in reliable companies.

There is an ample field for both assessment and level-premium companies
to prosecute their work. There need not and should not be antagonism
between the two systems. Each will and should be criticised, but always
in a spirit of fairness. To some extent modifications in both systems
may be desirable, and doubtless a healthy competition will bring such
changes to pass. Perfection is a quality of slow growth, but it _should_
be the aim of those who administer the far-reaching and sacred trusts of
either system of life insurance.

Such companies can undoubtedly be made permanent by providing for the
entrance of new members at any time in the history of the company at a
cost for mortuary assessments substantially as low as in the earlier
history of the company. This may be accomplished in either of two
ways:--

1. By advancing the rate of assessment with advancing age, by what is
called the step rate process, or,--

2. By the accumulation of funds to