Page:Alcohol, a Dangerous and Unnecessary Medicine.djvu/443

Rh The American Temperance Life Insurance Association was organized in 1887. It gives a lower premium rate to members of the abstainers' section than to those in the general section. The circulars sent out by this company state that the average life of moderate drinkers is thirty-five and a half years; tipplers, fifty-one years; total abstainers, sixty-four and one-fifth years.

Very interesting is the result of an inquiry made of various insurance companies not long ago as to whether they consider the habitual user of intoxicating beverages as good an insurance risk as the total abstainer; 'if not, why not?' All but two out of forty-one companies answered, 'No.' The two answered, 'Depends on quantity used.' In answer to the 'Why not?' the Etna said, 'Drink diseases the system and shortens life'; Hartford Life, 'Moderate use lays foundation for disease' ; Knights of the Maccabees, 'Drink tends to destroy life'; Knights Templar and Masons' Life Indemnity, 'Drink lessens ability to overcome disease' ; Sun Life, 'Drink injures constitution. Habit apt to grow'; Massachusetts Mutual Life, 'Drink causes organic changes. Reduces expectation of life nearly two-thirds.' The rest of the answers are much the same as these.—M. M. A.