Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/507

 IMPROVEMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE 493

much higher than the net premiums of other insurance. It was about 200 per cent, for many ages of the other tables. It is now running somewhat less, but there are instances where it is 155 per cent.

IV. MOTIVES OF THE INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES

It is only fair to hear what their representatives affirm, and to give their words that credence which we accord to gentlemen of responsible positions in the business world — at least unless we have evidence to the contrary. Mr. Haley Fiske (in his Civic Federation speech) said:

Tell me what interest on earth the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. has, that is not the interest of the workingman. We cannot take any profits ; we have shown them that we have nothing in the world at heart but their interest. And I ask you now, whether being human beings, as insurance men are, and having a constituency of 9,000,000 of people spread over from the Atlantic to the Pacific, an organization of the working people, having that for a constituency, and being interested in representing them, in the larger sense — I ask you whether there would not enter into the heart of any man a desire to do the very best that can be done for these people.

It has been claimed of late that these improvements are due to competition. But when competition is hardly felt this explana- tion does not apply. Furthermore the improvements began long before recent changes in law and pressure from rival movements.

v. PROJECTED EXPERIMENTS

These are (i) group insurance; (2) prophylactic measures; (3) other forms of insurance — accident, sickness, invalidism, etc.

I. Group insurance. — The following table shows the amount of insurance granted for 5 cents a week. These benefits are available only when policies are issued on 100 or more persons at one time, and the premiums are all paid to the company by their representative in one sum. The commission allowed to agents for business written under this table is 5 per cent, of the premium for the first year, as reported to the company.

Mr. Haley Fiske- in a letter dated June 14, 1909, says of the table :