Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 82.djvu/387

Rh existence, the mortality in such a group would be lowered at least to the degree exhibited by the abstainers in the British company above referred to.

Inasmuch as the net premium for an abstainer at age 35, under an average distribution of endowment and whole-life policies, would be $3.03 per thousand of insurance in force less than for a non-abstainer, we have here a figure representing the actual saving on such lives, the net premium being comparable to the cost of manufacture in trade. Applying this factor to the old-line insurance in force in the United States—about $18,000,000,000—a saving would result, over and above the cost of carrying on the work, of $5,000,000 annually. There would also be an annual saving of approximately 10,000 lives. These are the minimum

 Healthy males; whole-life policies; amounts; 1866-1910.

figures that can be derived from any scientific ground of experience. They can be increased according to one's confidence in the ability of hygienists to guide the public into conservation methods of living. No effort is here made to compute the enormous reflex benefits to the public at large from these activities among insured lives.

Is the work worth while? If so, how can it be carried on to the best advantage? The answer is found in a brief survey of the resources of the life-insurance companies. 25,000,000 old-line policyholders pay annually, to about 250 companies, more than $600,000,000 in premiums; these companies hold $4,000,000,000 in assets to protect $18,000,0000,000 of insurance in force; they employ 20,000 agents and 80,000 medical examiners, in addition to home-office employees, banks