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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 1901)
' * . . , " " } . ' . "Che Conservative. > WILLIAM B. CARLILE. Manager Mutual Life Insurance Com pany. It is not my purpose to glorify the business of life insurance by extensive reference to the benign Immunity under lying its conception ; this have its found ers done , and how well , the mighty re sults everywhere attained and open for inspection , indisputably attest. To f dwell upon the accuracy , beauty and * " mathematical dimensions of its struc ture , would bo to seriously encroach upon the domain of the erudite actuary , who to this business has given substance and enduring strength. All honor to these men whose work is never done , and who , from the heights of knowl edge , peer into the widening ignorance , sighting from afar , the dangerous heresies that would menace the life in surance business. Nor have I time to narrate how consistently rapid has been the evolution of the life insurance idea ; how full and lucid its interpretation of the Laws of Average. This is for the annalist not the man of practical af fairs. fairs.Were Were I to do more than to express as my opinion that the imperishability of our established government may not find better and more accurate measure ment than in the rise and fall of this one department of our industrial ac tivity ; that to encourage life insurance as a business , is but to give stability to our governmental institutions , and to guarantee their enjoyment would be to unpardonably trespass upon the well cared for preserves of the sociologist , the political economist , and of him who would investigate the civic condition of his kind. Clearly , a discussion of these questions is not for me , save that which is hom- liest , life insurance as a business , clean- out iu oharacter-yielding no precedence. A business demanding level-headed- ness and hard common sense ; commer cial instinct and practical wisdom ; hon esty , not merely of purpose , but of acts , deeds and utterance ; honesty of heart , of thought and of countenance ; honesty in the things that are to give semblance to a well-rounded career , all impregnably - bly backed by an invincible squareness , marking every transaction concerned in its progress ; a business that dares de mand of every man his best , and dares insist that this best be made the better ; that would claim , as well , man's best of heart and soul ; whose multiplying ex actions mean a sleepless watchfulness , an unfaltering step , an ever cheerful , responsive alertness. And may the dawn of that day never bo when this creation shall witness the limitation oJ its own improvement , for' 'why stay wo on the earth unless to grow ? " One needs trace but indifferently the development of life insurance in the United States , alone , to bo convinoec ; hat no institution common to our people ple carries with it larger and more im posing trusts , more correctly typifies our national thrift , and to understand why no vocation open to the energetic youth may the more effectually engender into his heart the honest pride of rep resentation. Here is a businessthat in this country irrespective of the outer world , and through the instrumentality of a single company , has encouraged and fostered the savings of one thousand millions of dollars ( $1,000,000,000) ) earnings that be speak the frugality and self-sacrifice of quite three hundred thousand provident men and women , yet the regular life companies of the United Statss are in number in excess of forty-five (45) ( ) , as set forth in the Illinois Life Insurance Report for the year 1900. Contrasting in their entirety , the balance sheets of these companies , with the totality of our nation's wealth , ( approximately one hundred billions ) , WILLIAM B. OAULILE. the mind is set aglow with emotions of homage and respect for the monumental success of life underwriting in America. No one mind can fully grasp the im mensity of opportunity , which today this vital department of human effort holds out to our young men for the ask ing. "Whore better than here , may 1 quote the homely words of an adver tisement of one of our great Industrial life companies , inviting the attention of every enterprising youth ? "Any hon est , capable and industrious man , who is willing to begin at the bottom and acqxiire a complete knowledge of the details of the business by diligent study and practical experience , can , by dem onstrating his capacity , establish his claim to the highest position in the field. It is within his certain reach. " Naturally , my thought turns to the time when to this honorable calling , modestly , yet hopefully , I earned the first tangible ambition of my early mau- lood , there to gather. profoundest re spect for the'men who conceived its creation , who builded structure . , who nurtured its irrowlh. and encouraged its every progressive 'step the strong characters whom to know -was to vener ate the able men who ubw are watch ing over its healthful maturity. . Assuredly , mine should be no hard task , this privilegelaid before me by THE CONSERVATIVE , of pointing out to bho young men of our common country , restless for some worthy chance of showing that in their clay there is no yellow streak , the vastness of oppor tunity to be found here. Was it not a youthful energy that made the insurance companies what to day , they are , and must it not be this same youthful aggressiveness that shall stand by these companies in the future , fight their battles , work out their mis sions , crown their existence with such a glory of achievement as shall illumine along the horizon of the ages , the names and careers of their founders ? Truly , hereit seems to me , is a business that may bo just so large , just so pro ductive of opportunity , as is the ability of the mind of man to conceive its magnitude and to appreciate its respon sibilities "For wo grow like the things our souls be lieve , And rise or sink us we aim high or low. " Emphatically.no sluggards are wanted in this calling where the current of business activity is swift and powerful ; no tin selled youth may expect to find in this business the kind of gold of which ho is made ; only the unalloyed sort may tri umph here , for this young giant of our industrial life , already entrusted with fully one-fiftieth part of our recoguixed wealth as a people , has naught but contempt for the vacil lating idler , and demands for the fur therance of self-imposed gigantic tasks , the courageous devotion of the unborn giants of energy and of intellect , who shall spring up out of the coming life , else , who shall guard this honorable business , shall make as adamant the memories , works and deeds of them who gave to it being , if not our worthy youths when to manhood grown ? And what memorial more lasting than the successful careers of these same loyal yoxiths who would earn the right of toiling in their stead , may the more fit tingly perpetuate the names of them who , with a firmness marking no other department of manly effort the more , struck down the narrow prejudices that rose lip against them in unfair and ceaseless claqueur. I would not leave this honorable sub ject without making gracious mention of them who , to this business , have given the impress of their personalities ; the fearless men who have from earliest time watched over this institution , bravely met and warmly welcomed its