' *
. . , " " } .
' .
"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
