A
WHAT ARE THE
YOUNG MAN'S CHANCES ? 1
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 humanity 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
dwell upon the accuracy , beauty and
mathematical dimensions of its struc
ture , would be 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 activ
ity ; that to encourage life insurance as
a business , is but to give stability to our
governmental institutions , and to guar
antee their enjoyment would be to unpardonably -
pardonably 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 ques
tions is not for me , save that which is
homliest , life insurance as a business ,
clean-cut in character , 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 dajes
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 be when this
creation shall witness the limitation of
ts own improvement , for "why stay we
on the earth unless to grow ? "
One needs trace but indifferently the
development of life insurance in the
United States , alone , to be convinced
that no institution common to our people
ple carries with it larger and more im-
josing trusts , more correctly typifies our
national thrift , and to understand why
no vocation open to the energetic
youth may the more effectually engen
der into his heart the honest pride of
representation.
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
WILLIAM B. OARLILE.
quite three hundred thousand provident
men and women , yet the regular life
companies of the United States 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 oi
these companies , with the totality of
our nation's wealth , ( approximately one
hundred billions ) , the mind is set aglow
with emotions of homage and respect
for the monumental success of life un
derwriting 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. Where better than here , may I
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
acquire a complete knowledge of the
details of the business by diligent study
3BJBJL' " "
and practical experience , can , by dem-
fting\his capacity , establish his
) toth& ) highest position in the
tis'within , Jus certain reach. "
Naturally , my thought turns to the
time when'yto this * honorable calling ,
modestly , yet hopefully , ,1 'carried the
Irst tangible ambition of/myr early man
hood , there to gather ( pi6 < Pounde8t re
spect for the men who''conceived its
creation , who bnilded its structure , who
nurtured its growth and encouraged its
every progressive step the strong char
acters whom to know was to venerate
the able men who now are watching
over its healthful maturity.
Assuredly , mine should be no hard
task , this privilege laid before me by
THE CONSERVATIVE , of pointing out to
the 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 , ' „ a business
that may be just so large , just so pro
ductive of opportunity , as is the ability
of the mind of man to conceive its mag
nitude and to appreciate its responsi
bilities
"For we grow like the things our souls be *
lieve ,
And rise or sink as we aim high or low. "
Emphatically , no sluggards are want
ed in this calling , where the current of
business activity is swift and powerful ;
no tinselled youth may expect to find in
this business the kind of gold of which
he is made ; only the unalloyed sort may
triumph here , for this young giant of
our industrial -life , already entrusted
with fully one-fiftieth part of our rec
ognized wealth as a people , has naught
but contempt for the vacillating idler ,
and demands for the furtherance of
self-imposed gigantic tasks , the courag
eous devotion of the unborn giants of
energy and 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 memor
ial more lasting than the successful
careers of these same loyal youths who
would earn the right of toiling in their
stead , may the more fittingly perpetuate
the names of them who , with a firmness
marking no other department of manly
effort the more , struck down the nar
row prejudices that rose up against
them in unfair and ceaseless olaquer.
I would not leave this honorable sub-