arly a million, when in fact there was a
deficiency of two millions.

What an efficient department! What a splendid system! How careful of the
interests of the public! What a fatherly State to its expectant widows
and orphans!

Just here is the vice of the whole system. Relying on the care of the
State officers, the policy-holder takes out his policy and continues his
payments year after year. Relying on a broken reed!

Can it be conceived possible that the real owners of two hundred
millions of dollars would abandon to directors the entire charge of
their interests and the interests of those dear to them, unless they
were inspired by faith in that governmental supervision which they were
led to believe would be effectual to protect their interests, and to
make safe the provision which they had made, not for themselves, but for
those helpless ones whom it is the duty of the State to care for, and
the boast of our system of jurisprudence that it protects with jealous
care?

The result of all this faithlessness is seen in the present condition of
life insurance affairs. Is the remedy to be found in legislation, in new
attempts to make supervision on the part of the State more than a name,
or in the abandonment of the whole scheme of supervision and in leaving
the business to be carried on without any State control or supervision?
This is really the momentous question of the hour, and one that cannot
be too thoroughly discussed or too carefully considered.

In its consideration the status of a policy-holder in a life insurance
company must be taken into consideration. To thoroughly understand what
that status is, it is necessary to examine carefully the contract on
which it rests. Each policy in a life insurance company provides for a
life-long engagement on the part of the assured. He is to continue to
pay premiums as long as he lives, if he does not anticipate them by a
single payment, or by several payments. On its part the company agrees
to pay to the assured, or rather to his nominee at the death of the
assured, a certain sum. In addition, however, to this simple contract,
the policy-holder is entitled to a share in the profits of the company.
That share is greater or less as the case may be, as the organization of
the company provides. The policy-holder is thus in a certain sense a
partner in the business. He has an expectation of profits, either in the
shape of reduced premiums, increased insurance, or actual m