rate, and increase the average duration of human life.'

The Equitable Company had a section for total abstainers for a
few years which was discontinued on account of the new insurance
laws which came into effect in 1907. The actuary writes in
response to inquiry: 'We are very careful in our selection of
risks, and only those who drink in moderation will be accepted.
I think it safe to say that, other things being equal, all
American life insurance companies would consider a total
abstainer a more desirable risk than a moderate drinker.'

The United Kingdom Temperance and General Provident Institution,
of London, is a large and successful company which was organized
in 1840, expressly for total abstainers, because at that time
larger premiums were asked from abstainers than from drinkers,
the common opinion then being that alcoholic liquors were
necessary to health. In 1846, this company added a general
section, in which carefully selected moderate drinkers were
accepted, but each section was kept entirely separate from the
other. This separation has continued to the present time, both
classes paying the same premiums, but sharing in profits
according to the earnings of the section to which the members
belong. From 1866 to 1900, for every 100 deaths in the
temperance section there were 137 deaths in the moderate
drinking section, based on a corresponding number of lives at
risk. The dividends for a recent five years average $20 to the
temperance members, and $17 to the drinking members.

The actuary of this English company, Mr. Roderick Mackenzie
Moore, read a paper before the Institute of Actuaries, in 1903,
in which he reviewed the work of this company during its history
of sixty years' experience with abstainers and over fifty with
non-abstainers. He showed that there has been no marked
difference in the number of policies in force in the two
sections, and the average amount of the policies in each section
has been about the same, so that the comparison is as fair as
could possibly be made. He gives these figures: 'Non-abstainers,
male, expected deaths, 8,911; actual deaths, 8,947; per cent. of
actual to expected, 100.4. Abstainers, male, expected deaths,
6,899; actual deaths, 5,124; per cent. of actual to expected,
74.3.' This shows a difference of 26.1 per cent. betw