includes among other items "agency
expenses and commissions," which amount to about $1,203,000, or 17 per
cent. of the cost value of the insurance actually done. It would seem
as if an allowance of 20 per cent. would be a liberal one in the case
of the regular companies, which surely have as good facilities for
doing business as the assessment societies.

As far as insurance is concerned, there is less difference between
regular and co-operative companies than is generally supposed. Regular
companies assess each policy in advance for a year's insurance at a
time, while co-operative societies furnish insurance only from one
assessment to another. The difficulty in the way of collecting the
assessment in the latter case would seem to be greater than in the
former, owing to the more permanent nature of the regular insurance
contract.

In compensating agents the assessment companies naturally pay in
proportion to the insurance obtained, inasmuch as there is no other
basis to go upon, but regular companies usually pay the agent a
percentage of the premium _which includes a considerable trust fund_
over and above the assessment for actual insurance. It is easily seen
that by the last method the agent's compensation increases in
proportion to the amount of savings bank business forced upon the
company.

To realize how far we are from anything like a scientific, not to say
common sense basis for insurance expenses, we have but to examine the
following list, which gives the ratios between the expenditures for
general expenses in 1889, and those for the extension of the business.
For every $100 used in a general way, the different companies spend
for commissions and agency expenses: $37, $66, $67, $78, $91, $106,
$110, $113, $120, $140, $157, $161, $173, $175, $186, $189, $200,
$202, $222, $264, $311, $346.

It will doubtless be said that I am taking a very advanced position
when I say that in the ideal life insurance scheme there is no place
for the commission system. Solicitors will be a necessity only so long
as they are in the field, but fifty years of life insurance has taught
our community its true value and, thanks to the modern press, the
institution it is no more likely to fall into desuetude than is
Christianity or the moral law.

For the convenience of bringing the company to the individual, the
latter should be willing to pay a fee. The man who renders another a
service or puts his superior knowledge at anothe