People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 October 1896 — INSURANCE AND SILVER. [ARTICLE]

INSURANCE AND SILVER.

Wftat la There In the Solicitude of the Managers For Their Polley Holders? The champions of the gold standard arc now very much exercised at the thought of having insurance policies paid in cheaper money. It is a singular circumstance that almost every argument J?) in favor of maintaining the present monetary standard has in view the interests of those classes which are in the enjoyment of exceptional advantages. The owners of fixed incomes, depositors in banks, creditors generally and holders of insurance policies are objects of especial solicitude with those who oppose the free coinage of silver. Life insurance is usually payable to persons other than the insured. However good and meritorious these people may be, there is no equity whatever in their behalf which entitles them to be paid in'appreciated dollars. In many cases the policy comes to the payee as a mere bonus for which he or she has given absolutely nothing. It is very true that the beneficiaries of such policies should be fairly treated and not be defrauded with “cheap” money. But it is not proposed to defraud them with “cheap” money. The hub of the whole question is that under present conditions, with money constantly appreciating, insurance policies are now being paid with money more valuable than the money in circulation at the time the policy was issued and more valuable than that in which the premiums have been paid. If this concerned nobody but the policy holder and the ipsurance company, the silver men would give themselves no trouble about it, but in fact a rising measure of value concerns everybody, just as enlarging measures of weight, length and bulk would. While the payee of an insurance policy is benefited by receiving money of augmented valne, other classes are ruined by being obliged to meet their obligations in such money. The latter are entitled to much more consideration than the former, first, because their necessities and sufferings are greater; secondly, because they are much more numerous, and, .thirdly, because they are the victims of the first wrong. This was the change of the standard from that of gold and silver together to that of gold alone. If this primary wrong' cannot be righted because a few innocent persons might lose something, then it wofald be impossible to ever change any vicious monetary law, however destructive to the best interests of the country, for all such changes injure somebody.

In considering policies of insurance there is another point that must not be overlooked. While it is a very nice thing for the beneficiary to get “big dollars”—dollars of high value—this same appreciation of money makes it harder for the insured to pay the premium and thus keep the policy alive. i It is matter of ccmmcn knowledge that in seasons of monetary stringency hundreds and thousands of persons are unable to pay the premiums and are I obliged to allow their policies to lapse, i They either lose the entire amount paid ■ in premiums or are driven to the neces- • sity of surrendering the original policy and tiding a “paid up” one for a mere fraction of the sum actually paid in. Such cases are not isolated and occasional, but on the contrary they make up a very considerable fraction of the total rnmbnrof insurance policies taken out. Every case of the kind involves a hardship and a wrong, which find no compensation or offset in the fact that some widow or orphan receives payment in appreciated money.—National Bimetallist.