Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1885 — Government Life Insurance. [ARTICLE]

Government Life Insurance.

The success that has attended the government carriage of letters and papers, as well as the cheapness of its telegraphic service, has led some social and political reformers to think that the same agency might be utilized for other beneficial purposes, such as postal banks, life, and fire insurance. In Great Britian there are in successful operation government postal bankA in which the poor are guaranteed the absolute safety of their surplus earnings, and a low rate, bnt sure rate, of interest. The Colonial government of New Zealand has been testing life insuranee, but so far with rather poor results. Says an English paper, The Spectator: “During the year 1883 the premium receipts were 175,372 pounds sterling. In order to obtain this receipt, not less than 31,000 pounds sterling had to be paid for fees and administrative expenses. The fees alone were more than 10,000 ponuds sterling; two medical men, 5,066 pounds sterling. Worse yet is the proportion in the industrial branch, in which we find a premium receipt of 6,217 pounds sterling set off by a disbursement of fees and administrative expenses of 4,094 pounds sterling. The insurance fund of this branch was 823 pounds sterling at the end of the year. Such a success cannot be called very encouraging. It would seem, from this statement, that politicians and officials had formed rings to misapply the funds, but this evil may be corrected in time. Bismarck has introduced government life insurance for the working classes, and there is no reason in the fitness of things why a central authority that can manage postoffices, telegraphs, and even national railway systems, with efficiency and economy, should hot be equally successful in dealing with savings banks, and life and fire insurance. — Demorest’s Monthly.