Document 7ObwxJG3QnmbDEdaGDqR731gg

FILE NAME: Metropolitan Life (ML) DATE: DOC#: ML DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION:&^ A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN METROPLITAN BUSINESS Address of Mr. Fiske, Vice-President of The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, at the Planters Hotel, St. Louis, Mo., Saturady Evening, October 28th, 1916 [Stenographically Reported] \Ve are met here The gratifying thing tonight to close another about the kindness of my Triennial receptio Convention. an intimation that you were not talked to I was promptly remindcd after I had. got death today. n tonight was (Applause.) hours. and I think that I had had my way I w was verv unkind outside that I had talked of the man who told me. two If eApplause.) ould be talking yet. And I am going to talk yet. These Triennial the 40th held this Conventions, as you know, of which year, are a series of Conventions this is about been holding for the last twenty years, every three years. which I by going have about the get fcaocuenttoryfaacnedwmitheeetivnegrythSeupmeernintienndceonntv, eDnieepnuttycenters, by which I swoimthetimmoesst thofe qthueestAiognenists,aspkreodb:a"bClyuimbeoention?g" alTtohgaetathqneudresA1tis0os,n0is0th0aa.nst,bAaennendd oasfk3e0d,0a0t0 tmheileHs oomr esoOifnficae.yeaTrh. esTe hcaotnmveenatniosnas ginovoodlvdeeatlhe traveling from the Home Office. I answer to the question in suppose GROVER CLEVELAND that wonderful addr of absence gave the best at our January Convention not long before ess which he delivered his death, when he said pHtheoaomtpetlheeO-tfhffiieecledpotfoloirccye-hwoeldreercsl-oasned toth, aatntdheiyn haadretahle wriagyhtretoprhesoeldnteudp tthhee right to have the an account officers tell of its administration; that them what their plans were, it to was their explain them why they did what they did, to map out for them what to they expected to do. There are other reasons. that a man in executive charge of a field I do force not believe, of 15 for instance, woveesrt aas tSearrnitoFrryancasiscfoa,r aenadstfraosmSSyadnneyD,iengeoarolny tthoe,0E0M0negmxlaiecnnad,n,wbaosorkrdifnaegrr rtoana rpelmaceemubperinthCe annaadmae. -nsocmare-wohh,erweayupNboyrththoef NEodrmthonPtoonle,, Iamnever the snows, where representing the nobody holders but a l\Jetropolitan man ever of 16,000,000 of policies, goes ong (applause) men' where they work, vantages. their obstacles, getting meeting their them without environment, seeing seeing their the ad- that an executive officer can a swivel chair and an execu properly face govern to face. I a company do not believe like that from have a right to know that tive desk. And then, they are not governed I think that the by a typewriter men or a s(tAyplopglraaupshei.c) peAn.ndbutthebrye aispiaecceerotaf ifnlepshathanods binlotohde jruescteplitkieonthwemhiscehlvwese. 297 or 298 A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN METROPOLITAN BUSINESS get the fPraocmificfaCr odaisstt,anwthaegreenitts.waIs craenalrlyemveemrybetoruvcehriyngwetoll last Fall, out on with which the men met the Home Officers. see the gladness They never have seen jsNueesot.i1tt,oaMmndaedetitosotkhnnemoAwvaetnnhduaet athned oifnficaelrls hwumeraenwpilrloinbgabtiolittyratvheely8,n0e0v0ermwileilsl them brought a living straight confer to their with them and hearts the fact talk that over business with the Metropolitan is organization of human beings; they are brothers engaged in aaalclccooinmmmpthloiesnhlecodawuesbery. pthaTerhsteaotcfdooInlelvsineaonitlsoiotanonsfd-gthdoeoowdm.neeOtihn,gthoefreyoisunomeenndtoogfegthoeord, meet your shoulder to shoulder, having own interests. Well, th your here in St. Louis-just to conferences and talking about tdhoawt nis,arIguhmoledntthfeorcoannvyebnotdioynestrhebaetiscqaauunesoesttihIoenwrsraeintatsaotton.t,haen(AHd potphmlaaetuiOssefaf.)icken, oacnkd- The Picture of Your Mother I don't away over know night if in it a has ever happened to any of you to strange town, where you didn't kn have been alone, hotel; and you in the gloom of the evening you sat couldn't do any business until the in a dark ow anybody, corner of the reverted to home and mother, either your children; and I suspect that your morrow; your thoughts mother or the mother of you have furtively felt in your left if yoU" have been so circumstanced breast pocket, pulled out and looked tfaoatcae pohfottohgerampoht.herY, otuhedicdunr'ltynheeedadonoef ttohebrcihnigldt,oaynoduryemt itnhde thpeictfuarier uched your soul. ness sometimes you Now, r know that get'very lonely. in the prosecution You get disco of your busi- fault has the fault hbaesenbefeonunfdouwndithwyitohu,juasntidceperhaps you uraged. Perhaps are conscious that you wonder if you can go on, and , and you are discouraged, and you wonder if you had not better tlIoeasmhvaeel;.l yIoudoanr'et ddoouwbnt yhoeuarhteadv.e fTelht aitt. mNayowh,apifpesnuchtoaynoouc. caIstionhacpopmeness out want you and look at to be able to feel in your left breast a little picture of Mother-Mother pocket and Metro pull (applause) and thereby gain a new inspiration, a new politanloyalty, a new enthusiasm, a new ambition. (and I shall draw it tonight) And, if I am to I must first draw draw such a picture { hbiagvinmgotinhseurr-aancme aijnestfiocrcme oothfert;hrtehee alnardgeas--t--uCmo:atmh- epbaiolnluiytolilnnIs.le.otfheSd~hooelrlliasrds,a, \ lmmariillgllieioosnt snuamndbemr iolfliopnoslicmy-ohroeldtehrasnofitsannyeacroemstpacnoymipnetAitomr.ericIat -hsiaxstetehne ns and more of policies income of any company in the in force. world. It It has the largest has the largest to premium of any company in the world. It has the largest tal income increase yearly in shinoacmsoemfboeordoyyfesaaarnysy,s:tch"oAamnhp,aaynneyys,icnyoomtuhpeanwyorilnd. theIt wworriltde.s mAonred iinf,supraernccheanacned, Industrial Department years we have aside are an Industrial Company," throw and look just at the Ordinary, and the for the world. (Apwprliattuesne.)morAenOd rwdienagrayininmsourreanicnesutrhaannceanthyacnoamnpyany in com- ",riJ [ ! I I , t t. TRIENNIAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1916 299 pany in the world. \ Ve gain more Industrial insurance and we gain more Ordinary insurance than any company in the world. Assets? Well, assets depend on age and we are by no means the oldest company. But at the end of last year we stood No.4; in March of this year we passed the .t:qtlltable and now we are No.3; in Ju!}' of next year we shall pass the Mutual Life and then we shall be No.2; and in about four years from now we shall pass the New York Life, and then we shall be No. 1. (Applause.) When we get No. 1 we will stay No. 1. (Applause.) We have now $600,000,000 of assets. In five or six years we shall have a billion dollars. In less than fifteen years we shall have two billions of dollars-an unthinkable sum. Oh, she is a big mother. The Two Sides of Her Face But then I suppose that you and I would be engaged in rather a poor business to-night if we sat here boasting of bigness. I want to show you that she is a beautiful mother, and so I shall try to fill in the lineaments of her face. And in doing this I shall call the two sides of the face, one Ordinary and the other Industrial. And, Ladies and Gentlemen on this side of the table, I shall use quite often these terms, "Ordinary" and "Industrial" through the evening, and I shall want you to understand what I mean by them. Ordinary insurance is that kind of insurance which is written by a considerable number of small and rather insignificant, but very admirable and well-managed companies like the Mutual Life, and the New York Life, and the Equitable Life (laughter and applause) and other companies like that whose names you see in the newspapers, but about which you do not know or care very much. The system is to fix a unit of insurance-a thousand dollars-and then, according to age and plan, to fix a premium, and this premium is paid annually, semi-annually or quarterly at the head, or the district office. That is Ordinary. Now Industrial insurance is just as scientific a plan as the other, but in its scheme it starts from the other end. It first fixes a unit of premium, say ten cents a week, and then, according to age and plan, fixes the amount of insurance that can be given for that unit of premium; and these premiums are collected weekly at the homes of the insured by the agents of the company. That is Industrial insurance-family insurance. Character of Metropolitan "Ordinary" Now let us take the Ordinary; and I am to prove and show and delineate a beautiful mother. Now, what is beauty? I suppose that, fundamentally, beauty is an expression of character; I suppose that to be the most beautiful thing or person in the world which exhibits on its face the expression of the most beautiful character. But then, what is character in insurance? I suppose character in Life Insurance is that quality which best adapts itself in its plans to the most classes of people and then pursues those plans with the greatest fidelity. My theme, then, to-night, is to take up this Company of yours and mine in these two departments separately and prove character along the lines that I have spoken of, and thereby show beauty. Now, the Ordinary Department. \Ve re-began that business in the year 1892. '" ... ... ':":....... .' :,~ 300 A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN METROPOLITAN BUISNESS We had for 20 years begun the Industrial or more business done an Ordinary in the year 1879 busi::'C3S, but, having Insurance Department only had about three run down million until, at the we let the end of 1891 I Ordinary think we write five or six millions e v s er y of ins week uranc now, e I i n th force. ink th r e Well, as e millions we in force may be said to And we began that be negligible, and we re-began, business on a platform therefore, in 1892. the older men may remember that first of rate-book, principles. which read Some of something like this: "The Metropolitan plain business man desires a believes the time plain business has come when the nwohtohliengstofrroymuphoonpeit,spfuatcse,inleapvlaeisnndoothllianrgs taondthcecoeninmttrsaacgwtinhwaathitoicnthh, ebteolrlrsowitss holder is to pay and in plain and when he is to receive it." words and figures That sounds what he is to policyreceive the Ten honest. Commandments; And yet it w it seems so a little like a modification of simple, so businesslike and so non-participating exp policays esxocmluestihvienlyg. neIwt. mIetanwt atshatht enodethsicnrigptcioonuldofbea tracet,ctaendd,byinthoerdpeorlitcoyu-hnodledresrtabnedyointsdstihgenipfilcaainnctee, rymosu of a written con- pwthaaersticcoainpdaktiiitninodgnsoinftshurerinaontwc-eet.hreatinptrhaectiicnaslulyranaclle twhoerlidn.surAannmcdeuwstwekrfniitontewdntwhweharaest Participating and Non-Participating Insurance Now, the participating difference insurance fundamentally is this; they between participating both start and non- premium; that is defined by statute; with the same net participating insurance adds a pohcaecyauvry. loNadoinn-gpa-trhtiecyipastaiyngfoirnssuarfaentyceinpucatsse oonf aepildoewmilcosadwinhgichjunset vteor the expenses. premium, Now that therefore, is is the difference between different, and the prom those two, and because the participating companies knowing perfectly well in their putting on ises are different, the high loading and will be needed promise to for mortality hearts that and ought not these to be high premiums never needed for expenses, on those the policy-holder that policies dividends. That they will is why it is keep an account called participa and pay ance. Well, of no such thing as course, "Dividends" is a dividends in life insuran misnomer. ting insurThere can be tdhiveindeinndvso, gbuuet wa eproertthioen of the overchargecse.. What is returned is not Now, you see, the plans that some insuran part of the overcharging of overcharges would policy-holders on the promise be returned. Non-participating beyond ce was charging the face of the just what policies. was necessary That was the and making differen no promise what the practical result was. These participating ce. Let us see premiums were ivnneeerfydoerhdmeafevoryr.yeexaTpreshnesyesweexrecenpot twnheeerdeedtheforer wmaosrtmaluitcyh aenxdtrathveaygawnceere, annodt culations at the the companies end of the year were accustomed and return these to make their overcharges cal- so-called dividends annually. But many years before 1892 of there any had grown up a system Tontine. That is to of say, reserving these they didn't pay dividends-what their was called they kept them back and put them in a dividends annually, but fund and improved them at r i TRIENNIAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1916 301 , I " interest on a promise that at some deferred period-usually twenty years-they would be returned to the policy-holder, and there was a kind of gambling element because the promise was that these dividends at the end of twenty years would be paid only to those who persisted; those who died or lapsed their poiicies lo~L everything beyond the fac~ of the policy; and men were led to take this insurance on the promise that if they would only persist they would get not only their own profits, but the profits of everyone who fell out either by death or lapse. These were large. The amount never was stated by the companies. The estimates were furnished according to the more or less fertile imaginations of the agents. They never understated. There were large expectations on the part of the policy-holders. But meanwhile the funds grew and grew rapidly. The assets piled up. The so-called surplus piled up. I can remember one company that used to advertise "The Strongest Company in the W orId. Eighty Millions Surplus." It was not surplus at all. It was $80,000,000 which was promised some time or other to be paid to some one not yet determined in an amount not yet fixed, but to be paid some time or other to somebody. Then it was liability-not surplus at all. But then that is what they said. And this wealth, this accumulation of money naturally led to a desire to spend it; and one of the ways of spending it was to bid for great amounts of business; they paid very high commissions; they hired expensive offices, handsomely furnished, on prominent corners, high priced General Agents, paid high commissions to Special Agents, and then, in addition to these commissions, they used to offer bon~;;es and rewards for certain amounts of business to be written. The amounts of insurance written each year were very large. They would run up to $300,000,000 or $400,000,000 in one company. And there was a great scramble for this business for the earning of these bonuses and rewards; and naturally enough that led to what is known as The Old Evil of Rebating Now I suppose there is nothing very morally wrong about rebating, taken by itself. The courts have held that a merchant might divide his profits with his customers in the shape of green trading stamps, etc., but the evil of rebating in Life Insurance was this-that it was the paying over to a prospect, to an applicant, of a sum of money which could only come from the surplus earned by the old policy-holders, and when an agent gave an applicant a rebate he was paying over to him money which belonged to the old policy-holder and was in this so-called surplus. That was the evil of rebating. That led to stringent legislation attempting to prevent it. It went on to a wild extent about the time I am telling about. It is said that some men, in December, got insurance for $100,000 and got 100 per cent. rebate and didn't pay anything. They held that only for a year; the next year they would do the same thing with another company and get another year's insurance, and then the third year they would go to the third company and get another 100 per cent. rebate, and pay nothing for the third year. Mr. AYRES says that the third company would do the same thing every year. Well, I don't know. That seems to be a long bow. Still, he knows best. And the possession of these large sums of money naturally led to investments which, it was said, i , I ........ ~~---------------- 302 A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN METR were made body. for the persona! h~nefit ::; th OPOLITAN BUSINESS this b riotW, tehihsavmeadnorthuisnhg to for do with busin thaot.se Wcoennheacvteedownliythtothedooffwicial y the existed expenditure between the of large large co ess, sums of this tremendous money and the impetus rivalr ith given the others. And, of coursme,patnhiees haasvitnogwihnichhasnhdould get y which ahead of oamgfielomlfiofeincnsetr,so.afnddolilnarosnwe acsoamvpaalnuyabtlheetrheinwgastoathqe men whoofhathdesthee mmaanny- company, it by andThheisreidweaas oofnpeuosfhfiicnegr twhheocthoughtuahrereolugbhettwtoeecnontwtrool stehtes dressegdiviynogunegxpelandsiievse dinners at would be Sherryo'smwpahneyre,alaofntgerwdaisnnteor,adscvertise around among the over any of them. glasses Ther and theinbtrootdtluecs,edtheonstuthnet table, being and antily dance that thought that that e was another set was, well, a rather of officers improp in not to kick that company tspotaanaidytt'asoclkfdui-nnfagdssh, ioannedd tphraitncthipelecso;mspoanthyeymgigoht ttobe betteerr umsaenaogfedtheoncotmhe- said bad both, a each other, things about they sent the other, for the and yellowdisnaegwresepmapenertss; they got and each nd the (Laughter.) public read And then them both, that go and the the newspapers printed public believed them them b said: "Well, it's things", and they time we went came do tdouwpntoto ANlbeawnyY, oarnkdtothleooLkegislatoutrhe. HUGHES, who is this wn and year running tfhoery ParpepsiodienntetdonMr. into this CHARLES E. ticket, by an a man of very investigation, a high man character, who has already twheonRepublican Lanifde hIensuunradnecrteo.okB, uatsmCeoaunnwsoheflilevfoewrryhtehgrereeCatomabmiliitttye,e,exthtreaoinrdviensatirghyaistaiobsnipliutoyrfs, When w The Metropolitan was the Metropolitan? Set the Standar Iitn,dsuhruggedethbeeigranshionul1d8e9r2s people, so far and laugh as they d l&ew anything about. tan strial early ccaommepatnoy;thtehiscoins calutsen-cent ecdo.mp"aOnhy."(theFyorsathide),Mthetirsois an offices, would that put it its would entire not employioenxptehnastiviet futu would not hire General Agents poliexpensive thhaantdtsheosfethoethIenrdcuosmtrpiaal re in Agents. the Ordinary (Applause.) Department It was pf'r , but right that it in the athgareteliwttliteh ctohmeiprany nies could dshoo; ualdndbethqeuitiemimndedififaerent to fe~tly natural anything that first year year we $11,0 wroptreos$p2e,c0t0s0, ,0as00l,aitdheoustecboyndthese ottheerrecsoumltpsansieeesm. edThtoe 000,000. tion. 00,000, the Oh, it was fourth a little ytheianrg$. 16I,0t 00,00y0eaanr d$6t,h0e00f,i0f0th0,ytehaer third $26,- valley, Wwaitsh ittheeashyi?lls Was it easy on either to was remain dnoowt nattinracthtiengboatntoymatten- nPors flying, bands playing and side crowded with shouts resounding? processipns, of a ban- Wa cwoimthmstiasnsidontsheanddemhaignhdser of the agents that they should s it h easy to hamerbei?tionLooofk jautnitohre oPfrfuicdeerpsn,rteiwmalh.iuomLssoa?iodk:Wata"sWthihtaet aasyre towewditohaivsnteganhddiogwthhener SYeoerkthLeiirfes,utrhpelusEqguriotwab.le.AnSdeewetheamr grow. e SMeuetuthaleiLr iafess, etthsegNroeww. e poor. Why shouldn't we get TRIENNIAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1916 303 into the scramble?" 'Vas it easy to pursue that narrow path of duty against these temptations, and refuse to he swerved to right or left? Is it ever easy? Is it every easy to remain in obscurity, pursuing a lonesome path of duty and resisting daily temptations? It is not easy. The reward came when that investigation that I have dc~~ribed was made. Mr. HUGHES put his finger right on the rotten spot. He said: "It is Tontine Insurance," and he passed a law that made the doing of it a crime, and none has been written since. And then he undertook to regulate, and the restrictive statutes contained two, which is all we need to discuss, which were drastic, known as Section 97 and Section 96. By Section 97 he fixed a limitation of expense for the procuring of new business in anyone year; and when it was published the other companies said: "'Vhy, that is outrageous; we cannot live. What Mr. HUGHES is doing is to shut up New York to New York companies and open it to all outside companies. He will wind us up. We cannot continue." What was the reply? "Look at the Metropolitan. (Applause.) For thirteen years, without being required by law to do so, they have kept their expenses practically down to the restrictive limits of Section 97." And the answer to these other companies was: "If the Metropolitan can do it, you have got to do it." (Applause. ) The reward was a long time coming, but it was a very precious thing to us to have been selected as a standard-this company they all laughed at-to be selected as a standard for the law. The Limitation of N cw Business The other restrictive section was known as 96. Not only did Mr. HUGHES and the Armstrong Committee undertake to limit the expenses which a company might go to in procuring first year's business, but they undertook to limit the business which a company could write in anyone year, and in fixing these limitations they made the maximum $150,000,000. And they for the smaller companies based the amount that could be written on the amount of Ordinary insurance in force, and so it was graded down, according to the sizes of the respective companies, from $150,000,000, to some companies writing $5,000,000 or $10,000,000. Well, if that rule had been applied to the Metropolitan we could have written but $88,000.000. What did the Legislature do? It put into the law a proviso. That proviso was that in fixing the basis of the writing of Ordinary business those companies which did an Industrial business could include in that basis all the Industrial business in force, and forthwith that gave the Metropolitan the right to write $150,000,000 instead of $88,000,000. It put us up in the maximum class. Of course this created a great deal of feeling. The New York Life began a suit to declare the law unconstitutional on the ground that that was special legislation for the benefit of one company, and special legislation was forhidden by the State of New York; and they said the Metropolitan was the pet of Mr. HUGIIES, the favorite of the Legislature. We have been called worse names than that. Well, the case came up before the judge, and I have always thought that it was more or less fortunate that I didn't happen to be the judge. 111 be hanged if I know how I would have decided if that case had come to me. (Laughter.) It did seem like picking out one company. Somebody else was judge and he decided that it was constitutional. He said 304 A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN METROPOLITAN BUSINESS it was a constitutional thing for the Legislature to grade companies in ...lasses, and he put the Metropoiitan into a class by itself. (Applause.) Aqunedstsioont.he law was sustained, and we went on. But there was that ugly An Elastic Amendment Mr. HUGHES had meanwhile become Governor of the State, and after a very few years our Ordinary business in force had grown up to an amount which as a basis gave us the right to write $150,000,000, and then he took out that old alleged unconstitutional part of the law with the result that we were not affected in the least. We could still write $150,000,000. Well, meanwhile we had grown. Of course the result of the investigation was to add to the reputation of the Metropolitan Life, and of course the people were quick to recognize the advantages of insuring with us, and our business went up by leaps and bounds. You will observe that the other companies were kept down. Those who used to write $300,000,000 now couldn't write any more than $150,000,000, whereas we could write just as much as they could. And then an amendment was passed when we began-I think the New York Life began to rather press against the barriers-they got an amendment through by which an additional amount could be written each year depending upon the economy and the renewal expense. That enabled us to write more than $150,000,000. Then we pressed against that barrier, and then the Legislature passed another Act which permitted the Superintendent of Insurance, and does permit him now, when he thinks it wise, to extend this limit 10 per cent., provided that 10 per cent. is charged against the following year, and so we went on, growing year by year, writing more and more, until last year we wrote, not $150,000,000, but $256,000,000 (applause) larger, by twenty or thirty millions than our nearest competitor, the New York Life. That is not the whole story. We wrote that long before the end of the year, and you will remember that in November I had to send you out a letter: "Don't write any more business deliverable this year; we are reaching the limit." And then in December I got frightened and I sent you out a telegram: "Don't collect on any more business you have written." We disobeyed the law one year and ran over a half a million dollars. That was winked at. I don't want to do that more than once. I am willing to be a martyr, but going to jail alone for delivering just a few policies-well, I think I would select the General Solicitor; he is a lawyer; I think he ought to go to jail. (Laughter.) Ours was the only company to write the limit-the only company to get the 10 per cent. and write that limit; and we ended the year with the whole side of a room piled up with policies-$20,000,000 or $30,000,000 of themready for delivery the first of January. This year it is the same; millions and millions ahead of any other company already, and to-morrow, as some of you know to your grief, is the last day to place any Ordinary insurance this year. (Applause.) You applaud because it is a great, great record. We have written the limit and we have got our 10 per cent. allowance and we have written that, and personally, some of us officers are scared to death now for fear that in the field policies have been placed beyond what has been reported that will carry us rI-- I I I I I I l,- i 305 ovcr the limit. c\ud \yc had to scnd out tclegrallls-I suppose you received thel1l-~topping- the husiness after tomorrow. I am sincerely sorry for you. It is a hard thing that men who arc ambitious to write Ordinarv shall not be allowcd to write it. It is a hard limitation for us. I know that it puts you agents under temptatiun. I k;:;,c;'; that it is hard work to explain to those who want the insurance. I do not think there is anything else to do than to say: "My dear Mr. So and So, I am just as sorry as you are. The only advice I can give you is to come in early next year and avoid the rush." (Applause.) But I do not want you to stop writing Ordinary business. I believe that such is the reputation of this Company, and such the desire of people to get in that you can continue right on writing Ordinary business this year deliverable on the first of January. I believe if you push that argumcnt to prospects-that everybody wants insurance in the Metropolitan and that therefore it must be more valuable than that of any other company, that they will be so anxious to get in and so confident of their good health that they will sign the application and be willing to wait until the first of January to receive their policies. I do not want you to stop work. But isn't it a glorious record? Doesn't it show character? Isn't it faithful service to the public? Character. Beauty. Character in Compan), Plans But I said that character also consisted in adapting the plans to most classes of people. Clear back in the year 1895 we found a whole class of people uninsured and uninsurable. They were the working men and women of America. They could not go into the older companies because they couldn't afford to take $1,000 policies, and if they could have afforded to have taken them the companies couldn't have afforded to have issued the policies on account of the high mortality. It was then running, as far as we could determine, about 150 per cent. of the Actuaries' table. They were shut out, or rather, shut up to Industrial insurance, which is necessarily high priced on account of the collection of weekly premiums, or to Assessment or Fraternal insurance. And yet here was a great body of American people who ought to have insurance just as cheap as it could be furnished. \Ve devised the Intermediate policy. It was an uncharted sea. Vlfe didn't know what to charge. \Ve didn't know what the mortality was. vVe knew what the mortality was among the class generally, but we couldn't tell what the mortality would be among those of the industrial class who could afford to pay annually, semi-annually and quarterly. And so \ve issued -the policies in units of $500, and we based the premiums on the Industrial Table of Mortality and added the Ordinary loading, and thereby got out a premium which was a good deal lower than Industrial insurance and somewhat higher than the Ordinary. \Ve did not know whether we were charging too much or too little, so we put in the policy the provision that we would keep a strict account, and if it should turn out that our charges were excessive, we would return the excess at the end of five years and then annually thereafter. \Ve issued millions of this insurance. I suppose we have -seven or eight hundred thousand of these policies now. About 306 A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN METROPOLITAN BUSINESS one-quarter of Why, on some our business is done on that plan. plans these dividends were so vVhat is the result? the insured on the Intermediate policy was high that the net cost to less than the net cost of the rich man's policy Character. Beauty. in the Ordinary Department. (Applause.) Providing for Sub-Standard Risks There was They were the another class under-average of people who people, people couldn't with get insured. tories, bad personal histories, health. To them the doors of a sub-standard bad condition family hisof personal shut. They needed the insurance insurance. They had companies were naturally wives and families like other people. the year 1900 Could we do anything for we devised what is known as them? And so, about There again was an uncharted sea. Special Class insurance. Nobody on earth could tell what atomocuhanrtgaen, danfdor sothewseamfinealplyremdeiucmidsedastoinistshuee policies for the same but to put on the back of these policies a Ordinary Department, lien, the amount of that mlAieocntrutaatloriiteybs.e' tTadbehlteeenrmawnidneedosaniebde:mtwa"edeIenf utpheonnedtoupbrleemtihuemAmctaudaerieus'p taobnle thoef separate account, if we make an and at the end we charge of five years too we much we will keep a will declare a dividend same. and y, and at the end annually thereafter; of the second five years and, if these liens ever we will get do the we will pay the dividends in cash. What millions and millions of this insurance. was the result ? wiped out We issued accounts, and we so managed plans of Special Class that plan \Ye that it did is a keep fact our that separate on some liens ho were wiped out insurance the dividends and cash dividends paid, were so large that and the net cost to the the lders of sub-standard, Special Class insurance actually became less at(hnAacpenptlwhaeuasswe.hp)oaliedTwhbeoyrtlhtdhineogvhehera.adltnheyvepreobpeleen iknnotwhen iOnrtdhienahriystoDryepoafrtimnseunrt-. I not pointing classes out that we I am pointing out unique things; but am did adapt our policies to the needs of all acter. of the people, Beauty. and then carried them out with fidelity? Char- The $5,000 Whole Life Policy And then it occurred, about the Third Vice-President, that seven years ago, we had been to Mr. WOODWARD, all of our lives for the poor, had some rights in the worl and, after all, working pretty hard the well-to-do people Now, what is the advantage d. of Could we do anything being well-to-do? Well, f or them? of course, litt isis totohbaeveaableh,ygifienyiocuhaorueses;icikt ,istotohhaavvee agodoodctfooro;difanydouplenty of it. to have a people so trained nurse; if you circumstanced ought get tired, to live to go away and need one, rest. Now, they ought to live longer we do anything for then their longer than insurance ought other people. If to cost less. Can to know the mortalityt.hatBcelfaosrse otfhaptewopelec?oulYd oinucrseeaes, eththeednifefticpurletymwas above the American Experience Table because the law fixed that ium and f TRIENNIAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1916 307 let you go as much higher as you liked, but it never allows you to go any lower than the American Experience Table. The only thing we could do was to reduce the loading, and we put that loading down to 1 per cent., just to be respectable. The loading on our policies was eleven or twelve per cent., but if we wanted to make a cheaper policy we had to Cut down the lc:!ding-. \".That was the result? We issued about two millions of that a month regularly, and have been doing It ever since. Its persistence is higher than anything ever known in insurance. The mortality has been low. \Ve are running about 48 per cent. or the American Experience Table. \Ve have saved two and a half millions on the first seven years' operation. We laid aside a million dollars for special mortality reserve on the theory that even if a man is insured in the Metropolitan he has got to die some time, though, of course, if he is insured there he will live longer than if he was insured anywhere else. Still, being a mortal, he must die. (Laughter and applause.) Well, after that we took the money and declared dividends. You are paying them this year. You are paying them when they were not promised, and the result is that the people are now receiving their insurance at a less cost than the net premium. It was difficult to pick out these people, and we hit on the expedient of saying that a man who could afford to take a $5,000 policy and pay an annual premium in advance probably belonged to this well-to-do class. That is the way we picked them out, and that has been the result. Adaptation to class. Character. Beauty. Dividends Paid T1lith Non-Participating Rates And then, a year and a half ago came the most astonishing event ever known in the history of insurance. It was the turning over of this company from a stock company to a mutual company, and then continuing the Ordinary insurance at non-participating rates and. yet promising dividends. (Applause.) There was great rejoicing among the other companies when we became a participating company. They said: "Now, we will see what the Metropolitan will do; it has got to raise its premiums." We didn't. We continued the participating premiums at non-participating rates, and to-day you are paying dividends on millions and millions of Ordinary insurance which was issued at non-participating rates, and where it was distinctly stated that the holders would not be entitled to any part of the surplus, and this was printed in prominent ink so that nobody could be deceived, and yet to-day you are paying thousands and thousands of dollars on many thousands or these policies, and thereby you are getting the net cost of insurance to the Ordinary policy-holder cheaper than ever has been known in the history or insurance. (Applause.) Character. Beauty. Industrial Premiums Given Back to Policyholders Now, let us turn to the other side of the face. Take the Industrial. We began this business in the year 1879. We didn't know what to charge. We hadn't any experience. Nobody had on this side of the water. We fixed the benefits for the given premium by rule of thumb, having regard to absolute safety, and we soon found these benefits 308 A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN METROPOLITAN BUSINESS were l)any too had high. \Ve reduced them. $100,000 invested, and \Ve still lo~t fTlI.llley. The Com- in more capital until they got it and that up to it disappeared. disappeared, and they The put stockholders put in more cap but just at this point, half a the year million dollars, and that 1885 or 1886, we began was ital impaired; and when When we we began began the we made it Industrial rapidly. \Vhat did to make money, we do with it? to permit us to do it, and a probvuissiionenssofwtehegocthathrteerchwaarsterthaamt eifndweed scshahopouiutlalddl numontatikple thaeny$5m00o,n0e0y0 wgoet sthooubled twfirost maipllpiolyns,it antod itnhcreasing the the extent ofaythaenycampoitrael,thaannd 7thpeerdcivenidt.e,nadnd two ereafter we millions should be per cent. Well, 7 per cent. on two millions s should be limited to 7 was $140,000 a year, and otwwveeernwtayen-rtedhrmaebeaokvyineegaarsfivweeopr asidix omutilltioontsh. e Whohldaetrsdidof wIendduostwriaitlh it? In lions of dollars been kn ll the in cash. obligations of (Applause.) their contracts, Such a thing policies, fifty-four mil- acter. own in the Beauty. history of insurance. Fidelity to as the that had people. never Char- SlIb-Standard Industrial Then we fOUijJ that there under average. It seemed to was be a class of Industrial risks that were trial policy-holder with our experience, we this classutnhjautstwteorepusnhiosrhtetrhelivOerdd, inanadry, Indusha a sub-standard as a stan got up a new Industrial policy. table at net premiums We had it adop and ving issued dard. standard table, And it is to be noted that our Intermediate table, the State theads baydopthteed Satsatae nInigdhutstIriwalastainbleBaaltnidmoorue rhosludb-standard our Special Class Industrial table. table, our The other addressed afternoon, the the Insurance Pr ing Class of one the of these conventions, and, Johns Hopkins Universi having and return the ofessor of compliment, Iannsdu r aandcderewssasoguor obdaenough to ty in the come down baenednwbhoethnehreedmbaydethhisistasbpleeecohf hmeosrataid: "You knonwqu, eatllinmythleifeevIenhianvge, you talk that you about a table of are only runnin mortality alnitdy.theWn hyaotuIgdooanr'ot uunnddearnstdanbdoaiss, the table of mortality? here was a c g 50, 60 or 70 To-night I have per got cent. some of it. What enlighte good t is termediate, ex ompany that Special Class, had the ssipxectaiablle$s5,o0f00mortality-Orndminenatr.y", For In- t r i ac al tly an a d tab the le of sub- morta standa lit rd y, but Indu it str is ia the nearest pthoilnicgyt-owietl-lt,hiet is not Indus- tdoonseixitdiofrfeirsendtoicnlgasistestoodfayp.eoTplhee. oCnllhy-asrciaxocm.tepNra. onyoBtwehaheuirctyhc.oamdpaapntsy ihtasspelavnesr Wh.v the Company Was Mutualizcd And then came that examine this a moment. crowning act of mutuality-and we want to This became is the first opportunity a mutual company, and I have had to explain to you why we Well, we were a stock company,I osnulpypopsaeyiynoguthheavsetoocfktheonld.evrosnd7erpeedr. TRIENNIAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1916 309 cent. and having a free hand with all the surplus we made. and paying it back to the Industrial policyholders. so that we were really a participating company, and yet \\'e had a perf ect!y free hand to do what we liked. Then. why change? It is a proper question. You ought to have an explanation. The company had t\\'o lllillions capital and forty millions surplus; and people began to say: "Why, what a money-making concern that is, that, on the face of it, the stock seems to be worth 2.000; and such ~mall amounts of stock as has come out in the market is selling for 150 or 175. Why, wouldn't it he a good thing to get control of $40,000.000 of sl11'plus, and even pay a good price to do it?" They got eager. They came down fr0111 Canada, they came over from England. they came up from \Vall Street. It had been selling for 150. They offered 500. I well remember one afternoon when the English representative came in. He said: "Mr. FISKE. I am over here representing an English syndicate to buy your stock." "\\'ell, what arc you paying?" "\Vell, we will pay as little as \\'e can." "SOO?" "Possibly." "\\' ell, what arc you paying SOO for, for a stock that pays 7 per cent. all $100? That will only net you about one and two-thi rds per cent. \ Vhat arc you doing it for? Do you think it is worth it? Do you suppose that you are going to buy that stock and come in and handle these assets? Go ahead and buv it; and then take a seat on a bench in Madison Square; you'll 'never get in the front doo!'." Because, meanwhile, foreseeing such a possible event we had got our charter amended, so that the Industrial policy-holders could vote for the directors, and the eighty thousand shares of stock having one vote each didn't cut much ice if you compare it with ten millions of Industrial policy-holders. Well, he looked at me a minute or two, and said : "Well, you know, really I came in to talk this over with you and see how you felt; and now I've found out; I think I'll go home." The Canadians were a little more open. They said: "\\'e've come to buy your stock and we've got an offer-an offer for SOO-and it is to be turned over to us, and. we have come in to see you because we like the \Yay this insurance company is run, and we want the insurance business run just as it always has been, only, you know, when we buy the stock, why of course we control the finances." \Ve11, what I said to him wouldn't bear repetition in polite society. (Laughter.) He went home. And then, shortly after, in came a H crald reporter. He said: "How do you do? Looking comfortable, aren't you?" "\\,hy not?" "\Vhile you are sitting at your desk your company is being sold out." "That's interesting; who is buying it?" "I'm not allowed to tell." "What is he paying?" "Can't tell you." "What do you know about it?" "Why, down in \Va11 Street. in a lawyer's office I know of they are signing the papers now to sell you out." I knew he was misinformed. The stock was in the safe deposit vault. Nobody had ever seen it. These stockholders had resisted every offer. They said: "\Ve are trustees for the working people of America. \\'e're not going to sell that stock and put this Company in the hands of a gang of Wall Street exploiters to monkey with and to cheat with. \ \'e don't sel!." (Ap- plause.) At the same time it was very unpleasant to have these rumors going around. \Vhy, they are going around. A year after '.;,.. ;1~. t- 310 A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN MS'tROPOLITAN BUSINESS rtheepoCrtosmtphaantythweasstmocuktuhaalidzedbeaennd the stock called in we had definite ('ontre! of it. Cur was mostly held by minds three were sold. brought Stoomtheibsodsiytua....:tiaosn.goiTnhge tostogcekt Stwuoppcohsieldtrheeny odfiead.deceasedpPe orepslied-etnht.e President All right of the Company as long as the and. and suppose body came the chilSdurepnpowseercehirledprreenseanntdedgrbaynda-cghuiladrrden y lived. came along; infant's sa along and stock at $1,000 said to this guardian: a share." What wo ian and some"I will buy your id? Could he have said: "Oh, no. Oh, uld the guardian have no. My infant is trustee atfhroeer ctthhoeeurwgt uohaarrkvdieniagsnapidoe?of paleInt owf oAumldehriacvae, asanidd sthoethweognu'tasredlila?n": W"Rhoatt. wYouolud worth $150, you -mutualization take infant, it." We asenedmiefdytooubceanshguett u$p1,t0o00thfeor what is And then negotiati we be;gaanndntehgeontitahtieonqsu.estNioonwwaloso, kwhatatthcoeuld we one thing get it for? ons went $2,000,000 capital on. and There was another less surplus than company time when these in Newark with a a mutual company, and to appraise the stock, the Court and it w of New OUrS that wanted Jersey appointed a to become committee stock would be appraised report 910 as the value. at as 800. TunhdeerCsotomomd isastiotnhadtidtimsuebstehqautetnhtlayt the Prudential of dividends of 5500 And then London, which we pays always every had before our year to stockh view pays out every per year 55 cent. times on tlte etnhteirecacpointatrlibuortiiogninally olders invested- o stock in dividends. as the price, having And we finally regard to wha got these stockholderfs ctaoshtakceap3it0a0l to produce the same income that t the they money could be had had. And invested for so the stock ocwofhmitchpheantfyhaecfytortcho3au0tl0dt.hheaIsveneosttsoioccledkyfoour d5o0n0'toarppmlaoured.theAyndturInaemd oqvueitretaowtahries dexoecsepctonbygrathtuelaCteoma missionerhoolfdeMrsashsaavcehunseevtetsr, had ar,ty thanks who in his last f01'-1t, ..... ~ ~ ~:{ I do not know the contra thatntdhethyahnakvteheemverangdotparaniyseptrhaeisme;fbroumt outside report of that, ~x .~ was th ry, they had a rather annoying for good deal of fun made awhile. These stoc of anybody. On them. I think it em. I was walking down nWotalml uScthreeotf oanestdoacyk,holder, kholders had people but I remember very jibe well "What's the matter with you?" I and said: a fellow came up and said: "I don't know that there is Wtahnehyatmhtianatgrteetrhyewouimthsaettlthleiarntwcirtohwmdey;owu'hvaet'sgottheupmathtteerre winithMyaoduis?o"n S"Wq hat's of and what Street man. kind g that of fools stock at 300 are you?" I for? didn't What reply. are H you uare? thinking (Laughter did I came from and applause.) the rarified atmosphere We didn't speak the of e was a Wall Madison Square. n't understand the same tongue. There was same language. We no use, and I passed TTonhheeywy iccthaanonudgtioea dwowiwtohrndth.toe tAhnedir ygerat vtehsiswritehwaardconthsociseencsetovcokihdolodferosffheanvsee.. to sell ploite out the workingknpoewopleldegeofthAamt teermicpa,tattoionallwoaws offered to them d, and they refused. They held to a moderate them to be exprice, one which f TRIENNIAL ADDRESS, HALI~Y fISKE, 1916 311 everybody says is moderate, and turned over these five or six hundred millions of assets to the working men and women of America. (Applause. ) The Metropolitan-the Very Foundation of American Life And now, what is this Company? It is worth while to stop for a moment now and see just what this Company is. We are completing the picture. What is the Metropolitan Life? It is a faithful company of the holders of sixteen millions of policies, probably insuring twelve millions of people, so that every tenth man, woman and child in the United States of America and Canada are insured in the Metropolitan. (Applause.) It is the brawn and sinew, the muscle, of American and Canadian Life. It is the foundation of political government. It is the foundation of "'ealth became it is labor which produces wealth. It enters deep, deep, deep into the very heart of American communities. Do you realize that in this city of 750,000 people we have in force 501,000 policies? (Applause.) Do you realize that, as you walk the streets of St. Louis every other man, woman and child you meet is a Metropolitan policy-holder? (Applause.) Do you realize that in the 188 towns of this State in which we do business, we have 700,000 policies. and that of the 1,800,000 people, therefore, we have got every third man, woman and child in the whole State in these 188 towns ? You know we cannot do business in the agricultural communities, but in the 188 towns every third man, woman and child you meet is insured in the Metropolitan. Do you know that down in Memphis every third man, woman and child is insured in the Metropolitan? That up in Montreal every third man woman and child is insured in the l\Ietropolitan, and that over in Quebec the same thing is true? That opposite Quebec, in Levis, we have got more policies in force than the total number of the population? Do you know that in the great city of Philadelphia, the second or third largest city, there are more Industrial policies in force in three Industrial companies than the entire population? Can you realize any system that is closer to the hearts of the American people than Industrial insurance? Can you imagine any company which gets closer to the pulse of American life than the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company? And that is what the Metropolitan is. It is a band of twelve millions of workingmen associated together for mutual protection, resolved that they will pay their money into a common fund for the protection of each of them. Is there anything sweeter in life than that? Does any man ever get thanked for insuring his Ii fe? Doesn't his wi fe always say he is wasting his money? Is it not true that it is upon the marble face in the coffin that the tears of gratitude fall? Does a man really expect to die when he takes insurance? Isn't he conscious or sub-conscious that when he is insuring his life he is paying his premiums for the sake of somebody else? Is there a nobler spectacle in the whole world to-day than the banding together of these men and women for mutual protection? That is Mother; and isn't she beautiful? The Smile of the Mother And then Mother has a smile. Let us try and depict the smile. The administration some years ago came to the conclusion that some t .. 'f f 312 A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN METROPOLITAN BUSINESS duty was devolving Ll[JOn them in the mai~a;C:-:1ent of this great trust beyond the mere paying of insurance policies; and it occurred some years ago to Dr. FRANKEL, o.nr Sixth Vice-President, who had for practically all his life made a study of social welfare (applause) that we could introduce free nursing among our Industrial policy-holders; and then we established what is known as the Nursing System. What is that system? It is one by which every sick Industrial policy-holder in the Company has the right to the free services of a trained nurse, and the presence of these dear girls here at the other end of the room (applause and cheers, given standing), brings that system directly to our minds. The policy-holders are given cards, as you know, and when sickness comes they are to fill out a card and give it to the agent or send it to the District Office; and then a trained nurse comes and puts herself right under the charge of tht; physician, and she obeys his directions, and she calls as often and stays as long as he says. I remember a case in Ottawa where the premium was five cents a week, and the last I heard was that the nurse had paid some 86 visits, and knowing what the cost of these visits is, I calculated that we had been spending on that policy-holder the gross premiums for about twelve years. It made no difference. It was a policy-holder of the Metropolitan. She had to be nursed. She is nursed. Now that is the system; but then, what is trained nursing? And now I wish that I could sit down and have one of these young ladies come up and tell you what trained nursing is in a workingman's home. The old man doesn't get up in the morning; feverish; moaning; tossing his arms around his head. The wage-earner stands by the bedside. "I cannot leave him; he is sick. Ah, but I cannot stay; I must earn my daily wage." And then he bethinks himself of the card on the mantel; and in comes the trained nurse, and her deft fingers smooth the clothing; her cool hand passes over the fevered brow; she gives the soothing draught; she says the comforting word; she sees if a physician is necessary; she leaves comfort where there was misery, content where there was distress. Baby cries in the morning; and the little mother holds her first born close to her breast, and says: "Ah, what is the matter with Mary? She has never acted this way before; what can I do?" She avails herself of the card, and the nurse comes, and her keen eye sees the coming of a disease that will carry the child off in 48 hours unless it has attention, and she gets in the doctor. The child's life is saved, and the mother's heart is not broken. The workingman comes home in the afternoon limping. "\Vhat's the matter?" "Oh, the chances of my trade; my leg is hurt; 'twill be all right tomorrow." It isn't all right. Fever comes on. He gets delirious, and they send for the nurse. She uncovers the wound; she finds it infected; she sends for the surgeon in haste. He says: "Too late; we must amputate." "Oh, doctor, don't amputate; he is a working man; save him; get him to the hospital; save him." She insists, and he goes to the hospital and he gets attention. His leg is saved, and he goes about his labor and supports his family. I am not speaking of an imaginary case, but an actual case taken from the Metropolitan. I could bring tears to your eyes by letting you see the broken-hearted, ill-spelled, scratchy letters from grateful fathers, happy mothers, contented husbands, for lives saved. And then -.--------------------r----------"-!! TRIENNIAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1916 313 these nurses are more than that. They are instructors. They attend the mother before the baby comes. They bring the baby into the world. They bring the baby up for weeks until it is safe. They tell the mothe. how :8 dress it and how to feed it. They look around the house and find dirt; they see careless clothing and they see dangers of disease. They advise, they warn, they correct and they instruct. A million visits paid last year by the Metropolitan Life to sick workingmen and women. (Applause. ) Over two thousand cities covered, and the number increasing from week to week. Who can tell, as time goes on, what shall mean these accumulated visits, a million and more every year, on and on and on? \Vho can tell what it is to mean in ir.struction in hygiene, in bringing home to the workingmen their duties to their families, and how to live longer and how to live better? \Vho can tell what that should mean in improvement in health and the prolongation of life to the American people? It is Mother's smile. (Applause. ) :1 Overcoming the White Plague We have been sitting here pretty nearly three hours. It gives you some idea of the size of this Company when you realize that while you have been singing your songs and enjoying yourselves and laughing and talking, death has entered thirty of our homes. Thirty of our policyholders have died since you sat down here. And, of those, five have died of consumption. That's an outrage. Every 32 minutes, from the first of January to the 31st of December, day and night, a policyholder in our Company dies from tuherculosis. Well may it be called the White Plague. What can be done? Refer it to the doctors? They are helpless. They can only attend the cases they have. What can be done? \Vell. what is tuherculosis? It used to be said when I was a boy that it was the act of GOD; the father had it. the mother had it and the child had to have it, and they all had to die-an act of GOD. Father, have you noticed when anything wrong goes on in the world it is always the act of GOD, and the only thing to do is to bow and commend yourself. but whenever anything good happens in the world it is luck? It is not GOD then. Ah. it is not GOD that produces tuberculosis. It is a little, invisible germ-hacillus. \Ve know what it is. \Ve know it is in the air. \Ve know that every sick person with tuberculosis is a source of infection, and we know that every time he blows his nose or sneezes or coughs. and much more if he eXl;ectorates. he is spreading these germs. \Ve know that the streets of St. LOllis are full of them. We know you are breathing them now. \Ve know they are in the air of this room. The Germans have shown by autopsies that 95 per cent. of all the corpses examined have shown the ravages of tuberculous germs. They have not died of tuberculosis. You are not going to .die of tuberculosis. \Vhy? You have the power of resistance. Well, that points out the cure. How are you to build it up? It has been found out. -\Ve have found it out. Other people have found it out. Fresh air night and day, reasonable diet, proper rest, will cure in the earlier stages. Then, what to do? Why, teach people so; let everybody know it. And so, we have published six millions of pamphlets, illustrated and beautifully printed and written in plain and 314 A MOTHER'S BEAUty IN METROPOLITAN BUSINESS psirmevpelentleadngaunadghe,owtelcliunrgedth; eteplleionpglethewmhahtocwo,nsifumthpetyion is, how it can be a a shack tenem can be bu ent house. il a t at bed a co can st he of a dol devis~d l a r or two, live and in if the country, they live in ~e~ds mstde wiII be kept covered up. out W in the fresh air !"!e;:" the ',;;ndow all the time, their so that their bodies being can people prevent are to be ho can tell instructed what the result will be? The Ameriby you what tuberculosis is, how to it and how to cure it. Can anything else be done ? Well, we Awthueonsuttgriahnlttioantowhtehuetnoretwilntuaabnesdhrcoeurxltoastmiimsineiesdagueonv,kenrayonbwd nt.henItwies aheparladceofwaheprleacteheiyn anybody who had tuberculosis body from catching germs, ody in it, and when they isolated him and they kept found every- would like to try. a it, and And so wiped it out. our Board of Well, can it be done? Directors a few weeks We ago ppropriated $100,000 to be spent in the next three years in connection awtoniwdthnextghaievmeinNneattoieovunesarlyobfCodo5yn.0g0irn0esisot rwfo6er,0c0Ta0nubinerhcaubliotasinst,s,anwdheirfe wwee ccaann ggoet ina isolate them with the idea if we succeed, what the of c u r i n g set aside them an those d driv tha ing t a it r e affected, out. And that if a government n? \Vell. Dr. FRANKEL is spends millions of dollars very fond of saying every year to cure hchuomlearna liivnesh. og(sA, phpelawusoen.d) ersAnifd, thifeythactanenxoptersipmeenndt bmeilalions to save if this tuberculosis somewhere in that plague shall be wiped future temple of tim out, then it success and must be that on that will be emblazoned as a pioneer, e our there will be Mother's face. a tablet, and (Applause.) The Care of the Child is Another great source of mortality is the the mortality in children, and we know child. why. \Ve know how great It is do not know how to take care of the children and because people bring them up. . Oh, swdhoeenfh'itnotdledlstlhtemheechctihhldielrydentdoohne'tr lborveeastth.emI.t isTnhoet ipnotohreerhothuesems ootfhtehre tphoeocrlothsaert They don't know. millio on the fifth story in charge They can be taught. And of so a governess; oh, no. we published three ns of a little book called "The Child"-a very beautiful pamphlet. It is being distributed by you. herself in pregnancy and what It tells the mother to do for the child what to do with in regard to its health. Then, we have printed six in bringing it up millions of leaflets about the size of my hand-simple rules for the care of baby-which hcaonusbeehopldinnweodrko,ncatnherewaadlli,t.soWtheatputhbelismheodthfeivr,e ams she goes about her on milk, which is a great source of disease in illions of pamphlets children; five million ctprhayimilndprghetnleotisendouhnceaatfleltihet.sh.e w\pVohhoicyrh,mwcoatehrrehyrasvdienisetshaoesmec,eouesnpteryciahlolyw twoitbhrincghuilpdtrheenir- a child's mother. birth is registered, We made an send out a health officers who, when copy of "The Child" to the Minnesota year) by which arrangement (there are 50,000 with the Board of Health in babies born in Minnesota every try andweedaurceatteothseenwdhooulet ScotaptieesofofM"iTnnheesoCtha;ilda"ndtotheavtewryasmaotshuegrg, etso- f 'fRIENNIAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1916 315 lion, not of ours, but of the State Board of Health of Minnesota. You could not do better than to watch the Registers of Birth and see that the parents get a copy of "The Child" as soon as possible. You do not know how valuable it is. vVhere was it-the other night we met somebody, some gentleman with whom we were lunching or dining, and he said: "My twu ciliiJrell 11ave been brought up on 'The Child.' " In South Carolina the other day we had a prominent lawyer speak to us. He had been married a couple of years and he had his first baby. Well, he felt very much as I did the other day when my first grandchild was named HALEY, and he was just so about that child. He got up before the Company and he said: "I got a copy of 'The Child', and I am bringing my baby up on it, and it is the healthiest baby I ever saw, and wherever I find a child has been born, I say 'See here; get a copy of The Child'." Now, gentlemen, these are just little instances to show how it affects educated people. Now if we can get that down to the mothers-to the industrial classes-aren't you helping the whole community, educating them in the bringing up of children, the saving and prolonging of their lives? The smile of Mother! Fighting All Infectious Diseases There is hardly any infectious disease in which we do not give instruction. vVe have issued three millions of pamphlets on Teeth, Tonsils and Adenoids, because we have found that bad tonsils, or the presence of adenoids are simply beds for the cultivation of bacilli; they cause all sorts of disea~es, tut "~(''110sis and others. vVe have taught the mothers in this book how to tlnu out if the child has symptoms of adenoids or diseased tonsils, and then what to do. Three millions of pamphlets on "The Health of the Worker" telling of the occupational diseases and the rights he has got against his employer to see that he gets hygienic treatment in the factory. And then as to the diseases-pamphlets on scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough, which is said to carry off more people than measles and scarlet fever put together; smallpox;. malaria-Dh, name any infectious disease, and you will find we have got a pamphlet or a leaflet on it. One hundred and twenty-seven million leaflets and pamphlets distributed by you and your brothers to the working people of America. (Applause.) And who can tell what this constant pounding away is going to mean to the American people? These millions and millions yearly going out into the homes of the workingmen, telling them what to beware of, how to live. Oh, the broad, expansive smile of Mother! And then, we are becoming a kind of branch of the State. We made a contract the other day with the State of North Carolina, by the terms of which everybody who is sick in the State is to be nursed. A few days afterwards the State of Virginia heard of it and they made a contract with us. President WILSON a few years ago got worried about unemployment. What did he do? Sent down the Commissioner of Labor, and he went out with Dr. FRANKEL and visited 66 cities, surveying 6,000 families, three millions of people, took down on cards the result-nature of the employment, sex of the employee, how long unemployed, cause of unemploy- ment, whether sickness or stoppage of work, part time or whole time; took these cards to the census bureau, classified them, analyzed them 316 A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN METROPOLITAN BUSINESS and published them in the Census Bulletin in accordance with the intent on the part of President 'WILSON to carry out his scheme for the benefit of workingmen by which he wiII mobilize labor and have great employment bureaus all over the country, where labor can be sent from where it is overplus to where it is needed. Four hundred schools circulate our literature. Our men co-operated with the municipal authorities in 250 cities in clean-up campaigns in the Spring, by which our agents notify the people of what the Mayor requires, that they bring out the refuse from the house and back yard and put in front where it can be taken away and burned. One hundred and two traveling exhibits-a booth with a trained nurse in attendance, and the walls placarded with leaflets, and a supply on the table to be taken away. The trained nurse is there in case of emergency. And they say our literature is the only literature that is not thrown on the ground. Co-operation with States, with towns, with cities in spreading health campaigns and health literature, and taking votes; they carried an election in Cleveland and another one in Chicago by distributing ballots on a referendum for the erection of a tuberculosis sanitorium; we are now working in three counties in the State of New York on a similar one; got the thanks of the city of Cleveland and the city of Chicago for our men carrying the election. Why, we are a part of the government. And all that work for the health, for the well-being, for the good of our people, for the good of Mother's children. Metropolitan Care of Her Employees And then she has her own family, twenty thousand of them; fifteen thousand in the field and five thousand at the Home Office. What does she do f,or them? How does your mother treat you? You are examined every year. Why? To kick you out if you are sick? You know better. It is to keep you in and make you well and let you. work. (Applause.) Disability insurance, where we pay half the premium so that if you are taken iII your pay goes on in diminished sums, beginning for the first 26 weeks and then running down like all health insurance. It furnishes support when you are sick; the last age is 65, or until you are disabled. The Staff Savings Fund where we put in 50 cents for every dollar you contribute; over three million dollars there, earning from 5 per cent. to 9 per cent. Then, you may be taken with tuberculosis. What then? Mother takes you home. (Applause.) The Sanitorium on Mt. McGregor-you will see it presently on the screen-l,2oo feet above the sea. Pure air; fireproof buildings; no corners, rounded walls and surbases and ceilings; dieticians in charge of the food; trained nurses in attendance; skillful physicians attending; sleeping out of doors at night; careful attention paid to diet and clothing and sleep and exercise. I was up there one day some time ago at some celebration or other, when we had a lot of guests there, and while we were walking around in the sunlight, bowing and smiling to everybody as we went by, one of the guests said: "I have been bothering my head to know which were the guests and which were the patients, and now I have found out." "How do you do it?" "Why, every healthy looking person I meet is a patient, and every sick looking person is a guest." (Laughter.) You will TRIENNIAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1916 317 believe that presently when you see them on the screen. Oh, a happy home, happy children at home with Mother! I never can forget a visit I paid there a few months ago. When 1 go up there 1 always go to the Infirmary and sit by the bedsides of the patients too ill to get up, and say what comforting words I can to them, and this time I entered the room, and there lay a little girl, white, bright eyes, emaciated. "Oh, Mr. FISKE, I have been sick so long; you know, I was at Stonywold (Stonywold was the place where we used to send them before we built the Sanatorium), but now I am home." (Applause.) Home! Under Mother's roof. Home, with Mother's flag at the staff. Home, until she should be taken by her Maker from Mother's arms to her Father's. Ah, that is home; but it is a home of cure more than death. We have had 400 of them in less than three years since we opened the Sanitorium, and we have got 135 of our patients out now at work, doing their business and making their way amongst you. (Applause.) Come to the Home Office, and let Dr. KNIGHT show you those healthy looking, red-cheeked girls at the Home Office, graduates from the Sanatorium. Very seldom we hold a convention where there is not one or more of them. Over in Newark the other day, the biggest man in the place, sitting up in the gallery, got up and said: "I am one of them." Thursday night, in this room, three men got up. Are there any here-graduates from the Sanitorium? (Two or three men stood up.) (Applause.) They are cured and at work. Cured? Oh, some doctor complains: "You cannot say 'cured.'." They never like to say "cured" unless they did it. \Vhat I mean by "cured" is what they mean by "arrested." \Vhat difference does it make? The disease is ~topped; the man is at work; doctors can say what they like; the pay comes regularly. And then, the latest thing there is the Rest House. There are fifty beds in it for those not having tuberculosis, but who are convalescing, who are run down or are nervously upset or are unable to work, or played out. Home to Mother to recuperate. And then Mother has her little children right at her feet. Five or six thousand of them are at the Home Office. If you want a health resort, go to No. 1 Madison avenue. (Applause.) Experts employed to analyze the air and keep it pure. Free lunch every day but Saturday for all the employees-5,800 of them-a four-course lunch prepared by dieticians, or under the direction of dieticians; healthful, nourishing food; free. Medical clinic; a lot of doctors in attendance; 91 visits a day; 25,000 a year; these boys and girls go there when they are sick and get free treatment, and if they are sick enough they are sent home and a trained nurse goes after them. A Dental clinic, in which twice a year their teeth are thoroughly cleansed and examined and a chart given to tell the patient what should be done. A big hall for the girls to dance in after lunch and have a little recreation. Classes in stenography, typewriting and languages. A big lihrary; free circulation. A co-operative store where they buy things at cost. Class in dressmaking to teach them how to get their dresses made and get them cheap. Class in millinery to teach them how to make their hats and trim them. Why, if there comes up a storm we give them um- brellas to go home with. (Laughter.) You will see them presently. You will see the operations of the Home Office. Glee Club; one of " ' 318 A MOTHER'S BEAUTY IN METROPOLITAN BUSINESS the best in New unifcrms blue, York. white Brass Band-110 pieces, biggest and gold, the Company's in New York; paredness Parade the other day they started at colors; in the the Equitable; Prethey pmheeooavpdelededsoatnhideatnhindesyutrhaaernecaeppplaarutdionfg tthhee Eprqoucietasbsiloe,n;buetvewrhyebnodtyheapprpolcaeusdsieodn; Metropolitan bene Band. applause continued, they realized that And these children at home have, of it was course, the the MInsouthrfaietnr!coef.theMSoathneartolorivuems ,hoefr othwenSatnadff gSaatvhienrgssthFeumndc,loosfe.thAe Dbiesaaubtiilfiutyl The Agents the Big Brothers yes.WBhoutaarreeyyoouu?chWilhdroenarleikyeoyuo?urTMheotchheirld?reAnreofyoyuour Mother? Oh, of your policy-holders? her big family. What Are you Mother's wonderful children the big brothers to them? That is people at the who have the door of a contract opportunities! right every Monday You are morning the only to knock the family. 33 y workingman's Here is our dear house and old friend walk in. Intimate with HALL here tonight; for ears on one route. (Great applause.) He insured children 33 sybaeemariens shuaogrmionegasntfdhoerniro3w3gryahneeadr-iscs.hiilndHsruoerwnin. gm(tahAneypipr lacuhisled.r)en,Haendhapsrevseisnittleyd wthilel imlyanliyfeyeoafrsthreigAhtmienritchaen same homes? of you have been for many, How close you get to the fam- life. sides Husband and and working people. How close wife had a row in the morning? you get to their You hear both You get try and a piece determine the of the cake. dispute. Girl Wages raised? going You to get see married? smiles. ness? Out of work ? You see the downcast You send for the trained nurse. the countenances. family Sick- the mother's tears. Death in the Boy gone wrong? You see house? You stand by the coffin;- cWHoouhwladtndoopypoourtubneiatrietsh!emA?ndYtohuenw, oifulodpnp'torltieuntiotiethse, mw,hwatoureldspyoonsui?biliYtieosu. feed 't. and cYloothue wyoouu,ldtnh'et scehpeaetopthlee.m,Twheoyuldbryinogu?up Yyoouu rcofaumldn't, They people. They put a roof over your head, these people. ilies, these They are ygyoiovuuinchgoauvyelod. un'tAtlhireies toydoitunhencmeor.urtotBenouiugt hatr.e yAouh,thneob;igyoburotchoeurlsd?n'tWchhaetatchtahnecmes; Are they glad to word, the frien see you whens,yoaurecyoomue?kinDdloy,yoauregiyvoeuthseymmpthatehektiincd? looking into youdrlycosnhsackieencoefs?theArheanydo,u,thaendfriifenydoulyhasmveilen?ot Are been you pywlooauurksbeea,amnaodlwngcahyetsheerassn,edspteaevnoepdrliyenwgth.h)earte,LMigohtthethr'ast sNonesv,ebr eFaraiinlsg? alo(fGt rienatywoapuil-rl MOTHER METROPOLITAN Address of Haley Fiske, President of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, at the Triennial Convention, Taft Hotel, New Haven, Conn., Sept. 4, 1920 TStenographically Reported] We are met here to-night to close another of what has come to be known as the President's Conventions. For the last twenty-five years, I have been going about the country .every three years. They used to be called Triennial Conventions, but the influenza, and the railroad difficulty, and the war, prevented my holding them two years ago, as I should have done, and prevented my going to the Pacific Coast, as I should have done, the year before. So that this year, I have had the entire country to cover, both east and west of the Rockies. What the Conventions Arc mId Why Hcld These conventions are held at convenient points where I meet nearly the entire Field Force. I meet them all west of the Rockies. In the East, all of the Superintendents and Deputies and most of the Agents. This involves a great many thousands of miles of travel, and a great many thousand dollars of expense; and the question some- times is asked, Why do we hold them? No other company does; no other President goes around and meets all the men every three years; why do we? Well, I have several answers to that question. I think I like the first best-because I want to-and I do not see what on earth is the use of being President if you cannot do what you want to do. (Laughter and applause.) But I suppose that ex-President CLEVE- LAND, in a speech before one of our conventions not so long before he died, gave the best reason for these conventions. He said that the Field Force had a right to be called together periodically to have the officers ~peech, give an account of their stewardship. and it struck me that that was one of He made a very wise the best things that he said. I believe in it. \Vell, there are other reasons. The conventions are held-have been held these twenty-five years-largely for my own sake. I do not cast any reflection upon other companies, or their offi- cers, but for me, I have felt that I had no right to try to govern a company with fifteen thousand men in the field, covering the country from Sydney, on the east of Canada, nearly over to England, to San Francisco on the \Vest, from New Orleans on the South, to a point far beyond. Edmonton, in Canada, 011 the North, representing the holders of twenty-four millions of policies, these holders of different nationalities-I think our policy-holders speak twelve or thirteen different languages; the different parts of the country differing from each other, the North from the South, the East from the West, the 107 108 MOTHER METROPOLITAN Middle and all West from the Far West, of them differing from both of them from the Pacific Coast, for me to try to govern alities, different trad a companCyalnikaedat;haIt,sawyitIh never thought these different it n right local feelings, always se from aitisownisv, eilncbdiafifreraetntNpoa. 1r t sMoaf dtihsoencountry, ationdifferent the men emed where ttohemy ewtoorkbeed,msyeedwuthyattothgeet out in Avenue. It the field and has see their environments, what their advantages ir circumstances are, what and disadvantages, and to know the men. have a right to And know then, me. too, I think another reason is that the men aoltlhgerreoaftficcoerrspoarpaptieoanrs bweiflol refoTrthmheemymheaannvtdael sgpizoiect tauthreerimsghut pt.o hBaevceaumsee, amnednthine oproraatfiaocns,imanilde, sfiogrnamtuyrep,aortr, aI toablljetcotwto being consiodfertehde aheraudbsbeorf satacmopr,- a picture on conventions a wall. by one I of think th it was veerr,yo rwaellbuenxdplreesosfedstaattisotinces,oof rtehveesne stand at the door, out, and one e usually, young agents. and take each At the man by end of the the han dinner I very long, young, fresh-faced as he went out said, fellow, "I am who had not d as he goes been with us Mr. FISKE; I am blood." That was so it. glad to know He wante that so you glad to have are a man of met you, flesh and circular, not a signature. d to know Sometimes they if it was a real man-not form queer mental pic a in their minds New Orleans, if as they do not know I was enterin the officers. tures I remember, down in to me and said, "Is this Mr. g the hotel, a FrsKE?" I said, young agent stepped "Yes." "Oh, I up have so yalosoknugewdedohuitlmod bwmehefeaotturtyhooeur -d;-eauncde hIe aemxpescoteddi.sap"pWoienltle,"d Ih"e sa(Lida,u"gIhttehro.) I I told him not stretc that I coulfdivegiivnechheismtatlhleer,twanodhwuneidgrhedtwpoouhundred ught pounds." mind? h myself up any The President of higher. But don't the largest life you see nds, but I what was could in his world ought to be the biggest man he insurance company in ever saw. (Laughter.) the He vwoeuargrydh,tgltIaodwbtaoes haianvgeiDasneettr.oitH, eanwdaos ndeisaagpepnoti,natesdh. e Bpaustsead feowut, wsaeeidk,s after- y(Louauwghetreer.a) little weinzeynoeud,, Mdrri.eFdISuKpEo; lddo myoaun.k"nowT,heInalwI afyesltthb"oeIuttgaehmr.t T1t'CIlty-fivc Years' Progress the Ndaoyw,, aantdalwl ethwesiendcounpvewnittihonas, we have business meetings through tvhoetyedtatkoeduispcuosnseindgepbusiness. T h e dinner officers at a night ppear , b a e nd for t e he th d e ay is men, de- and they they lay comme-" artment after upon them, and another, and they read they give advice fo the and records, and the before If records ot men the general picture the districts attendin of the r the future, and Company as it is, oBnuet,toIpihca. veTrheeseeravreldierfotropmicysself always gatthtehecodnivnennetrioant as they are. night, some very interesting. one, I think. was I may say, twhehyenwweereloroekveodlutbiaocnkaruyp. onTthheem, were on the relations ofonthetheagreenltastiotonsthoef pthoelicayg-ehnotlsdetros. theA cnoemwpadneoyac,rtlraiiennsdet TRIENNIAl. ADDRB~S, HAI.BY FISKE, 1920 10<) was laid down. As to the policy-holders: the doctrine was laid down of trusteeship-brand-new then. It is familiar enough now. Another topic was the relationesrlyo,f tthheeiragreenlatsti,onesspewceiarlelyprIancdtuicsatrlliyal wagitehntsth. etior the company. Form local superintendent; but then the doctrine was laid down that they had a dir.ect rehlaetisoenrvshiciep,, tnhoeymhatatderahodwireycot urnegla,ti1o10nsmhiapttewrithhowthereHceonmtlye brought mto t Office, and with myself, then Vice-President, and executive officer. Another: for fifteen years we had been lighting a form of Ordinary insurance, which, in the year 1905, was made a crime-namely, tontine insurance; as long ago as 1892. we said that business men were looking for a plain business contract which told the whole story upon its face, left nothing to the imagination, borrowed nothing fro111 hope. stated in plain terms what the policy-holder was to pay, and what contract the company made withnhciem.knTowhant awsastoantdiinset.inctI lisgahyt atghaaitnsbtetchaautsefotrhme of gambling insura Supreme Court of Connecticut, in a discussion of insurance, de- nounced it as gamblihngy.ouAr nwdhiwlehteon lowoek loaot kthbeacfikguorveser ththeenseantdwennotwy-. five years, it is wort Then, this Company was onc of the smallest. It is to-day far and away the largest in the woerldd. lasTt hyeena, rouwritahssneitnscwheurcndtrwedcntayn-dtwoeigmhtiyll-ioonnes of dollars. We millions. Then, end our yearly income was cighteen millions of dollars. \Ve ended last ycar witnhsutrwaon-cheuinndfroerdcesiwxtays-t$h4r4e1e,0a0n0d,00a0h. al\fVme iellnidoends of income. Then, our i last year with $6,380,000,000, a gain of six billions in twenty-five years.* I ought to explain to the guests that the business of this Company is divided into two sDtreiapla. rtm\Veenltls,; tohnec Oirsdicnaallreyd bOusridnicnsasr,y,pearnhdapstheI other is can best called bring Indu to the minds of the guests by saying that it is the kind of business donentbsy; cdoomupbatlneisess wfohrichmyaonuy ryeeaadrsabyoouut inhasvteandbeaerdn running reading advertiseme advertisements of life insurance companies, with their assets and business in force, and business gained-very respectable, solvent, very good companies, but small and negligible companies, good enough in their way. (Laughtcr.)' What Ordinary Insurance means is that it is insurance in units of a thousand dollars, where the prem- iums are paid quarterly, semi-annually or annually, and are paid at the District Ofafigceess, aonrd apt latnhse oHfominesurOafnfcicee., tThehartatiess Odrifdfienrainrgy according to the insurancc. And I have been wondering ever since I started this year's trip, or serieits tohfattrinpasm, ew. haantdgathvee oitnltyhartcnasaomne;thaantdI Icaamn tihnicnlkineodf to think we gave \\'hy we should call it Ordinary Insurancc, is that it was in contra- distinction to Extrsauorradnicnearisy jiunsstuarasnsccfit 4j1f1iact , isb,utI,nidnusittsrisayl stIenmsu, rsatnacrets. Xow Industrial In out at the other end. It first fixes the premium, say 10 cents a week, and then puts forth tables showing how much insurancccan be given for that given premium according to thc ages and plans of insurance, and See footnote on next page. 110 MO'I'HF;R METROPOLITAN these befor premiu e them, ms at are the collected homes of weekly the by agents such as the guests see twweoekalyndincaonmeeigfhrtohmmIndustrial insured. Insurance Twenty-five years ago was $365,000.00. It is that eighth millions are illions of dollars, every poured into our treasury week. every now Two and one- Tpiheecnes,. takIet gthiveesOrydoiunasroymDe enpoatritomneonft. the magnitude ofwethekis iCnomlOp-acneyn.t has We done both Industrial and do not have any Gener Ordinary This is business the only through Company that the same men. offices. We do not eral Agents and have aaGl eAngeernalts.AgWenecydosynstoetmhawveithaniyts expensive this business faith in a the corps of solicitors under Fall of '91 or the Spring them. of '9 big GenWhen we started and confidence right in the Industrial 2, we put our whole men, to stand or fall by them, sound. in the We writing of Ordinary had very little O Insurance. Our foundations were lyioeanr.s aWgoe ethnedetdotlaalstamyeoaurnwt iotfhrO$d3irn,d5ai0nr0ya,0ryb0u0Is,0nin0seu0s.rsanTicnwe efwonrtacse.sevTewnteenetny-mfivile- dwoenewprroetetty$1w4e,l0l.00,L00a0st oyef arO, rwdeinwarryoteInsurance, and tyh-ofiuvgehyt ewares ahgaod, that of. record of last year was Twenty-five years ago one that $1,060,000,000 in one year, the world has never se'en the and like and we millions thought of insu any our company twhraitticnogusldfowr trhitee yteharreewoerre f$o3u08,000,000, , ; of ours, in one these fifrtaenecne thwoaussaandbigmecno,mwparontye. \Vell, last $1,652,0 year r hundred these men '1; year, of which over * a billion, as The most I said, was 00,000 of insurance Ordinary, and $590,- a0wn0ac0se,0a0in0f,afcowtracqseuIlinatedstuusynterpaiarr,el.caedented-thatamwaeziancgtufailgluyregaliansetdyemaor,reI itnhsinukr-, wrote. Such a should gain m thing hadddendevmeorrebeleanst hyeeaarrdthoafn, atnhyat oothner company du Do I claimotrheatthtahnis aennyoromthoeurs cgormowpathn,y tchoeuseld write. e company__ e to panies the have holding grown, aonfd thraepsiedlcyo, navnentions? amazing results, were Not wholly. Other com- something has put this company in the world. Company ad bgilrloiownn dtoollbaerslaarhgeeadcoomfpaanniyeso;thbut progressive, I had almo the most Something efficient, the has given this most energetic, Company the the er._-' most in the st world. said the (Great most affectionate applause.) And body of men most faithful, of any company rfeosrualteqduafrrtoemr owf haact ewnteurmyight call the I like to think personal equation; that this has the fact that me and I with that every ye them; that oIurhamveen gionntehetofiemldeehtatvheembeetnriemneeting with ference. ar These our superintendents yearly conferences, gather these in N ew York nially, and for a con- emffyecjtuivdegmoregnatn, izaaretiownhtahtathaansy produced whatTIriebnenliieavle Ctoonbveentthioensm, oisnt and it is the wonder think there has be of evercyobropdoyr.atioInn itnhethefifwtyo-rflidvehacson(avpenplause), not said this they had e organizeantionno isditnhneermobsutt atmhaazt insgomaendoefffoeur tions I guests have ver known of. There, I think, we may ctive thing that say, is one of the those The here figures printed used in are for the addresses 1920, the ye were, 0 f course, those for Dec. 31, 191 ar in which the speeches were delivered. 9; 'I'RIENNIAI, ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1920 111 results uf tl~ese numeruus meeting-s between officers and men. Well, !low, as I saId,. I h~v~ alway.s selected one topic for the evening meet1I1.g. And to-nIght, It IS the SImplest one in the world-the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; what is it? l-f-'hal lite COmpal1)1 Is Is it five and a half billions of insu~ance? It is not. Is it a billion dollars.o.f assets? It i~ not. Is it two hundred and sixty-three and a ~al ImlllOns of yearly IIlcome? It is not. What I want to do to-night IS to show you the sOlll of the Metropolitan Life. You are accustomed to call 11er Mother, and I want, if I can to-night, to show you your Mother in all her majesty, her beauty, her beneflcence-her soul. Well, then, superl1cially. what is the Metropolitan Life? Well, it is a great society, or assuciation, or club, of seventeen millions of people holding twenty-four millions of policies, banded together for mutual protection. The most beautiful thing in the world. I say it is the most beautiful thing in the world, because it is the giving up by these people of something they want, sometimes something they need, for the benefit of those who survive them, and f rom whom they get nu gratitude. Did you ever know a wife to be grateful to her husband for getting insured? She will laugh at him and say, "You big fool, you are wasting your money; you are not going- to die." (Laughter.) Or else, she begins to whimper, and cry, and say, "Oh, don't get your life insured; you are going to die." It is the same feeling that many wives have about making wills: a sign of death coming. The man doesn't get any credit. Only yesterday I was speaking to a man who had a very nice little wife. He drove round with me and was showing me the place.' I said, "Why don't you get insured?" "My wife doesn't believe in it." That is the case. I asked him what difference that made, and that puzzled him, and I rather think he will get insured. But that is the point. The wife doesn't care for insurance. As I have often said, it is upon the marble face in the col11n that the tears of gratitude flow. Ah then, the widow and the children are gathered around the casket, and they are looking down on that still, white face, and they are saying, "He gave up what he wanted; sometimes he gave up what he needed, in order that we, after his ueath, should not be penniless, but provided for." Then the tears flow. And he doesn't know anything about it. The most beautiful thing in the world! Now, what are these people doing? \Vhy, they are pouring money-two millions a week, as I have told you, in the Industrial Dcpartlllcnt, and almost two millions a week in the Ordinary Department-into a common fund. And let us follow along to see what that means. Of course, it is ior protection. A good many years ago, before I was Vice-President, I used to go up to the old Astor House, in the lower part of New York City, and take lunch with the officers. They used to lunch every day in a corner of the r00111 at a taole twice as big as that round table there, and they had guests there, and one of the most frequent of the guests was a uear olu judge, a very able and a very learned judge, but he never could quite get into his head the system of insurance. I do not remember what the ligures were then, but the conversation, translated in the terms of today, WOllld he something like this: "I say, Mr. KNAPP (he was then 112 MOTHUR I\fItTROPO[.I'rAN President), in force?" you say "Yes." you have got six "And you say and you one-half billions of insurance eighty-one millions. of assets?" me how you are gOlllg "Yes." have got nine hundred and "\vell, will you kindly tell and eighty-one to pay six and millions ?" Well, we a half billions explained to with nine hundred him the system insurance, how, if we that part of it which take nine represents hundred and the rese eighty-one millions, of or last year, was about nine hundred and rve, which as sixteen millions, I estimate it and improve pitrobdyucceomexpaocutnlyd siinxtearnedst,a ahnadlf ibniclrlieoansse withebny afnudtuares tphreemsiixums, it will billions become due. That is the science of life insurance. and a half TVe Are Trustees duty\V: ef\i1r,stnotow. ,tawkehecnaryeouofththinekfuonf dtsh,ata,nwdhnaetxfto, Jtloows? There is a double lows therefore, doesn't it, that are trustees? And now, at those who have increase them. It folcharge of this operation mine with you. to ge 'Vhat are wonec?e yWouhyca, nyosueeaynoduIr arerelattirounsteweist.h mI ewaanndt only t that into your heads, because it the darkies down South that call is a me very the solemn thought. It is the negroes and Judge." I am the porters in the parlor "Big Boss." It is only cars that say, "Colonel," or " a co-trustee with you. plane: co-trustees for You and I are on the same it? \ Vell, so far as thtehisimfupnrodv. emAenndt nbyowc,ohmopwouhnadveinwteereasdtmgioneisst,erthede taHhnrocemeeeupOofnficwe hhiacsh dtohnee pwreemll.iul1Tlhs ealraewbsa, saecdc,ocradlilngfotro athneinptlearnesstofraitnesuorf- and a passed, and half or fOllr per we earned over cent., five. according to That is our the tru time the laws were You are to collect the future premiums. steeship. But you? And I am bound to say that aitthnedusFeeixdcldtombeen shaaidveapbeoruftorImndeudsttrhieailr Idnustuiersanecxet,retmhaetlyitwwelal.s aYowuasktneofuwl it was travagant, and some a lapsable business. people said, extortionate The people came in insurance, because so late as the Armstrong had a long debate with investigation, the and went out. And, counsel for that committee was d gambling or not, as me when I was on the stand as to whether Industrial Insurance, to whether it in its benefit epended upon whether a man just happened to be in; it was s, claimed altlhlaamkteahneanwcaaemsxeaimnininwaahnteidon wheenthoauptp,eannedd ittowdaise.a kIinhdavoef abegeanmbalte )waihnesthteor have are for 1918. n for several years, and I have got our own figures the for last figures that 1919, but no I of the other companies. Let us see. I have between Industrial Insurance as carried been making a t those comparison by YOll-and Ordinary that do Ordin Insurance as on carried by on the Metropolitan-and by the large companies year 1918, the ary business alone, and what do I find? nu"mber of lapses, less revivals, of course, For the trial Department of this Company, in ratio to the in the Indusmean number of orpefodltuihccieeeds itinto f5o.r0c2e. tBhruotungohwo,uttakthee5.3y4eaarn, dwcaosmp5a.3r4e. it wLiatsht thyeearre,coyrodus was 6.2O5r,dainnadrythceomnepxatni6e.s4;9t,haenldowtheset noef xtthe6m.50h. adW5.e95beaantd tthheemnealxl.t TRIENNfAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKH, 1920 113 You have done your duty. performed your trusteeship so well that acttla~ly the lap~e r.ate was less in our Industrial Department than it was 111 these ~)rd1l1ary companies with their Ordinary insurance, although ther~ !s an average of twcnty-six wceks throughout the year, wh.en Otll'. pO!JCl;~ can. be lapsed,. a!ld in .the Ordinary companies, only tWice a year. 1ha.t IS very stnk1l1gly Illustrated by the business of la~t year, \\'hcr~. ot all the policies we wrote through the year, with tll1s average at twenl~-six opportunities to lapse in the Industrial Departm~nt, there was 111 force at the end of the year, of the business written I.n that year. 88,Y:; per cent.; so that you performed your trusteeshl p very well. The Extcllt of Ollr BlISillcss Ah, but who are these people? Take these seventeen millions of people, and there must be upwards of fifteen millions of them that are what are known as the working. the wage earning class. And when you think of that figure, perhaps something comes to your mind; that is one-eighth of the entire population of the United States and Canada. And it is true north and south of the line, both. Jn Canada, the population is eight million eight hundred thousand and the number of insured lives in the 1lctropolitan is one million one hundred thousand. \Vhy. in Canada, we have over one million four hundred thousand polici'es in force. and all the other companies put together have only a little over one million six hundred thousand, so that we. have nearly one-half the number of policies that are in force in all Canada. And. in those countries. every eighth man, woman and child is insured ill the Metropolitan. When you come to centers of population where we have been in business longer, the figures are still more striking. On this tour, I went to Syracuse, a large city. and every other man, woman and child is insured in the 1Ietropolitan. I went clear down to the Southwest, in Memphis, and every other man, woman and child is insured in the Metropolitan. I came up to Cincinnati, and every other man, woman and child is in- sured in the Metropolitan. I went down to St. Louis, where more than every other man, woman and child. is insured in the Metropolitan. I went north to Montreal, and every third man, woman and child is insured in the Metropolitan. I went east to Quebec, 110,000 popula- tion, and 80.000 policies. so that more than every other man, woman and child is insurecl in the Metropolitan; and the same thing is true of the little citv of Levis, across the river, where there are 32,000 population and "18.000 policies. Why in the old days, there used to be a little city-it is there yet, only it is very much larger-between Ouebec and Montreal, known as Three Rivers, and there was a time ~hen we had more policies in force than the entire population. I Laughter and applause.) You have all seen the name of MEDERIC ~IONAST, w~o is Superintendent in Quebec. He used to be in Three Hivers, and I met him one day, and said, "How do you do, MONAsT, you've done well. Is there anything- I can do for you?" "Sure," he said. "send me more population." (Laughter.) TRIUNNIAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1920 10<) was laid down. As to the policy-holders: the doctrine was laid down of trusteeship-brand-new then. It is familiar enough now. Another topic was the relations of the agents, especially Industrial agents. to the company. Formerly, their relations were practically with their local superintendent: but then the doctrine was laid down that they had a di\ect relationship, no matter how young", no matter how recently brought 1I1to the service, they had a direct relationship with the Home Office, and with myself, then Vice-President, and executive officer. Another: for fifteen years we had been lighting a form of Ordinary insurance, which, in the year 1905, was made a crime-namely, tontine insurance; as long ago as 1892. we said that business men were looking for a plain business contract which told the whole story upon its face, left nothing to the imeagpionliactyio-nh,olbdoerrrwowasedto npoatyh,inagndf 1w'01h11at hcoopnet.rascttattehde in plain terms what th company made with him. That was a distinct fight against that form of gambling insurance known as tontine. I say that because the Supreme Court of Connecticut, in a discussion of insurance, de- nounced it as gambling. And when we look back over these twenty- live years, it is worth your while to look at the figures then and now. Then, this Company was one of the smaIlest. It is to-day far and away the largest in the world. Then, our assets were twenty-two millions of dollars. V/e ended last year with nine hundred and eighty-one miIlions. Then, our yearly income was eighteen millions of dollars. \Ve ended last year with two-hundred sixty-three and a half millions of income. Then, our insurance in force was $441,000,000. VVe ended last year with $6,380,000,000, a gain of six billions in twenty-five years.* I ought to explain to the guests that the business of this Company is divided into two Departments; one is calIed Ordinary, and the other is called Industrial. Well, the Ordinary business, perhaps I can best bring to the minds of the guests by saying that it is the kind of business done by companies which you read about in standard running advertisements; doubtless for many years you have been reading advertisements of life insurance companies, with their assets and business in force, and business gained-very respectable, solvent, very good companies, but small and negligible companies, good enough in their way. (Laughter.) What Ordinary Insurance means is that it is insurance irnlyu, nistesmoi-faanntuhaoluIysanodr daonlnlaurasl,Iyw, haenred thaereprpeamid- iums are paid at the District quarte Offices, or at the I-lome Office, the rates differing according to the ages and plans of insurance. That is Ordinary insurance. And I have been wonderin~ ever since I started this year's trip, or series of trips, what gave it that name; and I am inclined to think we gave it that name. and the only reason that I can think of why we should call it Ordinary Insurance, is that it was in contra- distinction to Extraordinary insurancf <\-tat is, Industrial Insurance. :\ow Industrial Insurance is just as scit jfic, but, in its system, starts out at the other end. It first fixes the premium, say 10 cents a week, and then puts forth tables showing how much insnrancecan be given for that given premium according to the ages and plans of insurance, and * See footnote on next page. 110 MOTHER METROPOLITAN these premiums are collected before them, at the homes of weekly by agents such the insured. Twenty as the guests see weekly income from Industrial two and an eighth millions of Insurance dolla was -five years ago $365,000.00. It is that now eighth pieces. millions are poured It gives you into rs, every our treasury week. Two and oneevery week in lO-cent Then, has take the some notion of the magnitude of Ordinary Department. This is the only this Company. Company that We done both Industrial and Ordinary do not have any General Agents. business through We do not the same men. offices. We do not have a General eral Agents and a corps of solicit Agency have any expensive system with its big Gen- this business in the Fall of '91 or ors under the Spring them. of '92, When we started we put our whole tfhaeitmh, ainndthceonwfidrietnincge orifghOt ridnintahrey IInndsuusrtarniacle.meOn,urtofosutannddatioorn fall by ysoeuarnsd.agoWtehehtaodtavl earmy oluitntlte oOf rOdirndainryarybusiness in force. s were Twenty-five lion. We ended last year with $3,500,000I,0n0s0u.ranTcwe ewntays-fsievveeynteeaerns milago, tdwhoeantewrpercroeotetty$1w4e,l0l.00,L00a0st oyfearO, rwdienawrryoteIn$s1u,r0a6n0c,e0,00a,0n0d0 tihnooungehtyewaer, ahnadd of. an Twenrdty-offivleasyteyaresaragwoaos uornwe rtihtiantgtshefowr othrledyheaasr never se"en the like were $308,000,000, d we thought any company that could write three or four hundred iomnfiololniuoernsys,etoahrfe, sioenfsfuwifrthaeineccnhe tohwvoeaurssaaanbdbililgmioencno,,maswparontye. $1\V,6e5l2l,,0l0a0s,t00y0eaorf thinessueramnecne 000,000, was Industrial.* was a fact quite The most I said, was Ordinary, and amazing figure last year, I $590,think, ance w in force unprecedented-that we actually last year, added more last year than gained more insurany other compan rote. Such a thing had never been heard of, that one y company__ dshuoeuDltood Igthaceilnahimmolodtrhienagtthtoahfnistahenenysoeromthoeurs cgormowpathn,y tchoeuseldawmraiztein. g results, were panies have something grown, and conventions? rapidly, and grown Not wholly. Other comto be large companies; but company has put this in the world. Company a Something billion dollars ahead of any has given this Company other./ progressive, the 1110st I had almost said the efficient, the most energetic, most affectionate body the the most most faithful, in the world. (Great applause.) resulted f rom what we might And I likeof tometnhinokf athnayt ctohmispahnays for a quarter of a century call the our men in personal equation; the field have been the fact meeting that with me tha t a nd eve I ry with year t hem our ; s that uperi I nt have enden gone ts ga t to he meet r in them triennially, and ference. These yearly conferences, these New York for a conTriennial Conventions, in aemfnfydecjtiuitvdegismorteghnaetn. iwzaaoretniodwnerhtahtathaansy pcroordpuocreadtiownhiant thIebweloiervlde htaos b(eaptphelaumsoes)t, think there not said has been of no everybody. dinner but In the fifty-five conventions I that some of our guests have this organization is the most amazing and effective thing that they had ever known of. There, I think, we may say, is one of the those hTehree pfirgiunrteesd aurseedfoinr t1h9e20a,dtdhreesyseeasr winerwe.hiocfh ctohuerssep,eethchoeses wfoerreDdece.liv31e.re1d9. 19; 'l'RIENNIAL ADDR~SS, BAtEY FISKE, 1920 111 results uf these numerous meetings between officers and mCII. Well, now, as I said, I have always selected one topic for the evening meeting. And to-night, it is the simplest one in the world-the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; what is it? What tile Compall), Is Is it five and a half bil1ions of insurance? It is not. Is it a billion dollars of assets? It is not. Is it two hundred and sixty-three and a half millions of yearly income? It is not. What I want to do to-night is to show you the soul of the Metropolitan Life. You are accustomed to call11er Mother, and I want, if I can to-night, to show you your Mother in al1 her majesty, her beauty, her beneficence-her soul. WeIl, then, superticial1y. what is the Metropolitan Li fe? \VeIl, it is a great society, or assuciation, or club, of seventeen miIlions of people holding twenty-four mil\ions of policies, banded together for mutual protection. The 1II0st beautiful thing in the world. I say it is the most beauti ful thing ill the world, because it is the giving up by these people of something they want. sometimes something they need, for the benefit of those who survive them. and from whom they get 110 gratitude. Did you ever know a wi fe to be gratcf ul to her husband for getting insured? She will laugh at him and say. "You big fool, you are wasting your money; you are not going to die." (T .aughter.) Or else, she begins to whimper, and cry, and say, "Oh, don't get your life insured; you are going to die." It is the same feeling that many wives have about making wil1s: a sign of death coming. The man doesn't get any credit. Only yesterday I was speaking to a man who had a very nice little wife. He drove round with me and was showing me the place.' I said, "Why don't you get insured?" "My wife doesn't believe in it." That is the case. I asked him what difference that made, and that puzzled him, and I rather think he will get insured. But that is the point. The wife doesn't care for insurance. As I have often said, it is upon the marble face in the collin that the tears of gratitude flow. Ah then, the widow and the children are gathered around the casket, and they are looking down on that still, white face, and they are saying, "He gave up what he wanted; sometimes he gave up what he needed, in order that we, after his death, should not be penniless, but provided for." Then the tears How. And he doesn't know anything about it. The most beautiful thing in the world! Now, what are these people doing? \Vhy, they are pouring 1110ney-two millions a week, as I have told you, in the Industrial Department, and almost two millions a week in the Ordinary Department-into a C0I111110n fund. And let us follow along to see what that means. Of course, it is ior protection. A good many years ago, before I was Vice-President, I llsed to go up to the old Astor House, in the lower part of New York City, and take lunch with the officers. They used to lunch every day in a corner of the room at a table twice as big as that round table there, and they had guests there, and one of the llIost frequent of the guests was a dear old judge, a very able and a very learned judge, but he never could quite get into his head the system of insurance. I do not remember what the ligures were then, but the conversation, translated in the terms of today, wOllld be something like this: "I say, Mr. KNAPl' (he was then 112 Monum l\fnTRoPOUTAN President), in force?" you say "Yes." YOll have got six "And you say and you one-half have billions of insurance eighty-one millions of assets?" me how you are going to pay "Yes." got nine hundred and "\VeIl, will you kindly tell and eighty-one millions?" insurance, six and \Vell, we a half billions explained to with nine hundred him the system of how, if we take nine hundred and eighty-one millions, or ilttahsabttyypecaaorrmt, pwoofausnitdabwionhutietcrhensinrt,eeparhneudsnendintrsecrdethaaesnedressiexrtveee,n wmhiilclhionass, aInedstiimmparteoviet bpirlolidouncsebeexcoamctelydsuiex. anTdhaat hisaltfhebilslcioiennscewitohfebnylifafenudtiunarsesurtaphnreecmes.iixumansd, iat hwaillfl vVe Are Trustees duty\V: cflilr,stnotow. ,tawkehecnaryeouofththinekfuonf dtsh,ata,nwdhnaetxfto, ltloowins? There is a double lows therefore, doesn't it, that those who have crease them. It folcharge of this operation tmaoriengeetrtuwtshitteahesy?ouA. n\dVnhoawt ,araet ownec?e yWouhyc,anyosueeaynoduIr arerelattirounsteweist.h mI ewaanndt only the t into your heads, because it darkies down South that call is a me very solemn thought. the "Big Bos It is the negroes "J udge." I and am the porters in the a co-trustee with parlor cars that s." It is only say, "Colonel," or plane: co-trustces for this fund. it? \ Veil. so you. You and I are on the same And now, how have we administered I-lome Office far as the improvement has done well. The laws, by compound interest according to the plans goes, the ance three upon and a which the premiums are based, call half or f ollr per cent., according for an of insurinterest rate of passed, and we earned over five. You are to collect the futu That is outor ttrhuestteimesehitph.e lBawust ywoeur?e the Field men have p e r f o r mr ee dprt heme iirudmust.iesAenxdt r eImaeml y bwoeulnl.d to say that You know aitnduseexdtrtaovabgeansat,idanadbosoumt eInpdeuosptrleiaslaiIdn,suerxatnocrtei,onthataet iintsuwraas a wasteful it was so late a lapsable business. The people as the Armstrong investigation, came in and nce, because went out. And, had was a long debatc gambling or with me when I the counsel for that committee was on the stand as to whether it depended upon not, as to whether a whether Industrial Insurance, in its benefits, man just happened to be in; it was that he came in and went out, and it was a kind of a gamble claimed whether hamaavmkeeaanarenwfaeosxrai1mn9i1nw8a.hteionn hfeorhaspepveenraeld yteoardsi,e.andI thhaevelabset efnigautres)aitnhsat toI of the betw other companiIesh. avLeegt olitSosuere.owInhfaivgeurbeesenfomr a1k9i1n9g, but not those a comparison een Industrial Insurance as carried on by the Metropolitan-and ytbhyeaatyr o1du9o1-a8O,ntrdhdeiOnnartdrtyimnbaberuyrsoiInfnessluasprasanelsco,enea,s acnardriewdhoant bdyo thIe flainrgd?e coFmoprantihees trial Department policies in of this less Company, revivals, in ratio of to course, in the mean th nu e m Ind ber usof force reduced it to 5.02. throughout the year, was 5.34. Last But now, take 5.34 and compare it with year, you wofasth6e.2O5r,dainnadrythceomnepxatni6e.s4;9,thaenldowtheset noefxtthe6m.50h. adW5.e95beaanttdhetthhreeemcnoaerdlxls.t 'l'luENNrAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1920 113 You have done your duty. performed your trusteeship so well that actually the lapse rate was less in our Industrial Department than it was in these Ordillary companies with their Ordinary insurance, although ther~ !s an avcrage of twcnty-six weeks throughout the year, when our. poltcles can be lapsed, and in the Ordinary companies, only twice a year. That is vcry strikingly illustrated by the business of la~t year, whcr~. of all t1~e policies we wrote through the year, with tillS average ot twenty-sIx opportunities to lapse in the Industrial Departm.ent, there was ill force at the end of the year, of the business wntten 1!1 that year. 880 per cenl.; so that you performed your trusteeshl p very well. The Extellt of Ollr Busilless Ah, but who are these people? Take these seventeen millions of people, and there must be upwards of fifteen millions of them that are what are known as the working. the wage earning class. And when you think of that figure, perhaps something comes to your mind; that is one-eighth of the entire population of the United States and Canada. And it is true north and south of the line, both. In Canada. the population is eight million eight hundred thousand and the number of insured lives in the 1Ietropolitan is olle million one hundred thousand. \\Thv. ill Canada. we have over one million four hundred thousand polic(es in force. and all the other companies put together have only a little over one million six hundred thousand, so that we have nearly one-half the number of policies that are in force in all Canada. And. in those countries. every eighth man. woman and child is insured in the Metropolitan. \Vhen you come to centers of population where we have been in business longer, the figures are still more striking. On this tour. I went to Syracuse. a large city, and every other man, woman and child is insured in the 1Ietropolitan. I went clear down to the Southwest. in Memphis. and every other man, woman and child is insured in the Metropolitan. I came up to Cincinnati, and every other man, woman and child is insured in the Metropolitan. I went down to St. Louis, where more than every other man, woman and child. is insured in the Metropolitan. I went north to Montreal, and every third man. woman and child is insured in the Metropolitan. I went east to Quebec, 110,000 population, and 80.000 policies. so that more than every other man. woman and child is insured in the Metropolitan; and the same thing is true of the little citv of Levis, across the river, where there are 32,000 popUlation and '18.000 policies. Why in the old days, there used to be a little city-it is there yet, only it is very much larger-between Ouebec and 1Tontreal known as Three Rivers, and there was a time ~hen we had more' policies in force than the entire population. I Laughter and applause.) You have all seen the name of MEDERIC },[ONAST, wlW is Superintendent in Quebec. He used to be in Three Rivers and I met him one dav, and said, "How do you do, MONAsT, you've' done well. Is there a~ything I can do for you?" "Sure," he said. "send me more population." (Laughter.) . " ..;..~,:~..~ .'.. ~:~F~.:; , :'ii;~ ~.: .~J~;'\.:.~:.' ,';::J;,'; '*{:.~, " "."." 114 MOTHER METROPOLITAN The Pme'er of the Company .. When you think of these things, and YOlt see these centers of population with these enormous proportions insured with the Metropolitan. two or three things will occur to you. The first is the power of it. The power of having in the membership of this Company so large a proportion of the entire population. Let us look at that from two or three points of view. Did it ever occur to you that the same people will elect the President of the United States next November that elected me President of the Metropolitan? They will elect the President of the United States through the college of electors, and they elect me through the Board of Directors. And, if that occurred to you, then let us look at this from another point of view. They are the foUlldation of government. Labor casts the vote. Labor elects Governors, Senators, Mayors, Legislators, Congress and passes the laws. Because. as I said, these wage earners, commonly called Labor, are the governing power of this country, and of every democracy. \Vell, let us look at that f rom another point of view. They are the foundation of wealth. I have just come from the Rocky Mountains, passing through from Vancouver; gold, silver, copper, iron. coal, millions of acres of forests. thousands and thousands of acres of soil, with waving grain: marvellous crops, forty and fifty bushels to the acre, they are going to hring in this Fall. Go back sixty years. The gold was there; the silver was there; the coal was there; the forests were there; the soil was there; what good was it? It was not worth a cent. What has sent billions of dollars meanwhile to the East? What is sending millions and millions of dollars this year to the East? Labor. Labor that works the mines and cuts the forests and cultivates the soil. Very important people, therefore, are members of this corporation, as represented by you. What Mother Does for Her Children . And the thought is bound to occur to you, do we owe them-' anything beyond carrying on contracts of insurance? Is it enough to collect premiums and pay death claims? And the way to think that out is to remember that this means the weekly collection of premiums. your personal contact Wit.i1 these people. Surely that i~_ Opportunity, and the question that wIiI occur to a thoughtful man is, does it hring Responsibility? And, if so, what responsibilities arise out of this opportunity, this close connection with the power of the American and the Canadian Government? To determine that, let us look at them fro111 one or two other points of view. By and large, they are not a forehanded people. If you take their career through, you will find that their outgo about equals their income. That is to say, their outgo for houses, food, clothes, just ahout equals the income. I was talking to a railroad president some time ago. He said, "I have been in the railroad business all my life." (It is a large railroad.) "I have known labor always. There are three spectres always before the eyes of a working man. T?e ~rst, is death. (We take care of that by insurance.) The second IS SIckness. (Well, we take care of that by insurance in part, but in other ways that I will speak of presently.) The third, is unemployment. And I would like to take care of that, but "., 'tRIENNIAL ADDRESS, IL\I,EY FISKIl, 11)2() liS our charter does not permit it, and I proposed to go to the Legislature and get the charter amended, but to do that, I had first to go to an official. I went to him. "No-Socialism" (an awful bugbear nowadays). "Socialism !-why, my dear fellow, Socialism is the taking over by government of the functions of private corporations and individuals. This is a private corporation. Whatever else it is, it is not Socialism." "Oh, it is the entering wedge." Just how he did not explain. "Well," I said, "can we have a hearing?" "Oh, yes, you can have a hearing." And so I took the railroad president and went hefore him, and he called another into consultation. "No," they said; and every argument they used, if used one hundred years ago, would have prevented the life insurance business from ever being established. They were, in brief, "Insufficient data." JIow are you going to get data, unless you insure people? "Malingering"; that is to say, false representation about unemployment. \Vhy, life insurance is full of fraud, and we manage to live. "Improvidence: why didn't they save enough when they had work?" \ Vell, that was downright cruelty; that is the only way to characterize that; that says that anybody who has not been a forehanded man and a provident man, and nobody who has not been a true Yankee, ought to live on earth-perhaps I am saying this in the wrong locality; but some of us who do not live in New England think that there are other people who have a right to live. But, there was no use. My dear boys, I am an old man, and I may not live to see it, but you y.oung fellows, you will live to see the day when you will be selling unemployment insurance. (Applause.) And then your Mother will have banished forever these three spectres that haunt the working man day and night. Now, let us look at this from another point of view. They are an ignorant people. It is not their fault. They have never been taught. They do not know how to take care of themselves. They do not know how to prevent disease. They do not know how to take care of themselves when they are sick. I came home the other night, after one of these Convention trips, and went out on the farm. 1\1y wife met me, and she said: "You know ALMA'S baby has been very sick." ALMA is the cook, and she married the gardener, and they had babies, as they ought to have. ALMA is a very intelligent woman. and a very good cool<. I asked my wife, "\Vell, what did you do ?" You nurses here know what my wi fe did. Just what you would have done. \Vrappcd up the baby and took it out on the front porch in the stln and the fresh air (it was Spring and it was pretty cool) and left it there; looked after its diet. ALMA was ~iving the bahy, who \\"as ahollt t\\"o or three years of age, five cups of coffee a day. "Oh," she says, "we always did that in Sweden." And my wife changed the diet and had the baby in the open air, and in a few days it was kicking up its heels and had red cheeks. They do not knO\\,.. What then. could we do for them? Ought we not do ~omething for them? I f they arc the foundation of ollr wealth, if they are our members, jf they compose us, for these people in a mutual company are the Metropolitan Life, and, if we have the opportunities as they have set forth, ought we not to do something for them? You and I think we ought to. Mother thinks she ought to; and the presence of these clear ladies on my left whol11 I am always anxious at these ,"';'-; ...' ,",'/:.... 116 MOTnER .METROPOLITAN dinners to have near me, bring to mind one of the things that we thought we could do. The Nursillg Service Some years ago, a happy thought occurred to Third Vice-President FRANKEL that, as to these people, we might nurse them. And so, we instituted the system of nursing every sick Industrial policy-holder who was sick enough to have a doctor, where the doctor thought a nurse would be advisable. Here they are, the sweet things: Nurses. Angels, I call them. Angels. I have never seen their wings. (Laughter.) But you know I made that remark at one of these conventions at Newark, New Jersey, where we had an ex-Governor as a guest. He made a speech. and he said, "If Mr. FISKE were fifty years younger, he would see their wings." (Laughter.) Well, I can hear them flap! What is trained nursing as practiced by us? Not the trained nursing that our guests know. Not the trained nurses that affluent people call on when there is sickness. When they come in, you go out to the Club. And your wife plays second fiddle at the house. They run the house. I have had them all my life. Not so with these nurses. They are Angels. The wage-earner doesn't get up in the morning. Or, rather, he gets up and has to go back to bed again. He groans; he tosses his arms ahout; kicks around the bed clothes; musses up the pillows. At the bedside stands the wife, anxious. It is a serious thing for a man to lose a day's wage, a serious thing for her to look at him and say, "Is he going to be sick long and lose his job?" Worried. Perhaps at that time one of you walks in, or, perhaps that is not your clay, and you will see on the screen presently a little mailing card that they can fill out and send to the Nursing Headquarters, or to your headquarters, and then, in comes the trained nurse. Straight to the bedside; leans over; looks down, and just the faint flicker of a smile, perhaps; asks him a question or two; her cool hand passes over that hot brow; she arranges the bed clothing; she smooths the pillow"s"," perhaps giving him a cooling drink; a kindly word; a question; but all the time peering, peering. What is it? What is this sickness that is coming? Docs he need a doctor? She makes up her mind that he does, and says to the wife, "Call the doctor," and thereafter the nurse puts herself under the charge of the physician, and comes as often and stays as long as you tell her to. I rememher some years ago, there was a 5 cent premium on a policy in Canada, and the trained nurse had made, the Jast I heard, eighty-six visits, and we were paying at that time, 50 cents a visit, and perhaps we have some banker or some actuary, or a mathematician here to-night. who will calculate how long, at 5 cents a week. we will be making up the $43.00 we paid the nurse, and then we will have to pay the death claim at the end. (Laughter.) The crack of doom will come before we get our money back. But what difference docs that il1ake? A life is saved. We save lives. \Ve get gratcf ul letters f rom policy-holders. Perhaps Mr. FRANKEL has said something about that today. Perhaps he has read some of the letters. Illegible they arc sometimes, almost. Badly written, badly spelled, but they are letters that come from the heart. Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude to Mother-their Mother. Lives saved; misery assuaged; comfort given. Sometimes I think that is a by-product, for 'i'RIGNNIAL ADDRESS, HAI,EY FISKE, 1920 117 it is the first du! v of the nurse when she enters the house, to look around her. Is it dirty or clean? Is the mother neat or slatternly? Are the children dccentlv clothed? Is therc a bad smell in the house? Is there open garbage? Are the windows tight shut? Are the doors barred? Is thcre anv fresh air? Arc the kitchen utensils c1cansed, or are they greasy ana sour? And it is her duty to speak to the house- .., mother; to teach her; to teach her cleanliness; to teach her the proper clothing; to teach her to be tidy. One million six hundred thousand of these visits were paid last year, and it brings the total visits up to eleven million. Is thcre anything else we could do? And we thought we might teach them by literature. And we have pamphlets or leaflets on practically every known disease. I think there are about a hun- dred of them. You cannot name any disease that we have not covered by a pamphlet. Tuberculosis? "'vVar on Consumption." The chil- -i' dren's diseases? A little book-the best thing ever written-called ._. i "The Child." And then. specitic child diseases? Whooping Cough, . Measles, Scarlet Fever, Croup. Diphtheria--each has its pamphlet. Typhoid Fever? A pamphlet on that. Malaria; with a discussion of the Mosquito that causcs it. Yellow Fcver, Smallpox, that of course. Down South, Pellagra, and Hookworm. \Ve distributed eighteen mil- dliroend lamstillyioena.r; and it brings thc total distribution up to over two hun- A Look Ahead Have you got a vision? Can you project your mind forward five years. ten years, twenty years? What shall it mean? \Vhat shall it mean, this wider and wider extension of territory covered? Last year issuing one million and a half Industrial policies. What shall it meanthis wider and wider membership in this society? More and more nursing visits paid on more and more people. More and more millions of literature distributed. Roll them up; roll them up, year in and ycar out. "Vhat shall it mean a generation hence? It can mean but onc thing-a revolution in thc health of the United States and Canada. (Great applausc.) I can see it coming. We have taken statistics of the dccline in mortality in the Industrial Department bctwecn 1911 and 1919 and havc compared these facts with corresponding figures for the United Statcs Rcgistration Area for the same pcriod. The Hegistration Area for dcaths, as I suppose YOlt know, is lhat group of statcs, countics and citics, which, under pcnalty, requirc physicians to registcr dcaths and thc causes of death. Weare thus able to make a comparison of the decline in mortality in both groups. Now, what do we find? Bctween 1911 and 1919, the death rate of the Industrial Department, ages one to seventy-four, has declined 12 per cent. greater than the rate in the Rcgistration Area of the United States. The typhoid fever death rate has dcclincd 68 pcr cent.; in the United States Regi~tration Area. thc decline was only. 56 per ccnt., a difference in favor of Industrial policyholders of 12 pcr ccnt. Take tuberculosis: our dcath rate declined 30 per ccnt., whereas in the Registration Area, the rcduction was only 21 per cent. For heart disease. our reduction was 20 per ccnt.. and in the Registration Area, only 7 per cent. For Bright's disease. the death rate of the Industrial Departlllent declincd 23 pcr cell!., and in the Registration Area, only 118 MOTHER METROPOLITAN 7 per cent. There has been a greater decline, also, in the death rate of puerperal sepsis among insured wage-earners than in the general population of the United States Registration Area. For accidents, the Industrial Department showed a decline of 18 per cent., whereas in the Registration Area, there was a reduction of only 15 per cent. A revolution? It has started! And yet, we feel that we are at the very beginning of it. The Fight Against Tuberculosis And, we are teaching other corporations, and teaching governments. Take this matter of tuberculosis. When I was a boy they called it consumption. It was hereditary and fatal; the father had it, or the mother had it, the child had to have it and die. Not a word of truth in it. It is llot hereditary, and it is not fatal. Oh, it used to be called an act of GOD, and I suppose the Doctors of Divinity here are quite familiar with the thought that when anything goes wrong, it is GOD that docs it and we have to suffer; when anything goes right, they never say that GOD did that. It is so, isn't it? "GOD did it!" GoD didn't do it! We know what did it. We know that it is a little bacillus, and we know it is not hereditary, and we know it is not fatal. We know it can be cured if taken in time. And our pamphlet tells people how to cure it and how not to cure it. How not to cure it. \VeU, we used to tell them not to drink whiskey. \Ve don't have to tell them that now. (Laughter.) But we do tell them not to take patent medicines, the basis of which is alcohol and the rest no good. And we tell them what is the cure-simply rest, fresh air day and night, and diet. And, we teach them, as Mr. FRANKEL was explaining to you when I went in this afternoon, that night air is all right. This notion that night air is bad is dead wrong. Air is good, day and night, perhaps a little better in the day on account of the sun, but night air is good and it never hurt anybody. Fresh air day and night, reasonable diet, reasonable rest. \Vell, I am laying down, you will say, a very extraordinary proposition, perhaps the guests think. Prove it ? We___ . have proved it. Some years ago we built a sanatorium on Mount McGregor (you will see pictures presently) for the care of our tubercular" agents and clerks. \ Ve have treated a thousand cases, and 850 of them are discharged cured and are at work. You will see pictures of some of the girls-I think there are about two hundred and forty-six _. of them-at the Home Office. Cured and at work. There is very seld0111 a convention that I go to that somebody docs not pop up and say "I am one." They get up voluntarily; I do not call on them to do it. Cured. Oh, if we could get them in time-and our whole effort is to get them in time, and I warn now these Superintendents that it is one of their proud duties to watch their agents, and if they see any sign of tuberculosis at all, to let us know. It may be the difference between life and death, and any Superintendent that neglects that may be guilty of what is pretty nearly murder. I know sometimes it is pretty hard to part with a good agent, but it is a duty, and a solemn duty laid lIpon the leaders of men to watch their staffs, and report sickness. 'fRIENNIAL ADDRESS, HALEY FISKE, 1920 11 ~ A Lesson to G01-'Cr1WICllt and Othcr Corporati01ls vVe had a fight to get that Sanatorium. I said it was a lesson to corporations. It was. We had to apply under the law to the Superintendent of Insurance for permission to buy real estate. He said, "Not for a sanatorium-Ultra vires." Nice plea, that. That is the plea that lawyers make when their clients do not want to do something. "Ultra 1-'ircs." You cannot do it. Beyond your power. Well, we went to court about it, and we got the Supreme Court of New York to hold that it is not only the right but the duty of a corporation to take rea~onable care of its employees, and that if the Board of Directors of a corporation believes that reasonable care involves the building' of a Sanatorium, it had the right to do it. And that is a lesson to corporations. It is a lesson to Directors of Corporations. That law lays down the proposition that directors can do this without consulting their stockholders. It is their duty to do it. It is a lesson to corporations, and it is being taken. I was down South this last .winter, and the head of a great corporation there was very proud to ask me to go out to see a million dollar hospital, and with a great deal of pride he said, "I have asked my corporation for over $700,000, this year, for health ami welfare work." And, we had at Chicago, at our convention, one who is perhaps the leading sociologist in the country, Professor GRAHA~I TAYLOR. And his address was directed to a review of the relations, in the matter of health and welfare, and the management of corporations, with their employees, and it was first the Metropolitan Life, and then it was somebody else, and before he got through, his narrative was a stairway, of which the risers were the Metropolitan Life. And he traced up from the time they began when nothing was done, to the present time, when much is done by many corporations, and he said that this Company was the pioneer and the teacher of corporations in matters of health and welfare. We try to teach governments. We took over a town three years ago, the town of Framingham, fifteen miles from Boston. By its consent, we took charge of its health and put in a committee headed by Doctor ARMSTRONG, who is there yet. It involved the physical examination of the inhabitants, and I suppose we examined two-thirds or three-quarters of them. Isolation of the tuoercular. Looking after the milk. Examination of sewerage and water supply. The working conditions in factories. \\'hat has oeen the result in three years? A reduction in the general mortality, and a reduction in the mortality from tuberculosis of over sixty per hundred thousand. It is a factory town. Now, every factory has a trained nurse. Every factory has a medical clinic. The town has a trained nurse. And a report has been made. A little monograph issued from time to time, alJd a final report made to the Surgeon General of the United States, and other physicians on the committee with him. What do they think of it? "A most inter- esting experiment, but keep it up for two years 1110re. Five years ought to determine whether a town can be made a spotless town." And, we are going to do it. "Oh," you say, "mayoe other towns have im- proved too." \Vell, we took ten other towns in Massachusetts, of ..:~.:.' the same size and general character, and in everyone of them, there 120 MOTHER METROPOLIl'AN has been an increase in the last three years, in death from tuberculosis, and only in Framingham a decrease. 'vVe have been sitting here-I just want to show you one thing that will bring to the minds of the guests the immensity of the corporation I am talking about. \Ve have been sitting here, say two hours and a half; and in that time fifty-fifty of our policy-holders have died. Fifty children of Mother have passed away; and of those, eight have died f rom tuberculosis. It is a matter that brings home to everybody the dreadful prevalence of this awful disease. What ought to be done? What we are trying to do is to teach government. It needs it. There was a speech made at one of our dinners in Indiana-I have forgotten which one-the Health Officer made it, a pathe.tic speech. It was reported that a woman has tuberculosis. "Well, there is the general hospital." And about the children? "Sorry; can't help it." This general care of tuberculous people is a cruel thing. (We had a United States Senator at one of these conventions who desdibed the 'condition of the poor people sent to hospitals in Washington with tuberculosis. It would make you shudder-patients exposed to sun and flies, and neglected.) Well, this Health Commissioner went on. Oh, he said, the other day a farmer found that one of his hogs had cholera. What happened? He telegraphed to Washington. Down came a corps of inspectors, and they made an inspection of the whole district, to find out where the cholera in hogs was raging. Dollars and dollars were spent in investigation and the cure. And, it is said that one of our Congresses voted fifty million dollars for hog cholera, and ;,; Mr. FRANKEL, when he heard that, made a very striking remark. "It. would be better," he said, "for the Government that spent fifty milljon dollars on hogs, to spend a few million dollars to save human lik" (Great applause.) Assisting Government We are taking over the functions of government. A few years ago President 'vVILSON was worrying about unemployment. What hap- pened? The Commissioner of Labor Statistics came to 1 Madison Avenue. Boston is not the hub of the universe. It is 1 Madison Avenue. (Laughter.) Then, with Third Vice-President FRANKEL, he went all over the country, visiting fifty or sixty dties, and took " ,-, a survey of unemployment; how many unemployed; how long unem- ployed; why unemployed; is it sickness? What is the nature of the occupation? They took a card index of this information and pub- lished it in Washington. and that is the basis of these Unemployment Bureaus. You will find them all over the U nion. We are in partner- ship with five States to get the people nursed. North and South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia and Kentucky. There is an agreement between us that under their State supervision and our nurses together, they are to try to get everybody nursed. The Health Officer of Ver- mont, at one of the Boston conventions the other night, said the whole health work of the State of Vermont was originated by and is dependent upon the Metropolitan Life. The authorities in North Carolina at our convention there said that if it had not been for the Metropolitan Life, they would not have had any Health Depart- ment or any health work in that State. The Governor of Kentucky ,,',:' " ", --,,"', 'rRIENNIAL ADDRESS, II.,\I,IN FISKE, 1920 121 ,'-..~ -well, he almost went so far as to say that everybody ought to be insured in the Metropolitan (laughter): so impressed was he by his knowledge of what this Company is doing in the State of Kentucky where we have this contractual relationship that I have mentioned to . f- you. This distribution of literature goes to governments. State and >. County and Municipal. It goes to public schools for distribution. They are starting, I think, in Massachusetts a system of what is known as Community Centers for health advice. It is a fact to-day in Framingham that every physician in the town goes to Doctor ARM- STRONG for his assistance, for advice in some cases that come to him. It is spreading and it is everywhere known just what this Company is doing. It is taking over the functions of government. I thought the limit had been reached last winter. I think it was about November I got a telegram from the authorities at Augusta. Georgia: "We would like your Company to come down and take the census." Well. I thought that was the limit. (Laughter. ) But Mr. STEWART, the Superintendent of Agencies for that territory, was traveling somewhere and I wired to him to go over to Augusta and see what they wanted. It seems they had had a fight with Macon over the census, and each accused the other of fraud. and they thought, this til1le we will have it taken right; have the Metropolitan do it. We did it; we actually took the census of that large city. There is no telling where this thing is going to end. A United States Senator out West said. "Come down to Washington, and t:tke charge 0f the Government. and if you cannot do that," he said, "come down and start a school for Congress." (Laughter and applause.) Why, during these conventions. I have been elected President of the United States six times, and the climax came the other night when I was made the Premier of Ontario. (Laughter.) It was not mc. They didn't know me from a hole in the ground. Never had seen me before. and never wanted to again. What was it? It was the power of this organization. The knowledge of the people of what this Company can accomplish and is accomplishing, and the way we are teaching government. Away out in Canada we held a convention and we heard a pathetic speech from a Red Cross lady. She had been traveling hundreds of miles and distressed us hy her picture of the lives of the isolated country people. No doctors; no hospitals; no clinics; no schools; very few means of communication: the people leaving the cOllntry. although they need them there for farming. It was because they could not stand the isolation. And an appeal was made to liS. although we do not do business up there in the country. We are offering to make a survey if we can get the co-operation of the local authorities and find out just what is the trouble with these country districts and what remedies can be applied. In several cities we have made surveys. It is quite a big job. a survey of the machinery to find out what is the matter with a town. what its health conditions are. pointing out the plague spots. the faults in its government system, and telling them what to do. Y Oll have heard of Kingsport, Tennessee, I suppose. Kingsport is a city in Tennessee that has ten thousand people. and is rapidly growing. Well, they started right, there. One of the requisites is that every laboring man, every working man, or mechanic in the town shall be insured in the {~" ~.',.. . i/t': '"-'!~.' ,'1;"-"' 122 MOTHeR MBTROPOLITAN Metropolitall Life-a mighty good rule. (Applause and laughter.) Third Vice-President FRANKEL went down there to Kingsport, and saw sixty-five houses that could not be repaired. Burn them up. And they are to burn them up. It was our Comptroller that went down there and showed them how to build their houses, our trained nurse that went down there and established the trained nursing system; our experts that told them how to layout their streets and parks; and that town is a Metropolitan town. The people in the town are circulating tpharmoupghhletTsenannedssleiete. rature about it, which they themselves write, all Teaching Employers Then, we are trying to teach employers in another manner. It took me two or three years to be persuaded to do Group Insurance. Group Insurance. ladies and gentlemen guests, is insurance by em- ployers in one policy of all the employees, without medical examination. To each policy is attached a register containing the names of the em- ployees, corrected monthly. My junior officers wanted me very much to go into it, and I said, Oh, no. The premiums are low; awful lot of trouble; big overhead expense. \Ve are writing all the insurance we ought to write. Finally I was persuaded. \Vhy? Because, the work- ing people are the children of Mother; and we issued the other day, one policy, the largest ever known in the history of insurance in the world, one policy, one stroke of the pen, for forty-five millions of dollars. But what did it mean? Forty-five thousand working men and women to be nursed. Forty-five thousand men to whom to give literature. Fortv-five thousand children of Mother. But, it is more than that. Our 'Group Division has a bureau in it of twenty-five men and women. university graduates, whose duty it is to study this method of welfare of working people. One of them is a safety engineer. We make surveys of plants free of charge. The safety ~ngineer goes down there. He says, this, and this, and this you should do to save liv~~:... Or, another one will go down and say, "Why don't you start a medical clinic? The Metropolitan does." Another one will say, "Why don't vou start ~f most a dental diseases. clinic? The It is trouble Metropolitan with the teeth that is docs." Another one the cause will say, "Why don't you start a Co-operative Store to keep these people frOIDbeing s\\"indled? The Metropolitan does." More than that, there comes out a periodical monthly, or semi-monthly which is really an index. and which says. for instance, "On such a page of such a book recently published, or on such a page of a certain magazine, or in stich a colullln of such a newspaper of such a date. you will ~nd an article right on your own particular business. It will pay you to read it." It tells employers the things that will help them in the prosecution of their \\"ork, and will, incidentally, help their working people. Social Insurance There is a great deal of talk nowadays, about social insurance, which means insurance against sickness, usually with a small death benefit. It is a system whereby it is provided that the State shall pay a part of the premium. the employer a part, and the employee a part. The policy provides for the payment of a sum less than the wages 123 oi during sickness. The schellle follows, lines the English social inslIrance. in certain particulars. along" the Originally. it was made in Ger- many. It has been in iorce for SOllle years in England. \Ve are not opposing- it. but the qltestion is whether it is hettcr to pay a man when he is taken sick. or to endeavor to pre\'ent his ever being- sick. Sir ARTIIC'R NEwsnoulE. connected at one tillle with the Local Gov- ernment Board in England, has heen over to .\merica. lecturing. and in his conservative \ray. he said it has not been proved that the scheme is a SlIccess, or that if the same amount of IlHl11ey \\'a~ spent for the prevention oi sickness it would not have brought hetler results. The National Ci\ic Federation sent over a Commission to England to invc~ tigate. The r\ational Civic Federation is a society in \rhich capitalists and lahoring peoplc arc joincd. Pcrhaps its character can hc hest indi- cated hy saying that ALTON B. PARKER. who was once a nonlinec for thc Presidency, is the President of the Fcderation. ;01(1 S"~\uEL C01\l- I'ERS the Vice:Presidenl. Thc Comlllission has IIlade a report in which they say that the American workingman does not \\'ant social insur- ance. He does not believe in paternal government. He helieves in ~elf-dependence. Some things the Commission reports Ihe Govcrnmcnt might do. It recommended that the Lcgislaturc SllOlIl<1 consider thc appointment of a special COl11mission to make a careful and exhanstive investigation, and s! udy the expense. the !reat III('n1. and the preven- tion of sickness, and specifically to study awl to report upon the meth- ods and means for the eradication of discase; for lhc education of the people in the fundamental principles of hcalth: the methods and means of bringing adeqnate mcdical care within the reach of the people; the establishment of diagnostic clinics; the establishment of clinics throughout the State for the periodic medical examination of pcrsons applying therefor; the development of Public Health :\ursing; thc methods of the adequate care of maternity; the co-ordination of private and public health agencics. You will notice that several of these recom- mendations are "'hat the ?lIetropolitan is already doing. How much hetter it would seem to l11e. to promote the general health and prevent ,ickness, than to try to palliate the conditions of peoplc when they are taken sick. . The Labor Problc/lt We are living in times "'hen there is a great deal said. and no 'Iouht very truly. ahout thc difficulties bctwecn capital and lahor. by which j, meant thc dissensions bct\\'cen employers and employees. :\t OIle of these conventions sOl11e 1110nths ago. we had an ex-President fti a local Federation of Labor speak. He \\'a" an eloqucnt speakerIlot a ranter. He spoke in a plain. conn'rsational tone. hut in good English, well deliverecl. and he took for his subjcct. "Trade Unionism." IIe painted a beautiful picture as to the ideals of trade unionism, and I want to tell you one or t\\'o or three of the things he said: "1Iy iather was a workingman, and in his early days. at the end of the week. the employer came out and handed him his pay envclope. 'How do you do, John, how are you? How is your wife?' l\Iy father lived 10 see the day when his pay envelope was thrust at him through a rag-e hy a hireling like himself, and he never saw his employer." .\nd then he said t\\'o remarkable things: "If," he said, "all cmployers ......................____00.__ ........__._ _ _ _ __ 124 !VIO'fIlI~R M~'fRol'oLlTAN of lahor had treated their employees as the Metropolitan treats its em- . ployees, trade unionism never would have been born." And then he said this: "If the time ever comes when our employers of labor shall treat their employees as the Ivletropolitan treats its employees, that day trade unionism will die." It gives us food for thought. What is the foundation of these troubles? Is it, perhaps, that the workingman has got it into his head that his employer regards him as a mere machine to be used and scrapped, that the employer cares nothing for him, that he has no thought of his welfare, of his housing, of his conditions of living, of the conditions of his employment-just machines, not even human beings? May it not be that through Group Insurance as offered by this Company, the time may come when employees will think, "My employer docs rare for me". Of course, in large plants, the employer cannot do as "John's" father did. see the employee every week, and yet. they can sec them. The other day, we issued a large Group policy in \Vestern Massachusetts. And how was it done? The employer hired three halls, because one was not large enough, and went from one to the other and sawall his employees, and he told them how faithful they had been and how much he thought of them, and what he hoped he might he ahle to do for them. And also he told them what he was going to do then, and he told them of this Group Insurance, and that their lives were insured for so much, and he told them that he did care for them. After that, they knew him. May it not be that through this Group Insurance. we may do something to solve these difficulties between capital and labor, employer and employee? GOD grant it; GOD grant that Mother may do that. Agents Are Mother's Elder Sons. And now, my dear. boys, as I have been talking along these lines, has it occurred to you to ask who you are? Who are you? If Mother is this great Company, and if these millions of people are her children, then you are the elder brothers. Did it occur to you ever that the Jndustrial Agent is the only man in the world who has a contract right to knock at a door every 1\1onday morning and walk in and go right into the inner family circle? Has it ever occurred to you as pointing out opportunities and responsibilities? How do you use them? Honestly-I need not say that. You could not deceive them; you could not lie to them; you could not cheat them. Why, they paid for this dinner; they paid for the clothes on your back. You send your children to school, and their breakfast was paid for by these people; the clothing of your children are paid for by them; you would not be able to send them to school, were it not for these people; ah, no, you could not cheat them. But, courtesy. Ah. you say they are irritating, aggravating people; well, so are you. If you don't believe that, ask your wife. (Laughter.) I am, and you are no better than I am. If you think that you are better than they, prove it. "Noblesse oblige." Serve them. Courtesy; kindliness; the handshake; the smile; . the question about their health; the searching for the need of nurses; the offers to help in times of trouble. One of the nice things about these conventions is what I hear about our agents. A policy-holder out of work? And then I think of our California agent who has not TRmNNIM. AODRBSS, I bl.BY FISKg. In() 125 had a lapse for 1I10nt hs and 1I10nths. Why? Because he feels it his first duty whcll a policy-holder gets out of work. to !lnd out what his occupation i~. and scollr the town, and get him another job. Boy gone \\Tong? You see the mother's tears. And it brings up the Boston agent 10 nl)' mind. one of whose boys on his debit had gone wrong. I-Ie follo\\'ed him down to the Court: "Judge, he is very young. It is his lirst olIense. Don't send him to a reformatory to learn crime. Give him to me for his mother." And the judge did. Is there poverty in the house? And then comes that beautiful story told by a minister at one of these dinners, ahout which he knew, and we did not. The mother sick; the father out of \\'ork; no food; what did the agent do? Ask them for premiums. and threaten them with lapse? Oh. no. He went back to the office, passed the hat, bought food for them: \\'ent back to the family and ga\'e it to them; got a trained nurse for the mother, and inquired why the father was out of work. It seellls the llIan had staid home to take care of his sick wife, and then the trained nurse, a woman of influence, went to the employer and shamed him into taking the man hack. Husband and wife quarreling? Well, each one tells his story, and you hear them both.. And up collies the ligure of the Chicago agent who called where the husband and \\'ife had uarreled and had agreed to get a divorce. What did he do? The elder hrother-the elder son-he sat down \\'ilh thelll. "\Vhom COil hath joined together, let no Illan put asunder." He reasoned with them; found out the cause of their difference; pleaded with thcm: got them to abandon thci r purpose. and live together amicably. Tuberculosis? Then, I think of MURPHY. Last year, in .r anuary. whcn the Superintendents were passing the Directors' table. greeting the officers. somehody said, "Here comes MURPHY." \Vell, 1 never had seen MURPHY, but I knew MURPHY. MURPHY was an agent in Canada. got tuberculosis, went to the sanatorium, got cured, went back on his debit. In his canvassing, he entered a house, and found the wage-carner very sick with tuberculosis. and he thought he was going to die. They were taking such very good care of him! They had him wrapped up so well; he must not catch cold; had all the windows tight shut; there must not be any draught on him; they had the doors barred; such good care: poor thing! \ Vhat did M URPIIY do? He threw open the windows, burst open the door, dragged the bed out of doors on the porch. "Sleep there!" And he did. and he got well. and is to-day a cured man, supporting his family. Trained nurses? And then I think of that lovely story-well, there are two stories that I have heard on this trip. One was down South. One of our trained nurses was walking along the street and met a little girl with a flushed face, and crying. "My dear. what is the matter?" ":'lother makes me go to school. and I feel so sick." "You come with me, my girl." She took her back to her mother. "Madam, this child is too sick to go to school." "Nonsense. It's my child, not yours; she is trying to get out of going tv school. I will send her back." "Ah, my dear madam, just let me examine her." She took her temperature-104 or 105. She foresaw what was coming and got her to bed. It was scarlet fever. She not only saved the baby's life, but saved an epidemic throughout )hat school, which would certainly have happened. But here is the .---....-. _.__..,-_ ... _._----------"- 126 MO'I'H/.tR MHTROPOLITAN other ernor story. This story was told MORROW. He was out by the Governor of Kentucky; Gov- the foot all night of a mountain, on his and campaigning, and he found that he night overtook would have him at and in the dim horse. light of and all night long the dawn, he had a he was ascending to travel the hills; a horse coming her saddle. It down was a the mountain, Metr with vision-a woman astride a little black bag in front of of of Kentucky. nursing the opolitan nurse, wandering sick, and teaching them. among the cabins All [dcal for Agents l\[y greedy, dear boys, we live in a sordid grasping. over-reaching world, a commercialized, selfish, can be collect a part of and can il, and nobody period of the world's history; \\"ill criticize you. Canvass a and you keep your vass; go home little memorandum at night and book, and count up nd collect, your earnings; made; on it; buy give a bond; huy something your wi fe a pian for note how much your house, or pay you have something save Illoney; get a ballk a c c o; oun in t. d ulge \Vhe y n our yo se u lf co in me some to di li e, t t l e luxury; ittakliettltehopsaeratghirnagrhs :wgiothodyohuu.sbaBnudI;. kthinednfeaxtthemorning's paperyowuilcl ahnanvoet man; left are where his family well provided those things won't for. r; a thrifty, able business But you are not there. You the din and clamour will hear a cla of this lhifeel.p iyf oyuo. u Twhilelrekeiespanyootuhrercawrsay: Above under-world rion call to service. is seething; once in Underneath a while there is alert, you convulsion. The you hear the cry. but whether all over this world comes you hear it comes to the surface, and it or not, it is there, and from times, tive o during the past lip year, this yearning great cry for perhaps, irrespective of service. Some- year f your opinions on political yom mind, with mine, has problems, politics, perhaps during irrespecthe past there is a lonely man, brothers. not enem very sick. gon He e h dow ad a n v i to sio Washingt n: nations on, sho w h e r e upon ough smaller ies; large nations ones; there ought to be should not encroach no quarrels, and uld be impose he a t to be arbitrated; world cOllrt ; there there ought ought to be to be disarmamanednti;fththeerree obueg, htthetoy his rcwanl? And yet. I a111 "Schoolmaster! asking Propfeeascseo-ru! nivUenrsparal cpteicaacle!. \IVdheaatl was vision. Canvass and you to collect; be idealists. collect and I am asking canvass, you to ist!" have a yeoaguerhatvoetianmd opnegoptlheestoe thheolpu,saanndds in these unrivalledahopypeosr,tubnuittieaslwtahyast ilies that everyone quire; look; try; of you cover, of families, these hundreds of find out opportunities to se fam- But, take in any perhaps you event, when you may not come to make as die, you much, perhaps rve. Inyou will. with you. Oh, my dear these weary pavements, not boys, with start out to-mworilrlo IhVavmeorsnoimnge.thTinrgeatdo FthAeILsSk.y w(hGerreeatGOaDppilsa, uysoeuar nhdeacrhtseeayrfsola.u)mr eeyweisthotnhattheLIgGrHoTunTdH, AbTutNuEpVEiRn METROPOLITAN ACCOMPLISHMENT AND PROGRESS Managers' Annual Banquet, Hotel Astor, New York City, January 31, 1925 HALEY FISKE, President My dear hoys, 1 am under the necessity tonight uf speaking through the radio. There are, I am told, millions of people listening in, in all parts of the United States and Canada, so that I am addressing tonight a very much larger audience than is here. What I shall say about the Company won't be any news to you. You have heard it over and over again this week. We have been together now three or four days. I talked to you at length on Thursday. Many Officers talked to you on Friday. Your sub-officers have .been talking to you today. You have been furnished with literature. You have gotten the annual statement. You know all about it. But the millions who are listening in don't, and one sad result of that state of fact is that I must read what I have to say, at least to a certain extent, so that it will be perfectly clear over the radio what the record of this Company is. Ladies and gentlemen, my dear boys scattered throughout the country by the thousands listening in, our policyholders by the millions listening in: We are presenting to you tonight a body of men here assembled. under whose management last year we wrote, had placed and paid-for, $2,515,000,000 of insurance, of which about $955,000,000 was Industrial insurance, issued out of the Industrial Department, and one bilJion and a half out of the Ordinary Department. The Industrial Department issues those policies on which the premiums are payable weekly and are collected at the homes of the insured. The Ordinary policies are those which are paid for quarterly or semiannually or annualJy-and in some small part of the business, monthly; not collected at the homes, but sent to the office. The first striking fact is that this placing of two billion and a half and over of insurance was 18.6 per cent. of all the business placed by all the life insurance companies-three hundred in number. (Applause.) So that of the total amount of insurance placed, this Company alone placec! one-fifth-very nearly one-fifth. It brings our total insurance in force up to $10,522,000,000 and over, and this is 16.4 per cent. of all the life insurance in force by all these companies throughout these two countries, the United States and Canada. (Applause.) So of all the life insurance existing in these two countries, this Company alone has nearly one-sixth of the entire amount in force. It is the greatest record ever made by any life insurance company in 444 >-----------.>--------~~........,- f. f ADDRESS llY IIALBY FlSKB 445 thheerewtoofroldre. m(Aadpep.lauIste.m) eaIntsistheavtenwgerewarteortethaanndanpylacweed o$u8r,s2e7l5v,e0s0h0avoef insurance every day. It means premiums received during- the year of $370,750,000, or nearly a million and a quarter of dollars every working day. (Ap- plause.) It has brought our assets up to $1,628,174,000-a half hillion more than any other company has. to allay any possible (Applause.) anxiety on the part of anyhody as to Now what it means to have this cnormous amount of at we do with it. money in thc control Of this, $708,536,000 of one company, let us see wh are invested in bonds and mortgages. This means that we have conpeople and the tributed that enormous sum to the f their business. For housinghousing of our alone $240,000,000 have cbaerernyilnoganoend boy us, accommodating c7o2m,0m0o0dafatimngilie2s3.,00I0n f1a9m2i4lieasl.one we loaned Of $80,000,000 for housing, ac the mortgage investments $162,000,000 are on farms-our con- tribution to agriculture. Nearly $700,OOO,(X)() of Our assets are invested in other bonds; a which small amount in stocks-those opportunity stocks bought long ago, and on as yet to realize their value. We sell there them has been as fast as no it pays us to sell them, so that shortly we shall be with- out any stock holdings at all. One-half of this investment in bonds is on raikay securities. That makes modern civilization possible; it unites North and South, East ainngdOoWnveetsrhte$. 2w00a,(rX, )a()n,OdOtOheisrelostanfeodr ttoheGboevneerfnitmoefnttsh,eapleaorpglee pinartthefoirr ocragraryn-- itzeeledNgcreaaapprhalc,yitt$yel.l0e0p,OhoOnOe,,OtOraOc-toiovenr, $l9ig4h,0t 0a0n,d00p0o-hwaesr,gownheictoh pmubalkiec umtiolidtieersn, life possible. About $115,000,000 is in loans to policyholderst,emtopoenraarbyle ftihneamncitaol keep up their insurance and to tide them over ent. You see how we make the billion and a half work erfeomarbdpayrurfbaolsricsminbvenesetfmit,enast, wanedhmadorleessthtahnanth$a1t 6s,u0m00,w0e00haind caalsrheaadnydprinombiasnekds. OZier 32,000,000 Policies in IIames of People We have now in force 32,447,000 policies, insuring 22,000,000 people, nearly one-fifth of the entire population and you will note that this is of the United States and Canada. (A pplatlse.) Two years ago I ne-sixth, and think I said one-seventh. A year ago I think I said o g about one-fifth. We added 2,000,000 policies in force now I am sayin during this past year, insuring 1,500,000 individual lives. Over 28,Industrial policies, on which, 000,000 of the whole escribed, number in force are the premiums are collected weekly at the homes ents make ao3sf00It,h0h0ea0v,i0ne0s0udrveidsitbsyaoyueraragteonttsh,e ahnodmethsisofmweaangse tehaartneorsu.r ag ;.'}r:/ ~ ~:' ~ i' '. 446 MANAGllRS' ANNUAL BANQUET, 1925 In congested cities we have a much larger proportion of the population insured. In New York City, in Montreal. we have a third of the population. In some large cities, like St. Louis, Syracuse, Quebec, we have one-half of them. We have 80,000 policies in force in Quebec, out of 100,000 people. In Troy we have more policies in force than the entire population. (Applause.) Thus, with our wealth, we have Power. With the extent of our business we have Opportunity. We have believed that this imposes Responsibility. $129,000,000 Dividetlds Paid There is placed before the guests at the head table tonight a book called AI! Epoch in Life Insurance, a Record of a Third of a Century of Achievement. Copies will be sent to all who are present here. Copies will be sent to all of our agents. If any of our listeners-in want a copy, they can have it if they will write to us and say so. It is a record of the work of the present administration. Its perusal will prove to you that we have tried to meet these responsibilities. We have revolutionized Industrial insurance. We have revolutionized Ordinary insurance. The book is a story of constantly progressive benefits to policyholders in their contracts, in concessions, in distribution of earnings outside the contracts. That sum alone paid in benefits outside the contracts amounts to $54,000,000, and, of course, the payment of dividends since we became mutualized follows as a matter of contract. And these dividends have amounted to $75,000,000. So that it makes the impressive total of payments to policyholders outside of the inslIrance of more than $129,000,000. Last year we paid 1,405 claims a day-one every twenty-one seconds of every business day-amounting, in all, to $153,000,000. We have a death in our membership every four minutes. We have improved our methods, cut down our expenses 25 per cent., cut down our lapses, until now the ratio of Industrial lapses to the mean number in force is as low as, and even lower in many cases, than the lapses of Ordinary companies other than ourselves. (Applause.) Heal/h Improved and Sickness Reduced by Metropolitan Educating and Nursing But do OUI' responsibilities end there? We have thought not. These 300,000,000 visits a year to the homes of workers-what do they mean to liS except opportunity for Service? For fiftren years we have been engaged in Welfare work. We have instituted a free service to the sick bv trained nurses, and these nurses have made probably 30,000,000 visits "to ollr sick Industrial policyholders. They made over 2,500,000 visits last year alone. We have distributed 346,000,000 pieces of health literature pamphlets, on every known disease. Last year alone we distributed over 40,000,000 pieces. We have shown health films on the screen to 3,000,000 people. We have had thousands of health exhibits, conducted thousands of health campaigns locally, advertised to millions of reatlers our lectures 011 disease and health. f t ADDRESS llY HALEY FISKE 447 I :V f c hav.e ma(!e campai~ns th.rough schools, and now we are pre- ! panng an 1I1tenslve campaIgn dIrected to 21,000,000 school children through 875,000 teachers. I The result? \Ve have compared our mortality for the years 1911 ~o 19?4, inclusive.. with that of ~he reduction of mortality in the Reg- IstratIOn Area, whIch may be saId to be an exhibit of the general mor- tality. Nineteen hundred twenty-three is the last year for which we had data, and we have compared our record from 1911 to 1924 with \ the general population record of 1911 to 1923 as follows: Typhoid fever; our reduction, 77 per cent.; the general mortality, t 69 per cent. Tuberculosis; 50.8 pCI' cent.; the general reduction, 40 per cent. Children's diseases; 48.8 per cent. ; the general record, 29 per cent. Measles; 26 per cent., against an increase in the general mortality of 6 per cent. . Scarlet fever; 66 per cent., against the general record of 59 per cent. Diphtheria; 43 per cent., against the general record of 34 per cent. Whooping-cough; 32.7 per cent., against the general record of 13 per cent. Pneumonia; 32 per cent., against the general record of 19 per cent. Bright's Disease; 26.7 per cent., against 12.8 per cent. Heart disease; 9.2 per cent., against an increase in the general mortality of over 7 per cent. . We have had a Sanatorium for eleven years for the treatment of tuberculosis among our own employes, and we have discharged 84 per cent. as able to return to work-and I call them cured. (Applause.) We have conducted a campaign in an industrial city and reduced deaths from tuberculosis from 121 per 100,000 to 38. In another city, a campaign against mortality of children under 1 year of age was con- ducted, and as a result reduced that mortality from 300 to 96 per 1,000. \Ve have blazed the way for governments and wclfare foundations, which now arc spending millions of dollars to do the work that we showed could bc done in Framingham and Thetford Mines. (Ap- plause. ) We have $862,000,000 of Group insurance in forcc, covering 600,000 lives-a system of insurance of employes in factories, on rail- ways, in institutions, corporations which employ a large number of people. Our ntll'sing, our distribution of litcrattll'e, goes to thcm. We have sickness insurance for them, as well as life instll'ance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, insured thrift and a pension sys- tem from which we expect great results. Activities in the Interest of Business Men, Wor/mten and their Families Our activities cover not only employes, but employers. We have a Policyholders Service Bureau to teach and advise with employers of labor. We have stll'veyed a great railway system, and two hundred pages are just off the press-the result of that survey-brought out by a prominent publishing house. the Simmons-Boardman Company, en- 448 l'vIANAG~RS' ANNUAl, BANQU~T, 1925 titled Pcrsonnel Mallagemcnt of Railroads. It covers, in various chapters, employment,. promotion and discipline, stability of employment, educatton, condItIons of work, relations between employes and management, and savings and insurance. This Bureau issues reports on safety engineering, on business economics and research, budgeting and busll1ess management and, most important of all health and industrial hygiene. This last is under the charge of Dr. WADE WRIGHT, late professor in the Harvard Medical School, who had devoted years of study to the subject. There are scores of subjects covered by his service-hazards of different occupations, phenol plants, sanitation of coal towns, hazards from the fur trade, railway hazards, lumber camp hazards and hygiene, radium hazards, the hazards of mattress making, gas heating, glass blowers, hygiene in public schools, hotels, cafeterias and the domestic life of the workers in their homes. Over 300,000 Bureau reports have been distributed, and over 3,000,000 pieces of health literature have been sent to these workers. We care for the immigrants, help them through the ports and to their destination-2,900 of them last year-and we issued, in 1924, 1,154,177 citizenship papers, and have conducted campaigns for naturalization. (Applause.) My dear boys, do you have a vision? Does it mean anything to you that we have got one-fifth of the population insured? Does it mean anything to you that every year we are increasing by millions these insured people? lIave you in mind that they are the working people of this country? I-lave you a vision? Do you see the growth of this Company? Do you see it embracing morc and more a higher percentage of the population?' Can you see a time when most of the wage earners of this country will be insured in this Company? (A ppla use.) Over 20 per cent. of our llursing cases have been maternity cases.. The next generation of working people will be our children: (Applause.) \Vhat docs it mean-this campaign we are going on with, for 21,000,000 children, instructing 875,000 teachers, offering prizes to them for the best work in teaching health, sending out, broadcast, millions of attractive books that children can read and study, and attractive pamphlets f rom which teachers may instruct? I-lave you a vision? Can you see these millions and millions of the new coming generation -our own people-under the care of our own Mother Metropolitan? I told you the other day of a letter that I had received from Father BULL, known all over the world as a student, as a lecturer, as a preacher, as a mission worker, as an author of books, a "regular," by which I mean, of course, a priest under vows, and with a natural prejudice against accumulation of wealth, having a fear of its use. He came to visit us. He went through our Home Office. He examined our literature, and you will remember that this letter said: "I have comc to believe that GOD has a use for owners of millions of money." We have the millions of moncy. What shall we do with it? Must not we reach out to the wage earners? Must not we try to bring AnDRESS BY I-IALHY FISKlt 449 abollt, if we can, a bettethr isfecellaisnsgprboebtwleemenofecmappliotaylerasndanladboerm?plToryaedso? 1\[ust not we tiT to solve union leaders nced have no fear of us. By this systcm of Industrial ependent. 'vVe have insurance, ade them we have ta capitalists. ught Eve r th y eir ow men to ner of a be ind n insurance policy is a capi- m property. They need have no fear of us. We have anifestations that labor may have in objec- talist; he has nothing to do with any m tions to the terms of employment. Ah, nothing but thaims:elTiohraatte,i(towesocmane bring together these t, their mutual two classes prejudices. of people, we may It must have effect, that the expendi- exten ture of money by the employer and the coordination in least partners in insurance. expenditure May there by employe will make them at be not some day coming when they may be partners in Industry? (Applause. ) It is not for us to take any sides. It is not for us to say whether it shall be brought about by committees of management, modes of cooperation. That is by profitfor them. sharing or by any nterfere other ,\lith the rights of employers. and we don't inter- to do is to get \Ve don't i fere with the rights of employes. The main thing them together. The war was settled, so far as its aftermath was concerned, the other day in Paris by getting together. The getting L'gether of world is getting together. classes of people? Can't C::n't we bring abou. the we let them see their mutual responsibilities to each other an't we teach as well as them how to themselves'?t wCe aenn'ctowureagneutrhseemthteo ssiacvke?? C Can't we push the pension tsoysltievme? thCatanshall he cooperaant'itvew,efomruwltihpilcyh tthheeseeminptelor-yreerlasthioanlls phaeytwpeaerltl atphnoedwoetnhree isenimcdrepelaoasnyeeds ptahanerdto?tthheCer uexnttielnstomofe doauyr -hbuasvineeyssouinacrveiassioens,?-waes wouiIrl bring these people together? (Applause.) shall have industrial peace; we shall decrease disease; we And we shall lower mortality. We shall tcach people how to prevent sickness, as well as teach them how to reat, great work cure that sickness. you and I are engaged in. Great, It is a g ity rests on the management. Great, great responsi- men under your supervision. great responsibil hility rests on you. You have 20,000 Get them away, if you can, It is fothreynooutitoontetahcaht tthhieosmf i,sctaaornrgyuiinnidsgueroathnuectmeG.cooom'spawnoy.rk, Inosfurwahnicceh isF, awthitehr f rom us, merely the means spoke. The more people you insure, the more opportunities BULL we have; the more wealth we amass, the greater good we can do. We our investment in making civilization can do the good generally by \Ve can improve methods of communication; we easier, and better. can make domestic life more comfortable. Vlfe can do that. But with to do more and, this wealth we can do more, and it is your mission Convention will have been a failure unless you go my dear boys, this hence with the feeling in your breast that you are Goo's servants, that 450 MANAGERS' ANNUAl. BANQUET, 1925 it is yours to benefit humanity, that it is yours to bring people into this Company for the purpose of benefiting them, outside of insurance. Insurance I do not decry. It is a great blessing. But I say we can use that, with the power we have, with the responsibilities that GOD has put upon tiS, for that sweetest word in the worid-Service-by that sweetest word in the world-Mother Metropolitan. (Applause and cheers.) HON. GEORGE S. SILZER G07JCrnar af N cw Jersey I didn't know what to talk about to-night. I wondered if there were not some subject of general interest, peculiarly timely. I looked over a morning paper and found there the inspiration for my speech. Carrying out that thought, I lookecl in yesterday's Warld and here are just a few of the headings that I read: "Shot by a Taxi Man. D. J. KENNEY May Die." "Soldier Confesses Killing Servant Girl. Says He Threw Her TIlto Moat at Fort Adams, hut Officers Doubt .Story." "Thug' Gets Forty Thousand Dollars in Gems. Bids Victim Be Quiet Under Penalty of Death." This is all from just one column: "Hold-up Man Gets Three Thousand Five Hundred Dollars In Cash \Vhen Cashier Is Attacked." "Six Die as Stolen Car Collides With Another." "Cop Who Killed Bandit Is Promoted and Praised by Court." "Pleads Guilty of Munier in Slaying Detective." A few years ago, gentlemen, we would go peacefully to our homes, reach up to the book-shelf, sink ourselves peacefully and quietly into a chair and read with great pleasure Robin Hood or Dick Turpin or some other book of the same kind. It was good entertainment. It had about it a touch of romance and adventure. We did this with the assurance that all this happened in another day and in another age; that we need not concern ourselves about affairs of that kind, because they told of the primitive days, of the days before civilization had advanced as it had in the days when we sat down with the book. Those were the unenlightened days, the days when banditry had not surrendered to law. In our time men and women could walk the streets and travel the highways without being molested. Payrolls could be delivered safely to' factories, and we were not obliged to carry firearms, guns and clubs to protect ourselves because we had lighted streets, police protection, courts and all the other agencies established by a civilized people to prevent a repetition of what had gone before. Before our own time, the pioneers and the plainsmen took justice into their own hands and produced a very speedy and effective justice. Our courts followed that practice and criminals soon learned that it was an unprofitable business to engage in. But suddenly we are ~gain confronted with a condition that alarms and appals us. No one WIshes THE METROPOLITAN A PUBLIC INSTITUTION Speech of Haley Fiske, President of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., at the 1922-1923 Triennial Conventions (From the stenographic notes of the Atlanta address at the Capital City Club, March 5th, 1923) This Convention is one of a series of Conventions. Of the present series this is the sixth. \Ve began at Baltimore, and then \Vashington and Richmond, Spartanburg and Jacksonville and we are on the way West to go to Birmingham. New Orleans and l\lemphis and so up through the Middle West. For the last twenty-five or thirty years, I have been going about the coufltry every three years holding these Conventions, at which I meet all of our Managers and Assistant Managers and members of the Agency Force who are gathered at COI1venient points. Reasons for Triennial Co1!vclItiolls The question is often asked why we hold them, because they are peculiar to the Metropolitan Life. Well, there are two or three reasons. In the first place, I want to know, as the Executive Officer, the men themselves and the places in which they work and the environment and the advantages and disadvantages and the peculiarities of the territory, for this great country of ours (and we include in this country as far as the Metropolitan goes the Dominion of Canada) is not, one may say, a homogeneous body of people. The South differs from the North, the East from the West, Canada from the United States, the Pacific Coast from both, and we have a variety of people in many of the localities. a large foreign population; and I tho.tght it was important that the Executive Officer of this Company should know them. Then, I believe, too, in these modern davs, in personality. I believe that that modern note is one which is characteristic of the times in which we live, and so. the second reason we hold these Conventions is that the men should know me. I take it that the employees of any large corporation always visualize the head of the i115titution. They form some mental picture of him. But, I think it is rather important they should form a correct picture, and so a great value which I attach to these Conventions is that the men should know me as the head of the institution. I know they form pictures and I know they are often mistaken if they do not know the man. I can remember a few years ago in New Orleans, that I was entering the Hotel and a young agent stepped up to me and said: "l<; this Mr. Fiske?" I said: "Yes." "Oh." said he. "I have so longed to know you-and I am so disappointed." (Laughter.) Well, I asked him what he expected. He said: "Well, I do not know; I experted to see a f;!'reat big man." Now, whether he meant mentally or physically I have never made up my mind. (Laughter.) But I think it was in his mind that the President of the greatest Life Insurance Company in the world should be the biggest man he ever saw. 189 190 THl~ METROPOLITAN A PUBLIC IN~T:TUTION (Laughter.) He probably wanted to see me seven feet high and weiglung about three hundred pounds. Well, then, a little later, I think it was in Detroit, when the men were passing out of the door, -and I always try to stand at the door, and take them by the hand as they go out-another agent said: "Well, I am so glad to have seen you. Do you know, I always thought you were a little, old weazened, dried up man." (Laughter). Then I felt better. (Laughter). It is very important, I think. that the men should know the ideals of the Company and they ought to know them from headquarters. They ought to know the plans and the purposes of carrying on the business of Life Insurance by this great Company, and they can know it in no other way so well as to hear it spoken by the Chief. The Personal Relationship Has Counted Greatly At any rate, these early Conventions of twenty-five or thirty years ago were Conventions of a comparatively small Company, rather looked down upon by the older Companies; and today it is far and away the richest and the largest Life Insurance Company in the world. (Applause.) And, I cannot but think that a great deal of this success is due to the personal equation, the meeting of the men with the Home Officers. At any rate, something has given this Company the most efficient, the most loyal, the most ambitious, and I think the most affectionate body of men that any Company was ever blessed with. (Great applause.) And, I cannot but think that that is due in part to this personal relationship which has been built up through this generation. Now, at the business Conventions, various plans have been discussed and much advice given. They have been business talks, but I reserve for myself always at the meeting which closes the Convention, some one topic, and tonight my desire is to give a picture of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company as a Great Public Institution. What Is a P1tblic Institution! Now, what is a Great Public Institution? I take it to be a corporation of wealth, power, which pursues the channels of its Charter and does the work laid out for it, but in so doing, has points of contact economic, domestic and social with its patrons and with the communities in which it works; that it goes outside of the business of its Charter and reaches out for the benefit and uplift of the citizenship of the country in which it works. All great corporations are not public institutions. You can have in mind, if you will think a moment or two, many corporations of wealth and power that are admirably conducted, and yet, they simply pursue the purposes of their Charters, and nobody would ever think of calling them great public imtitutions. Now, what I want to do tonight, if I can, is to ofift aingareadtespcurbiplitcioinnsotiftutthioen.Metropolitan Life as having the qualities The M et:opolitan's Wealth and Enormous Membership In order to be that, the first essential is wealth. You cannot be a great public institution unless you have the money with which to. .. ."- .;:. ... ;lit"' )g;.'.;', v~" ., . "'''.:r. >';;:"t ,,~:,,:., ~i.~"f" :~ . 5 e .v rs er ld :1e of en n- I 'er lat up lUS ~en ich to ; a :orrter tact um- its ship not k a are ; of ;reat is to lities )t be :h to ADDRESS flY HALEY FISKE 191 pursue the objects that you want to follow out. Insurance Company in the This is world. by far and We closed away the richest Life last year with $1.260.000.000 assets, and that is millions and millions tion. and no other Life aheatl of Insurance any other Life corporation has Insurance corpora as yet reached a billion. And. then, it must from have a widely extended ast to influence territorially; ana we San Francisco on the West, do business from Edmonton, Sydney on the E clear up in the very Northern part of arly Canada, in the every State in North, to New the Union and Orleans in the South, covering ne nearly every Province in the Dominion of Canada. And then you must have a sufficient havebe11r0tofonplyatrtohnes eixnteonrtdeterrtroitocrairarlyly,oubtuat nyyouwomrkusats a public institu- num this Company has in force twenty-nine the best calculation we and can a half make, millions of they insure tion; and, pnoinliectieeesnanadn,dacocnoer-dhianlgf tmo illions of individuraaltivlievleys.. Well, now. just It is one-sixth of think for a moment what that means compa population of the United States and Canada, so that, taking a mem- the entire these two great countries, every sixth man, woman and pplause.) I say mcmber. child is I say member ber of thteheMeMtreotproopliotalint.an(Ais a muthtueasel acsosmetpsa. nyI,f awned ceovmeerydopwolnicyto- bhpeoaclrdatiuecrsueltahrerpeafortrse oofwtnhse acoshuanrteryoaf nd particular Cities whiesrecowncgehstaevde. been in business a long while and striking figures appear. where the population If you take the great City of New still more York, with its six millions of people, every third olitan. Or, you man, woman and may go South to child is a member of the Metrop and fifty-eight per cent of the population of that great City Memphis, Sarte. Lmoueims,berms ano,f wtohme anMaentrdopcohliiltdani.s a Fmuermthbeerr osof utthhe iMn etropolitan. every third Or, you may go further N o r t h; take that an, woman gre and at City child is of Syracuse insured in in the New York, and every other m itan. Go still further North to Montreal, and every third 1etropolitan. Go east, Mmasaentfr,aorpwoaolsmaQnueabnedc.-clOhiOld,OiOs Oa pmoepmulbaetironofanthde e1ighty thousand politchieerse. When you cross the river to licies and 24,000 that suburb population. of Quebec, Levis, (Great applause.) Take are 24,000 po tion. The territory covered by this Convention has a Well, there are 292,000 policies tpahonispdulCtaaotiknoivnnegnofthaebroeufot r5e90t,h0e00Cpoenovpelen.tion territorially, the nummbayer saoyf policies is about 46 that every per cent of the population, and you third man, woman and child in the territory generally this Convention is a member of the Metropolitan. Or, you may say that the population covered by take this City of Atlanta, covered in Atlanta by us and is 290,000 people. Well. there are 81,000 individual lives. 113,000 policies, anthderweefotraek,e aitt tlheaatstthoenye-infosuurrteh of the entire popula- Ttiohnereofyothuishagvree,at City and its surrounidtyinigs Tsurobyu,rb0sJ ewinsYuroerdk, iwn htihceh ~Ietropolitan. I suppose that the star C is a very large manufacturing City. There we actually have more paoplpiclaieusse.i)n fUorncdeerthtahne tohredintoatrayl mpoepthuoladtsiono.f c(aLlcauulgathintegr haonwd mgraenayt . -.--_.__. _ ~~f:~----------- _..... _.0<_ --_. - ,.~.-'.~ ~~.. ~"''' -:~~ .:".....--j..~:: 192 THE MEl'ROPOI.Il'AN A PUBI.IC INSTITUl'ION individual lives, the number of policies is so large that, taking the usual percer..tage, we have b~t ~c:-c livES insured iu Troy thall lhe! total population. (Laughter and great applause.) Well, I said this the other night at a dinner where Governor SMITH, the newly elected Governor of New York, was present, and when he spoke he said that he thought he could parallel that because in his political life he had known of places where more ballots were cast than the total number of voters. (Laughter.) It means, in our case of course, that the general average used in the country at large does not apply to one city pretty fully insured. But, take the extent of the business of the Company in comparison with all the life insurance. There are two hundred and fifty or two hundred and sixty Companies engaged in Life Insurance in these two countries, and the total insurance in force is about fifty-one billions. Well, this Comp~ny alone has in force nearly eight billions, and you see that is one-fifth, so that one-fifth of all the Ii fe insurance existing in these two great countries is coven:d by the i\Ietropolitan Life. (Great applause.) Why, if you take the business of last year, the total amount of business written by all of these t\\'o hundred and fifty or two hundred and sixty Companies last year was nine and one-half billions, but this Company itself wrote and placed and had paid for, one billion, eight hundred million dollars ($1,800,000,000.) And, you see, that is one-fifth, so that one-fifth of all the life insurance placed last year by all of the Companies in the two countries was placed by this Company alone. The Co11lpany's Income Last year our income was three hundred and forty millions. Take the business days of the year and it turns out that we received every day $1,100,000. When you take the relations to policy-holders, every day we pay the policy-holders $380,000, and every day we set aside a for their benefit and reservation about $400,000. You see, therefore, to begin with, how we touch the people economically; how large measure of contact we have with the entire population in numbers, in extent and in money, coming from and going to, the people of this country. Every Policy-Holder a Property-Holder I think we had better follow that idea out a bit. Here we have nineteen and one-half millions of people owning $1.260.000,000 of property, and it therefore appears that every policy-holder of the l\Ietropolitan is a property-holder. And, the great desire that I have in these Conventions is to have our agents teach the people that one important fact,-that every policy-holder in the Metropolitan Life is a property-holder. He has a stake in this great accumulation of money. I know that it is the general feeling that New York corporations especially are very wealthy and in some way or other, they have got their money in New York. 'Veil now, we have not got the money in New York. Oh, usually in the 'Vest and South especially, they. say we have got it in Wall Street. But it is not in Wall Street. There is not any property in Wall Street, anyway, to speak of. Wall Street is a place \V here they sell property. That is the futlction 0 f Wall . ADDRESS BY HALEY FISKE 193 -r " ."""" Street,-to sell and distribute property-for. what 15 property in the ","; last analvsis? Nobody believes it is cash. )J"obody believes we have $1,800,060,000 in casl{. \Ve have a lot of pieces of paper which rep- resent property. And. now let us see how it is distributed. Of the $1,260.00u.UOO, $510.000.000 are 111 Bonds and Iviortgages. Only a lot of pieces of paper. The money is where the property is and the property is all over the country. So. far from being in Wall Street, the money is in the places where we receive it from. In the State of Georgia, over fifteen millions of this property are situated. On farm mortgages, we have five and one-half millions. On railroad property we have five millions. and we have bonds and mortgages on business huildings and mortgages on housing that make up a total of fifteen millions in Georgia. In other words, where we receive the money there we leave it. No, the policy-holders in Georgia have got money here and they are property-owners in Georgia. Two hundred million of our total assets are in Government securities. \Vhat does that mean? As to one hundred millions, it means that they are in the United States Treasury, or were. All we have are the Bonds of the Government. The money was spent to make the world safe for Democracy, and as to the other one hundred millions. it is scattered about in two countries, in State investments, Provincial investments, County investments, City investments. \Vhat does all that mean? It means. when you come down to the final analysis, school houses, it means water mains, it means the things that promote civilization. Two hundred and sixty-six millions of our money are invested in Railroad Bonds. What does that mean? Surely, it does not mean that the money is in New York or that the property is in New York. No, the property is in rails and locomotives. and cars, and the effect of this investment is to promote civilization. It connects the East and the West, the South and the North. It brings together people. It brings crops where products are needed, and it takes out to the people the things that they need. The great agricultural sections of the South and \-Vest send their corn and cotton and wheat and oats to New York, or abroad, and then there come from the eastern manu- facturing communities and from Europe the clothing and other things that the people need to live. In other words, the investment of this money ties up the people of this country, and makes us a nation instead of a lot of heterogeneous, isolated communities. It makes a nation. Seventy millions of this money J.re in public utilities. What does that mean? It means the electric iig-ht; it means tram cars; it means gas. It means all those things which promote the comfort, ah, the neces- sities of living in Cities. It means life endurable. and it is policy- holders' money that is there. Property Owners Interested in Good Laws Something else follows, I think. If these people are propertyowners. and I want you to tell them that they are. they have a very great interest in good laws. in the fair treatment of corporations. ~ow. take the railroads. It has been the fashion now for a number of years that legislation should be directed against railroads, that rates should be cut down and that the expenses of running should 194 THE METROPOLITAN A PUBLIC INSTITUTION ubentipl unt ouwp. ththeatoftfhiceeyrsshofourladilrboeadcsurthaaivleed vienryoplietrtlaetion by restnctIOns, they shall be run. There is a constant effort to to say about how cramp, subdue, make tstihuleal>trjeatcihltesroyoadrasrv.easoswalnseodf intheWSatlalteSrorft'tt'ht-etshe!lg.tretahte ragirleroatadcsapointaltihsets thheaovrye own the But. they have not. railroads are the people They sold them. of this country, The people who and largely small investors. and owned by the people I have told you we of the Metropolitan; have $266,0<X>,OOO and the that the are yaoreu vtoerytealcahrgoeluyr hpoeoldpelers isofthtahte securities. Savings Banks also And now, what I want the heads of legislators erty, diminishin that they should, when they are in some way, get it into attacking railroad prop- ment for the g the value of the bonds, scaring promotion of railroads, for their people from investextension, for proper equipment. hands and out of what they are the pockets of doing is to the workin take money out their of the hSittatitnesg. pl(uAtopcprlaatus.se.)TheTyhearyeahreittninogt hthitetincogmcmagpointpaelowispotlser.kionTfghtephyeeoapUrleen.inteodt The Company of the Working People Let us look at another moment that we say that aspect of we have this great company of nineteen and one-half ours. The policy-holders, Naturally so. you The know at business of once that they this Compa are millions of working people. partments. One is called Ordinary and ny is divided into the other Industrial. two DeAnd, I Wshuispetlpolo,rysweiesthtehartepitutiastiaongroeaf t,thwisonCdoemrfpualnyIn, dpuesrthriaapls,Ingsruorwanincge oCuotmopfaniyts. correct a are; and we are misapprehension proud which of it. I am And, yet, I sure is very think we common. ought to define those two terms, Ordinary Insurance Ordinary and is insurance Industrial in units insurance. Let me premiums are by checks sent payable annually, to the offices. semi-annually, of o r $1,0<X>, quarte r where the ly, usually but starts at the other end. the unit is Industrial The unit is Insurance is just not the amount of as scientific the policy; according tothetheprpemreimumiu,manadndthteheasme opurnetmoiufmisnsaurreancneot issecnatlculated offices, but are collected by the agents such as we have to the before us Otthorendigitnwhato,ryDwehDpoeaprmtamartkemenetswn,teietiskmlymayuvcisbhietsatosutrhperisheomfoers mofanpyoltiocyk-hnoowldetrhlla. t tOhef insurance in force. Department,-$4.3 something the over largest. Of four billions the are eight billions of in the Ordinary so that Ta you see 00,OOO.OOO-and the the Ordinary business Industrial is is larger than $3,400.000,000, the Industrial. ke the issue of last year. hundred millions written and I told you there placed, but over was a billion a billion and eight the Ordina something ry Department, like seven hun and dred in a th nd e Ind seve u s t r i a l was Department written iQ there was one may say that in the Ordinary nty-five Department millions. And, a great deal of yet, the gtihnoesturefraonucreanisd hoenlde-tnhoirtd bbyilltihones roicfhinnseucreasnscaeriliyn, fboerccaeusiet mifusytohue htahvaet are many moderate sized policies held by people who have ADDRESS BY HALEY FISKE 195 ".ev ninotlimfeucinhsuprraonpceer.ty but who are protecting their families by savings ye Labor the Foundation of All Wealth o So that, when you hit property, when legislation is directed e against property, it is directed against the pockets of the great mass e of working people of this country, and it is the pride of the Metro- o politan that they have it; for, think a moment! Who are the working It people? Labor is the foundation of wealth. All wealth is built up o upon labor. Then, look at these people from another point of view. 1- They are the voters. They elect the President, the Governors, the Mayors. And, I am very fond of saying that the same people who r elect the President of the United States elect the President of the e Metropolitan Life. They elect the President of the United States d through a college of electors. They elect the President of the Metro- It politan through a Board of Directors. In other words, the great mass of the people of this country--a very great proportion of them indeed -belong to the Metropolitan Life. I, A Bulwark Against Socialism e f What I have been saying is a great lesson and a great bulwark, too, > against communism or socialism. If you take Russia as the latest 'Communistic State, our people would not be eligible at all. They I do not want people of property. They call them the Bourgeoisie. and s they are outside the pale. Russia's Government. so far as it is a !. Government-of course it is a Despotism. but it is founded upon 0 e .~ ~ what is called the Proletariat. All their rules. and all their restrictions are against what is known as the Bourgeoisie. But the Bourgeoisie of America are .the working people, and they are the holders of e ~ Metropolitan policies, and Communism has no use for them, and I Y it 1., am particularly anxious that our policy-holders should know this. C ~ I remember a few years ago I was addressing a body of agents on de; I?~f otthhfeatNEaeamwsotYnSgoirdtkheokosnefoawNgseewnthtsaYtwoiatrksi,saaasnifdnograleenigyAnbomcdeoyruincwtarhnyo,bkaonnrdonwmIsdatnoh.enoEMt ayssutprepScoiodslee- s " "~i lection is that there were some fourteen different nationalities rep- f 1 resented in that meeting. and the policy-holders were of the same e ?? !l nationalities, and they \\'ere people of very moderate means. living in f rather congested quarters on the East Side. and those people were accustomed on Sundays to go up to Central Park; and I told our Y ), agents to inform these people that they were property-owners; that 1. they owned the Company, and that when on the way from the East It Side up to Central Park they passed that marble building on Madison n Square and looked up at the Tower, it was theirs. And, I said: "When .s you go up to Central Park and look into the windows of the Plaza t, Hotel. where the shades are always up and where the diners are always e visible-this was before the Volstead act, (Laughter)-"Now, when e you look in there you will see people eating rich food and drinking Lt expensive wines. tell your people not to be envious. Don't look in e there and envy them. Let one stand outside and say 'You poor fools! You think you are enjoying yourselves by wasting your money. What 196 THE METROPOLITAN A PUBLIC INSTITUTION you are doing is to pay money into the treasury of the Plaza Hotel to enable it to pay the interest on my eight million dollar mortgage'." t(hGerePalat zaappHloautesle..) For it is the people of the East Side who own The Metropolitan's Great Power t I have discussed now that point of contact which one may call economic. Let us go further and see what further points of contact we have with the population. Let us look at the working people from another point of view. In their modes of life, they are an ignorant people, and it is not their fault. They have never been educated and ~ they do not know how to live and the question is-"Can we help them?" For, what I have been discussing is the great power we have, ~ which is the first thought I want you to have, the great power which ~ comes from the possession of one billion, two hundred and sixty tI' i, millions; the great power that comes from having nineteen and onehalf millions of members; the great power that comes from having a \ million dollars a day income: the great power that we have in investing this money where it will do the most good and putting it back '\,into the hands of the people who give it to us. That is Power. It Is Opportunity But, does it not strike you it is more than that? Doesn't it strike you that it is Opportunity? I have said that these agents of ours collect their premiums weekly! Our agents pay two hundred millions of visits a year to the homes of the working people; and our agents, as Industrial agents, are the only people who have a contract right every day to knock at a door and walk in. Who else has that power? Unbidden to go into a house, and have the right to go, and a welcome when they come? Ah, but that is Opportunity; and those visits are madeto these people that I have described as those who do not know the best modes of living to promote health and longevity. Can you blame them? One of the results of the ignorance of how to live is a great deal of sickness. Can you help? And the presence of these dear ladies O\'er yonder brings to our mind one of the modes of help. These girls are trained nurses. Now, my guests on the right and left know perfectly well what trained nurses are. \\Then they have a severe sickness in the house and the doctor looks grave and shakes his head and says: "I would like you to get a trained nurse." Why? It is hecause the doctor cannot stay with the patient. lIe wants somebody there to watch the patient. He wants somebody to carry out his directions, somebody to give them medicine of the kind and at the time that he directs. He wants somebody to make observation. to make a chart. to tell him when he comes back what has been the condition and what were the symptoms of the patient while he was away. You know by experience. no douht, that the presence of these same nurses means often the difference between life and death. \Vhat chance has the poor man for trained nurses? I do not know w11'1t you pay down here. In my town we pay seven dollars a day. What can the working man do? It is obvious that he cannot do anything. Here, then, is the opportunity. Some years ADDRESS BY HALEY FISKE 197 ago we established a system of free trained nursing- to sick Industrial policy-holders, and it is carried on by these girls over there. and girls like that all through these two great countries. And. they are .. .-~i further trained than the tramed nurses that yot! have. They have been through the training that the trained nurse has. and then they have to go on to a further education in public trained nursing, which has many difficulties and qualities connected with it that the ordinary trained nursing has not got at all. What is their trained nursing-? \Vell. 0 f course. it is obvious that it could not be perpetual bedside nursing; that no Company could ever give them. Nor do we believe it to be necessary. Our trained nurses go into the homes when they arc. summoned there by an agent who finds a sick person on his col- lection tour or by the reception at the district headquarters or the nursing headquarters of a little card which we furnish policy-holders and they can fill out and send in for a nurse. An Angel in the WorkiH.aman's Home Angels, I call them. Visualize now the home of a working man. In the morning he does not get up. He is passing his hand upon his head. feverish, moaning. At the bedside stands an anxious wife. She looks at the clock. It is a serious thing for the man to stay homethe loss of the daily wage. How long is he to be sick? When can he earn his wage? Presently she remembers the card on the mantel. She sends it out, and in comes the Angel. She floats in. She reaches the bedside. It is her deft fingers that arrange the clothing; it is her cool hand that passes over the fevered brow; it is she that gives the cooling draught; she that says the comforting word; she that gives the sympathy, and in a few minutes leaves hope where there was despair, comfort where there was misery-and all the time peering, peering. peering. watching that patient. What is the matter? Is it serious? Does he need a doctor? And, if he does. she tells the family to get one, and thereafter she places herself under the direction of a physician and comes as often and stays as long as he says. She is, of course, not allowed to treat the patient. She can only follow directions of a physician and report to him. and the difference of those visits is the difference often between life and death. We know it from the grateful messages and letters. ill-spelled, scratchy, badly spelled letters. many of them, that 12'0 to your heart. and give thanks to the Company for the saving of life. That is only a part of her duty. When she enters the house. she has to look about her. Is it dirty? She must give directions for cleaning up. Are the kitchen utensils foul? She gives directions for scouring them. Is the mother hadly clothed? She gives directions for a more hygienic method of dressing. Is the bahy badly fed? She gives directions for diet. In other words, she gives oral hvgienic instructions to these families. Last year we paid two million. six hundred thousand (odd) visits hv these trained nurses to the homes of working peoole, and it brings the total numher of visits that we paid up to some fifteen or sixteen millions. And. then. that work is followed up by printed instructions. The g'uests will find at their tables tonight a hinder filled with little leaflets and booklets.' They are samples of literature-literature on , fJ. I t . ~' 198 lHlt METROPOLITAN A PUBLIC INSTITUTION the "Ho whole w to scope, Live L one ong" may ; "T say, he H of eal t healthful h of the living-general Work treatises, phlets on disease, "\Var on Consumption." er," Specific pamThen, there are the diseases mtoyfepahcsholeiildsd,refwne.vheoroT;phimneraelaisrian;otdaensguubejecfetvtehra,t aiss 1y.0otutrkeantoewci biyt daopwanmphhelreet;; And the then, there g is cough, scarlet fever and a wonderful pamphlet on diphtheria and the "The Child," which like. tells mother how to take take care of the baby care and of herself during herself when the pregnancy baby and how to wonderful book on the booklets of instruction subject like the ever written. comes, the most And, there are general wife says, and she ought to "Cook know, for Book,"-one of the she is a cook-that best, my ever was Tpuhbelrieshaerde fpoarmpthheletbsenfoerfitthoef btahbeiesp,etohpele"MtootwhehromGoiotsei"s bdoiostkributed. acalprrhiaesbeht-ehailtnhtsinfostrruthcetiohnosusaelohnogld-wpiltahinlleyarwnrinitgtenthe letters-a which health and handsomely illustrated, which attract , beautifully printed attention and which are held ponamtophbleytsthwe epreeopdliestr\ivbhuoterdecehiyvethtehseemm. enThliarstty-ytheraere millions of these total distribution up to two hundred and and it brings seventy-two millions. the A Death Every Fo'ur and a Third Minutes I this do not suppose I Company than to can tell give you you that any be'ter we have a idea d death t1-;e extent of one-third have lost minutes, and thirty-five of since you have our members. sat down at every this tahle four and here, we selves but sat down the and Angel taken of Death has You have been enjoying yourentered thirty-five homes since we one-third lost minutes away our own children; every one of them dies from tuberculosis, thirty-three and so that we have seven them that from that dread is directed this disease since we sat down here. pamphlet "War on Consum It is to disease now known as tuberculosis, was "Consumption." There were suppose when I ption." was a boy This called First, it was hereditary; and second, d to be two things about it was fatal and incurable. it. If the father had it, and they have all the got mother to die. had it, the They said children have it was "an got to have it, act of Gon is something that we cannot get rid act of Gon." of. Why is it An that eIGnvoenrmyaythniddnagyevtiehtraytwthhaisanpgapnegnosAodctot tohafatmGhaoanpnpt,h-eaantss itso baadmtahneythseayy siasyanis ALcutcko?f children sort. It with a great dread is not hereditary. disease though incurable. Gon was visiting his It is nothing of the it. And. it sets forth the It is cure. not If incurable. This pamphlet proves you can get it in time. you can acnudre tieta. chTinhgertehaatrentihgrheteasirimisplejutshtinags sg. ooFdirasst, fresh day air day and night, and reasonable diet. That is all there is to it. air; reasonable rest Patent medicines? nfNooort!ttuobAeblreccouahlboolseli-swtotehlgalen,toaifltcc-oobhuourlst, ea, ltchoehyolc?annNoot !getTiht enroew,isornoatrheinsgupwpoosresde aciinreiss. GTonh'es gsiimft,plaenstd tiht iinsgtsh-etahncodusreefe,waarnetdhitnhregeassGownoonarbslegeivtrheeansnt taphnaintdegndsti-efmtreeadsrihe- ADDRESS BY HALEY FISKE 199 within the means of most people who are sick and we teach these people how to get fresh air day and night. If thev live in the country, they can put up a shack in the corner of the p~rch or in the yard. Or, if they are in a tenement house. we show them how to build a bed out of the window, the head of the patient being out of doors and the feet and body inside, and they can breathe the fresh air all night. The Compally's Sanatorium I suppose somebody is saying to me "Prove your case," and we have proved it. Some years ago we erected on l\-Iount McGregor, nine miles back of Saratoga, a Sanatorium. You will see pictures of it presently on the screen. and, since we have built it, we have received 1,464 patients for tuberculosis, and we have discharged 1,363, so that we have 101 there left, or did have when I last saw the report. And, of that 1,363, eighty-five per cent had been discharged cured. (Great applause.) I say cured. I am a layman. The doctors do not say "cured." They have technical names-"arrested," "quiescent." "improved." As near as I can make out, a doctor never declares a patient cured until he is dead. (Laughter and applause.) I am a layman, and I say "cured" when a man is back at work earning the money to support himself and his family. I hope if any of our guests ever come to New York, they will visit No.1 .\fadison Avenue, which is a great social medium and medical laboratory. You will see pictures of it presently. \Ve can show you three hundred or four hundred boys and girls there that are graduates of Mt. McGregor "cured." At least, they are at work, the same work they did before they went up, and they are in good health. There are few Conventions which I hold where at least somebody does not step out as they pass me and say: "I am a graduate of Mt. l\IcGregor." There may be some tonight. If there be any, I wonder if they would be good enough to stand up. (Applause.) (Seven stood up.) There are seven of them and, as you looked at them, didn't they look like healthy specimens? I think it was down in Richmond that I had six stand up, and they told me they were the men with the leading records in the Convention, and one of them, who was the best agent of the lot was at 1'.11. McGregor four and one-half years, and when he went there the physicians said: "Sorry; we will do the best we can for you, but there is no hope." Even those hopeful physicians despaired of him, and yet. there he was the other night stalwart. broad-chested, healthy looking and with t(hGerebaetstaprpelcaoursde.)of IatniysbaoddyeminontshtreatCioonn.vention, and I say "cured." Power-Opportunity-Responsibility What I am going to try to show tonight is that in these points of contact with the population we have taken advantage of the opportunity that I have told you about, and hold ourselves up to a certain responsibility. \Vhat I want our men to carry away with them tonig-ht is the three qualities of the Metropolitan Life. Power; I have described that. Opportunity; nobody knows that better than the men themselves. Responsibility; and the first piece of responsi- 200 THE METROPOLITAN A PUBLIC INSTITUTION bility is on receIved a the Managers. Since I have been here in letter trum the Home Office coverin Atlanta, I have McGre~or whjl'h f:2.}'S; "We do not have patients g one enough from here Mt. with ittnhuobtuehrsecaunHldoosemism.e"ployWeees, ksnixotweenthtahtouisnanad Cinomthpeanhyeldthaantd heaisghttwtehnotuys-fainvde than arc Office,-we know there here at the Sanatorium, and are more now that cases of tuberculosis comes rtght dow the responsibility of Managers, and it is a very serious one. n to 1 know thohefetesnceeoshuogwwhh; erbneluuht,cetaiitnstmpaaaylMe;naonptaegrhheaarvpeiss htoe npoatritcews itthhea sgwoeoadt; mhaen,maanyd hyeeatr, responsibility to watch signs of being unde his staff got that far. and to look out for It is the anybody Manager's who shows him examined there to r see ipfart,hearned isgeatnyhimsustpoicaiocnomofpatnuyberdcoucltoosristoanhdavief be that suspicion McGregor. It is those to notify us and have who are in the incipient that man stage w sent to Mt. certain to be cured, and if we could have had all of ho are almost our patients in the incipient stage and advanced stage and far not so large a proportion ad"anced stage, we should in the moderately' iasbltyo nsitnoeptyt-hfiivsediinsesatesaed, aonfdeitghhetyw-faivye tpoerstocepntitcuisretdoh. acvuWerehshaeotvwewnrey pwmroaabnn-t Ewvheoryhatsimiet, hbeeccaouusgehesvoerryexmpaenctowrahtoesh, aesveitryistima ecehneter for infection. his handkerchiefs, every time a cough there is the liability to spread infectio passes from is careless with him to another, is in so wide-spread. your streets has This thes room n, tonight is and that is why tuberculosis filled with germs. The dust the way to fresh air. prevent e bacilli. taking it is You are constantly to live healthy lives, in danger; and with plenty of be a and teaching carefulness in force on this diet, and subject. not over-fatigue. You Every agent should should well as for we every nurse should teach and believe it can be stopped. stop the progress of teach as this disease, The Metropolitan An Example ourWowe nb, ealinedvewtehaatreoufrulfrielslipnognstihbeislietyregsopeosnsfiubirltihtieers than the care of tions. One is to give lessons to corporations, and in various directhe other is to give ptthhoiernagtlseiossnwosen; atthroeatGdooivnegrnamloenngt; tahnedse Itwsohalllinebsr.ieflTyakdeescthriebele!s>osmone toof ctohre- corporations Sanatorium is one of them. employing great numbers of If we could have large laborers erect Sanato throughout the country, if the hills of this country could be ria dotted with those white buildings, we is a proof of what can be done, should stamp out tuberculosis. and we are blazing There Iingw, aasndo,veIrbienlieBvei,rmteiancghhianmg wanitdh tehffeecht.eadI roefmtehmebeRthreepauwfbaelywicaynIerdoarntseaaacnghdo- hSoteseplitaCl.o"mpTanhye slaeisdsonto tmhaet: w"Ce ogmaevedotowntheasned csoerepomraytiomnislliownasdollar they was had the erected power against to erect them. opposition. That It was Mount McGregor said tha that institution right, as an insurance company, to erect t we had not any Sanatoria. It was "ultra- '".~ .,~ ~~ ADDRESS DV HALEY FISKE 201 vires." Having paid my respects to the doctors, perhaps I had better ., ~ay a kindly word to the lawyers. 1 used to be one myself. "Ultra- vires!" \Vell, I put it to the consciences of the members of the Bar ~resent whether it is not often usen by them to give nclvice to clients that they have not the right to do what they do not want to do . .. Ultra-vires "-oeyond the power. (Laughter.) \V e had to go to Court abqut it and we got the Supreme Court of the State of New York to hold that it was not only the right but the duty of corpora- tions to take reasonable care of their employees, and it said that if the Dirl~ctors of the Metropolitan Life believed that reasonable care includes the furnishing of a Sanatorium for their tuberculous emplovees, it had the right to build it. You will notice that the Court said it was the directors that had the power; it was not a matter that they had to go down to their stockholders about because "it is not only the right but the duty." Professor GRAHAM TAYLOR, an eminent sociologist-I suppose he is well known here, he is known all over the world-made a speech for us one night in Chicago in which he traced the history of this care of employees. The first step was the Metropolitan; then there was a riser of some other corpora- tion; then the next step was the Metropolitan; and then a riser of some other corporation, and the next step, the Metropolitan. He made a stairway of it, and always the Metropolitan as the stepping- stones, the Metropolitan as being the pioneer leader in this care of employees. (Applause.) The erection of that Sanatorium and getting that decision from the Supreme Court was a great lesson to corpora- tions. We have given them another lesson. Over here in Tennessee is a place called Kingsport. You will see it portrayed on the screen presently. Kingsport was a small place of a few hundreds which rapidly grew into thousands, and it is a manufacturing center. They wanted to make it a model town. The real hub of the universe is No.1 Madison Avenue. (Laughter.) If anybody wants anything done it is to No.1 Madison Avenue they have to come. The first rule they made over in Kingsport was that every employee in the factories should be insured in the Metropolitan Life-a mighty good rule. (Laughter and great applause.) I commend that to the Mayor of Atlanta. (Laughter and applause.) We sent down Dr. FRANKEL, who ordered sixty or seventy houses burned up because they were uninhabitable and we sent down Mr. STADLER, the Comptroller, who told them how to build new houses and where to build them; of course, we sent down a trained nurse and established trained nursing, and of course, gave directions as to the milk supply; and we sent down somebody to teach them how to layout parks. It is a model City, celebrated all over Tennessee. That work was done largely by the owners of the corporations who really made the City and who run the City. You who have heard of Mr. FRED JOHNSON, who was the head of that town and its factories, and may know something of his activities, for he is going all around the country telling people about it. A few weeks ago, as I was starting out on one of these trips, we had somebody come up from Wall Street; he said that some 'Western people had bought a lot of timber land out in Oregon, and they were going to build a lumber town, and they had heard of Kingsport ,..........._-----_......_-..-.... ,. 202 THE METROPOLITAN A PUBLIC INSTITUTION and they had heard that we had planned it, and they came up to No. 1 l\'ladison Avenue for instructions as to how to lay it out, and what ptoordaotioanvsouwthoit.havAe gthreeapt lalnensisnogn,o-fKtionwgnssp.ort-a g--reat lesson to cor- Lessons to Corporations Then, we give lessons to corporations as to the relations that the employers have with their employees. We are doing that through the system known as Group Insurance. Group Insurance is the insurance by the employer-or by the employer and employees con- tributing together-by which in one policy all the employees are taken in and protected. I suppose we have issued the largest policy that has ever been known. And yet, I was very reluctant to take up group insurance. It is very low priced. The overhead charges are high. It is a great deal of trouble, and it was taken up by various other Companies, and-oh, well, I had some sort of pity for them. We seemed to be doing all the insurance and I said: "'vVell, let them have that." (Laughter.) But it came to me that here was a new opportunity which perhaps gave us a new responsibility inasmuch as it was a system of insurance that took care of working people. , And then another idea entered our heads, and that is that in some f,,; ~ way or other. we might through Group Insurance, ameliorate that class antagonism which for so many years has existed between these so-called capitalists and labor. In the last few years we have seen so much of this antagonism. Strikes; lockouts; incendiarism; bombs; , murder; and we have been shocked. Ah, perhaps we would not have been so shocked if we had read the history of capitalism for the last , hundred years. Labor exploited and under-paid; poorly housed; , children uncared for; put out to work too early; women living like Aanimals; all ground down for the profits that were to be made in I keeping down labor. The older men will remember perhaps that il, some years ago in smooth, apparently one of smooth these addresses, I surface of affairs, called attention but underneath to the I told , you there was a boiling discontent, that there was beneath a feeling :! ~ on the part of the underworld, so to speak, the down trodden, that they were not being fairly treated, and you will remember the subject r of that address was largely that clarion call to service, which ,r asked 1 ~ you to hear and to heed; and since then, it has come true, and what we have witnessed is the surging up from beneath of an outraged ; humanitv, who said that these last hundred vears have shown that 'i"., , human beings were treated be scrapped like old iron; not and as human beirigs but as machines, to the cry comes up,-"We are human ,~ as well as our employers." "We beings, with a fair wage and with are entitled to be treated as human a right to the comforts of life." A Contented Family That is the meaning of this class antagonism. You and I regret the outrages to which it has given rise, but you and I have some sympathy after all, with these poor people who are uniting in a protest against wrong methods of living and carrying on business. We  t.J..~, ~ -\OORESS BY HALEY FISKE 203 . ~:S thought. we could see through Group Illsurance some opportunity of car:-ymg home to employers some sense of responsibility. And. if you will look at the screen in a lew minutes, you will find the lesson to corporations there in the treatment of our employees. \ Vhoever heard of a stl ike ill ll.c Melropulitan? Here a~c ~ C8!!~en~e'J bedy of men who see the Company grow. and with it their own compensation grow, and they see the extraordinary spectacle of a reduction in expense and increase of the wages or commissions. How is it that this fine relation exists between our twenty-five thousand people and ourselves? Is it not that constantly I have been going among them and constantly my fellow Officers have been carrying on the plan which will be exhibited on this screen? Is it not the fair and generous and charitable treatment of men as human beings and not as vassals? (Applause.) Some years ago, at one of these dinners, we had a speech from an ex-President of the Federation of Labor -a working man. He knew what we had been doing. He made an excellent speech-beautifully expressed. I wish I had time to give more of what he said, but I will give you two sentences. "If," he said, "employers of labor had always treated their employees as the Metropolitan treats its employees, Trade Unionism never would have been born; and if (he said) the time ever comes when our employers of labor shall treat their employees as the Metropolitan treats its employees, that day Trade Unionism will die." (Applause.) And that from an ex-President of tr~ H'ederation of Labor, the greatest trade union we have! What One Group Policy Did The way it works out was well illustrated some months ago by a group insurance policy which we issued in \Vorcester, Massachusetts. We advised the employer to meet his men. Perhaps they had never seen him. And. on Sunday he hired three halls because one hall would not hold them and he invited them all to be present with their wives, and he made a little speech to them, and he told them that he cared for them and described what he had done for them, and as they left the hall each one of them took along a little certificate of insurance. Those men and women went out from that meeting with a knowledge that the employer did care for them. This Group Insurance of ours is done on a very large scale. We have three hundred and seventy-seven millions of insurance in force, and last year we actually saved more group insurance than any other company wrote! (Applause.) Why? It is, not only because of the system of Group Insurance, but it is what we do in connection with it which no other Company does. I spoke of the largest policy that ever was issued. It was for forty-five millions of dollars, one sheet of paper with one signature, and attached to it a register with the names of forty-five thousand working people, corrected monthly. Ah, it was not the insurance; it was the opportunity. Forty-five thousand employees who are entitled to be nursed. Forty-five thous- and employees to whom we are distributing these pieces of literature. Forty-five thousand new children of "Mother Metropolitan." 204 THl~ MeTRoPoLITAN A PUBLIC INSTITUTION The Policyholders Service Bureau That is i or Group Division the employee. a Bureau called but "T we have got connected with the itthactonISsiastsBoufreasoumfeortwtheelvinstructionheanPdolaiscsyihstoalndceersoSf eervmipceloyBeursr',eaaun"d; are ottenng their e or fifteen services constantly University graduates, to the employers of and they they they are are issuing publications to them. teachmg them improved They are teaching labor, and them safety; teaching them improved methods moefthobdosokokfeeepninggin, eeprrionfgi;t thmeaykinagre, classifications. methods can do their business in for factories, a more banks; telling them how they the conditions of their em effective way and in a way to better for instruction and bulletins to emp are sepnlodyineegs. ouEt vpearyrticduaylarweletgteerts leatntedrs asking pathy with their loyers of labor employees; to to try create to bring between them into general better sym- th winhgi.ch NhaosotthheerOCppomorptuanniytyd,oweshiicth. It is this greatemCotmhpaatnhyumofanPofweeel-r an instance down in and then went down the to Southwesftillws htehree Rweespiosnssuiebdiliaty.GroI urpemPeomlibcyer the employees and it was had not survey it, any milk. and we found that the They had to use con children , of through thethirnotruogdhucotuiornefoffortths etheamt ptlhoeyyerg. ot a dairy densed milk; and fresh milk bheanveefitbeoefnthtoeasechwinhgo twheorkacftuoarlthwemor.kinLgesosount soIttfo iccsoorripnpoortrhaatotiisooennsswIfaoyrs twhee Lessons to Government Then, there are Government in very lessons to many ways. Government; W and we are allied with do it. its duty in matters of Some years ago-so health to e believe that Government its citizens. We undertook does not to prov that would give Massachusett itself ovemr eto suisx iynemarastteargsoo-fwheeaaltshk,eadndfoFr some e town offered itself stoautsowanndowf efisfteenetnathCooumsmanidssioornseventeen ramingham, thousand people been there ever they did was to since and physically are now exam closing theiorflaebxopresr.ts,Tahned ftihrsetythhainvge quarters of the people to isolate the tub s u b m i t t in ed e t t o he ex p a opulation, minations ; a nd the I sup next pose thin th~ in I a trained am erculous and then nurse, and of course we to treat them. looked after th g was Of course, we put as told that you will see every employer of labor that we have at No. has a e milk supply. medical clinic, Now such employer of labor has a And. what has been the trained re nurse. 1 Madison The town Avenue, that every has a trained nurse. cut down fifty been improved per cent sult? Mortality in the six years. from tuberculosis The general mo has been cases as the 20 year per cent. Last before. and, if year there were I am correc only rtality has half as many those new cases came from other towns. tly informed, most of It is a lesson to every City as to what it other towns can did do as jf it will well, do what we did. And, lest you say that Massachusetts of about thewseamme asdizee aansdurcvheayracotfert,eanndotwheer foCuitniedsthine improvement was only 18 per cent instead of our 50 per cent. :' ' , ,", ~ , >\ "THE THING I WANT YOU TO TAKE HOME AND THINK ABOUT" Business Session of the Managers' Annual Convention, January 29, 1925 HALEY FISKE, President My dear friends, I have left for myself but a very few minutes to I I say something to you at the conclusion of this exhihit of the year's business. I don't like merely to read this record and dismiss you. I ,. won't see y~u again to be able to talk to you for another year, except as I hope to be able to meet many of you in the Field during the current year. (Applause.) I don't count Saturday night, because in making way for other speeches, I cut my own down to the shortest l)Ossible limit, and what I shall have to say there will not be directed enti rely to you, but also to the listeners-in, who, this year, will be millions and million's of people. I understand that we have engaged all the systems for a certain length of time, and that everybody who has any kind of a radio at all, will be under the necessity of hearing me spcak and have the delight of hearing" the other speakers. I like to confine my remarks sometimes to a text. I don't know but that before I get through today I may' preach a sermon. I am very much stirred up. The Reverend Father BULL is one of the 1110st dis- tinguished men in England. He is a member of the Community of the Resurrection. That Community consists of learned men whose occupation is writing books and preaching sermons and also doing mission work. Father BULL is known all over the world. One of the vows of the Community, as in other religious orders. is poverty. When a man enters a religious order, he has a vow not only of chastity, of obedience, but of poverty. All that he has is surrcndered, and thereafter he lives the Community life. Father Bull's Visit to JIo1/le ODicc Father BULL was in this country delivering a course of lectures at the General Theological Seminary. He hecame much beloved. I was privileged to meet him. He came to the Home Office. Later, he had a conversation with my daughter which was rather illuminating. With that notion of poverty and that idea that this material life of ours is temporary and that eternal life is the only thing worth C011sidering, he said he never liked to meet or know rich men or the officers of rich corporations. You can see his idea. He was good enough to add to my daughter that he made an exception in my case. And why? It was no merit of mine. He came here to the I-lome Office. He lunched. Then we showed him around. I thought he would never get through. He said he thought he had walked ten 439 440 MANAGERS' ANNUAl. BANQUET, 1925 n~i1.es. Then he wrote me a note saying: "I thoroughly enjoyed my ... VISIt to you and what I saw of your wonderful work. The vast astronomical millions made me giddy. I really believe GOD is training some of you men of big business for use in His Kingdom, as a union of the human race in a cooperative commonwealth of nations beneath the Fatherhood of GOD which is clearly His will, and Hc needs men \\'ho habitually think in millions." CoojJeration Our Mission Coopcrat ion, making ollrselves instrumcnts of good, carrying out the will of GOD for the betterment of humanity-is that or is it not our mission? That is the thing 1 want to say a word or two about, and that is the thing I want you to take home and think about. The thing is put upon us, not merely as a life insurance company, but as a life insurance company which has one-fifth of the population of the country insured, whose system involves weekly visits of agents, who make 300,000,000 or more calls a year in the homes of people who need help. That is the situation. It develops at once Opportunity, and I say that as men belonging to a great corporation and engaged in a great public work, it puts upon us Responsibility, and I say that human beings, such as you and your agents are, can't afford to get into this daily relationship with other human beings and neglect those opportunities. (Applause.) I am taking it for granted that I am addressing a body of men (and through them the agents of this Company whom I love) .who are not mere agents of an insurance company, but human beings. They have GoP's life-blood in them. They have, as human beings, human relationships, and this Company creates for them an abounding human relationship. It puts them into weekly contact with millions and millions of people, and I say that no man who has the fear of GOD and the love of humanity in his veins can possibly meet those opportunities in the mere relationship of premium collections and death claims. It isn't possible, it seems to me, for a human being with a human heart to go around and make these visits and not do all the good he can, not contenting himself with simply keeping the contracts which the Company has made for him. The Home Office FUYHishes the Means Now. if that be so, what can we do? 'What we have been doing at the H omc Office is to furnish you the plan and the material by which you can meet those GOD-given opportunities. First, of course, is nursing. ancI I have talked to you about that so often that I am not going to talk about it today, except to say that I can not understand at all the act of an agent in neglecting any sick Industrial policyholder who necds a nurse. Then, I am talking about literature year after year, and I don't want to say much about that. But, gentlemen, if you yourselves read the literature that we issue, you must be impressed with the fact that it is very, very instructive and helpful. I am persuaded that it has ADDRUSS BY HALgy FISKg 441 been largely circulated where it would do the 1110st good. I do hope that you will continue to see that it is distributed where it will do the 1110st good and in the manlier in which it will do the 1110st good. And the manner in which it will do the most good is by consultation over the pieces of literature between the agent and the family. For thirty years I have been preaching that this Company of ours is a family. I am rejoiced now to think, at the end of a generation, that everybody feels it to be a family. After all, we are members of a great human family, and it is that feeling of a human relationship which I want men to cultivate. It is curious how the heart-touch of human sympathy will enter into men's hreasts on the slightest occasion. I was reading the other day, a letter from one of our districts. It was a story to me extraordinary which illustrates the feeling of how yearning people are, how aching people are to have human friendship and sympathy. One of our men called with an assistant or another agent at a house which he understood was uninsured. He knocked at the door. The door was slightly opened and then a bar thrust across, and the man said: "What do you want?" "I want to present to you the subject of insurance." "I don't want to hear you. I have considered it. and I won't take any, and I don't believe in it, and you can go away." He said: "Well, I think I might say something to you that would be interesting at least to your family and yourself, if you wouldn't minTdhleetmtinagn'smfeacine sfoofrteanefde,wanmdinhuetessa.i"d, "\Vell. come in." The agent opened the subject of insuring the father and the mother and the children, and he made no headway. The man ~ot up in a kind of disgust, left the room and went out into the kitchen to shave. Of course, the agent kept on talking to the wife. The Christmas Message She hadn't any power to sign an application. but on a chance the agent said: "I wonder if youofwmouyldColimkepantoy tloisttehne mtoena aCndhrpisotlmicays- address made by the PRESIDENT holders; because if you would, it happens that I have a disc in my car outside and a little phonograph, and I can put it on and let you hear it." Well of course curiosity got the better of the woman, and she said: "Bring it in." He put on the disc and repeated that Christmas message of a year or two ago. which went all over the country to agents and to policy- holders. There was a :list"enI emr-iinssefdropmartthoef ktihtcaht.en.DoHiet ofivnealrlyagbauinrs."t into the room and It was clone over said again, and the agent left with the application of father and mother and everyone of the children. (Applause.) Of course, you know that story isn't told for the purpose of any exaltation of myself. It is clone for the illustration of what I am insisting is true: that the hearts of working people are yearning for sympathy and human relationship; and as soon as that man found 442 MANAGI\RS' ANNUAL BANQUI\T, 1925 that the agent belonged to a corporation whose while to deliver to him a Christmas messa head thought it worth a member of the welfare the corporation whose ge, he said: "I want to President thinks at Christmas be of Do you see? of all Can his you policyholders of whom get that argument, that I am going feeling, th to be one." was in people, the man's mind? That feeling whether they admit it or not. is in the minds at of impulse that all working . The Meaning Reaches alld Touches Men Who rVorll Now, reaching Group out to Insurance, even more than Industrial those men in this matter of Insurance, is hecame The it involves a cooperation system of Gro between the human employer relationships, and employe. mtltual the contributions, up ties Insurance up in a is one which, in cffect, ties up in business sense, the employer an'd employe, and ties them up in a family sense. They are in partner- ship in husiness, and they are in partnership olVncrship, that mutuality which is the glory in that sense of joint binding together of millions of people for of the mutual Mctropolitan, that support, the most beautiful thing in the world. It is the consciousness on the the cmploye that he -that is the great and his boss are benefit that is as one in this part of Metropolitan family does ameliorate and is sure to produced by ameliorate the Group Insurance. It relationships bctween Capital and Labor, the employer and employe. ing it to your attention because I feel that Therefore, I am bring- ness which we are doing, doing to such a this Group Insurance busilarge extent, but to such a vsmalaulalbleexttehnint gassfrcoommpaapreudhliwc ipthointht eofpvoiseswibilities. is one of the most be eng-ag-cd in that is interested at a1\ in which any corporation life insurance. can [lljlllClICe of the Metropolitan in Linking Employers and Employes ill Bonds of Mutual Interest I ~aid to the Veterans last night, something about the grcat power of and this I think co I said to you last year, wealth, come. the great responsibilities But, gentle that rporation, its great mass of come and the grcat dangers that which has not only mtheen,wwohrkoincganmewnitihnsstuarnedd,thbeutaettmitpuldoeyeorfanadCompany tied together in Group Insurance? Fancy try all mcmbers of the Metropolitan the industrics of employe this coun- "i',.''. comc to any company, the dcfense . Fancy the power that would against assault that would come to any this company that has on its books great country, masses of people engaged in masses ind of the population of their employers. Vvhen you talk of Group ustry in cooperation with Insurance in the Metro- mpoolnitlayn,knyoowu na. reG1r1o0ut ptaIlnksiunrganocfe,GarsouitpisIncsoumramnocnelyakt naollw, na,s isitaissycsotemm- of what and thc you may payment call wholesale life insurance, of death claims and the pa the payment of prem.iul11s and dismcmbermcnt and sickness yment, perhaps, of aCCident claims and all that. That isn't, pMoelittraonpoGlitraonupGroInuspu.raMnccetroispodliitsatnribGurtioounp Ionfsulirtaenrcaetuirse.nursMinegtr. opMoelittraon- ADDRUSS BY IlAI,HY FlSKI\ 443 Group Insurance is the study of hygiene of the worker. Did YOll hear me read that list of forty difFerent things that Dr. \VAlm \VIUGIIT is 1 doing in his division? Can you see that he is r!!aC'lltii"g"(lOWi'i....iiifo-all ~ the hazards of employment; that his purpose is to bring home to the 1 employer his responsibility for the health, the welfare. the lives of his . employes? Can you fancy this Metropolitan entering into all the employments of this country and going down to the working man 'I"~ through the employer. or independcnt of the clllployer. and lookillg' after his health, his domestic conditions, his methods of carrying on his employment, the things provided for him in the place of employment. And this hygienic investigation and survey of Dr. VV RIGTIT is to \ go down into the homes of the working people and see what they are at home, what can be done there in the domestic way to advance their welfare and health., Do YOll see now this human relationship exten~led to the 11th degree, this Metropolitan center stretching out its tentacles in every possible direction to reach the domestic and the working conditions of working people? And then do YOll see that it is the sweetest of all things, the tender human relationships, the heart touch of crowds who will say, as YOll go on in this work, that you are marked men in the communities in which you live? The working people will look lip to you as their friend and their advisor. Employers wiII be seeking YOll to know what more they can do. Capital and labor will lose their stri fe, and. as GoD'S people under the one roof, whether they be capitalists or lahoring men, they may be brothers, and you and your agents, as YOll walk, will walk, in and out as brothers to humanity, as friends of every man and as servants of GOD. (Long applause and cheers.) THE METROPOLITAN-ITS CARE FOR THE WORKMEN OF AMERICA Managers' Annual Banquet, Hotel Astor, New York City, January 30th, 1926 HALEY FISKE, President I am presenting to you a body of men from all over the United States and Canada-all of our managers, about 660 of them-also a number of assistants and agents who have been sent here because they made good records and a lot of Home Office people, for the I-lome Office people are not to be neglected in what I shall say. I am presenting to you this body of men who have produced, during the year 1925. more paid-for insurance than ever has been known in the history of insurance in the wide world. (Applause.) The Record of 1925 At the end of the year they had placed and paid for $2,952,000,000 of insurance. That is one-fifth of all the life insurance placed by 300 life insurance companies doing business in these countries. (Applause.) It is $750,000,000 more than was placed by the next nearest company. (Applause.) In the Industrial alone, their writings were $1,340,000.000. That is , r cent. of all the Industrial insurance written by some forty compal11es doing Industrial business. (AppraiiSe~)--- We ended the year in this Company with $12.000,000.000 of insur- ance in force. That is one-sixth of the entire amount of life insurance in force in all the 300 companies. (Applause.) Of this $12,000,000,000, about $7.000.000,000 are in what we call the Ordinary Department and $5,000.000,000 in the Industrial, and I should explain, for our guests, the difference. Industrial insurance is the insurance on a unit of weekly premiums, and these premiums are collected by agents at the homes of the insured. Ordinary insurance is the insurance in larger amounts, usually in units of $1,000, where the premiums are paid annually, semi-annually and quarterly. Those figures might pretty nearly be reversed, because a great deal of the Ordinary insurance is written on relatively small amounts, $500 to $1,000, on the lives of wage earners who are better circumstanced and who don't require weekly calls, and a very considerable amount, a billion dollars, was written on what is known as the Group insurance class, whereby, under a contract made by employers, all the employees are insured. I suspect t~at if we took a~count of this (because there is $1,000.000,000 in the Intermediate Branch, which is the small policy branch) we might say that $7,000,- 501 '-""'''''''''''''- ~r:: :.. :I~ S02 MANAGHRS' ANNUAL BANQUET, 1926 000,000 arc on the lives of wage earners and $5,000,000,000 on the lives of the wealthier classes. The gain in insurance in force for the year was $1,574,000,000. That is one-fifth of the gain that was made by all the 300 companies. The Group Division placed $246,000,000. That is $26,000,000 more than the placing of the nearest company and is one-quarter of all the Group insurance placed by all the companies, and it left in force at the end of the year $1,124,000,000 of Group insurance, which is $150,000,000 more than any other company had. This group insurance, of which I have spoken, insures 700,000 working people. The gain in Group insurance was more than the writing, which results from the fact that policies which had been in force were increased during the year, so that the gain is $262,000,000, which is $27,000,000 more than any other company had. Our income fr0111 the receipt of the weekly premiums on the Industrial insurance is $4,424,000, a sum which we receive every week on Industrial policies alone. Last year we added $734,000 per week to the amount we had before 1925, and this increase in the weekly Industrial premium of $734,000 is nearly 69 per cent. more than that. made by any other company. Also, it is half as much Clgain as this L Company ever placed before. The amazing record of an increase in weekly premiums of $734,000 has never been within the imagination of Industrial insurance managers. (Applause.) The number of< these Industrial policies in force is 30,880,000, and, added to the Ordinary in force, brings our total llumber of policies in force up to about 36,000,000. These 36,000,000 policies in force insure 24,000,000 human lives, so that we may say that about one-fifth of the entire population of the United States and Canada are members of the Metropolitan. (Applause.) I use that term "members of the Metropolitan" advisedly, because the Metropolitan Life is a mutual Company. There is no stock. Its nearly $2,000,000,000 of assets are the property of these 24,000,000 members. The increase in the number of policies was 2,770,000, and the increase in the number of lives was about 1,500,000. In other words, we got a million and a half new members for this mutual Company by last year's work, and when we divide, as we perhaps may for the purpose of statistical iuformation for some of our guests, the United States frol11 Canada-a division which is not known in the Metropolitan Life (applause) and really is known only by an imaginary line drawn across the continent-the record in Canada is as good as it is in the United States. We have in Canada in force about $600,000,000, and the number of policies in Canada today is 2,214,000 an~ that insures about. 1,500,000 lives. That, if you notice, is about one-sixth of the populatIOn of the Dominion of Canada. (Applause.) Yes, Canada, you can cheer at that if you want to. (Applause.) That is all the more remarkable because Industrial insurance is carried on in centers of population, and there is a great part of Canada that you know very well is agricultural, so that we calculate there arc only about 4,000,000 people in Canada who can be reached by Industrial insurance agents. Therefore, you ADDRESS llY HALrty FlSKrt 503 may say that two-fifths of all the population of insurance companies are Canada that members of are the cM1~irtrribole for Industrial in life politan Life. (Applause.) If the Third Vice-President lives another year, you will see half of them. (Applause.) ber of families insured under Industrial policies is 6,400,- The num 000. We have Industrial insurance in force in 30 parts of the country, per the cent. of figure is all the larger. families of wage earners. In ake New England, the percentage of families insured in the 34 per cent. In New If you t Metropolitan is 370. In the South it is over York State, it is over 32 per cent. This is an enormous business. The total income of the Company is that we some $531,000,000. It has to be cared assets of the Company, for, and the at the end of result 1925, is to $1.854,- had built up the 000,000, and long before the end of 1926 we shall have $2,000,000.000 6,483,000. That income of $531,- of assets. We gained, last year, $22 which I spoke, is $130,000,000 more than the income of any named are 0o0th0e,0r00li,feofinsumraonrecethcaonmtphaenyn,eaarnedst tchoemapsasentys two huics.h I(Ahapvpelause.) $400,000,000 V/e declared, during the year, dividends to the amount of $40,000,- 000. To have insured one-fifth of the books population that large of the United proportion of States people and Canada, to have on our (22,000,000 lives), whose premiums are collected by agents at the ,000 visits to homes by homes, involves, our agents. As I I should think, at least have often said, the 300,000 Industrial insurance agent is orn- man I know of who a house. I has a know contract right every Monday m of no other business or profession the only ing to walk into where that contract right exists. The Nursing Service What is involved in 300,000,000 visits a year to wage earners? put to us on our conscience a few years That ago. is a question that Wage earners, by was and large, are people whose incomes laring them are in small, whose the face the outgo equals f the the income and who have s sickness of the wage earner. here the possLibaidliiteys oandeggueanl ttlheme einnc,opmicetuwrheento thyeouwr asgeelfcaarnheorusisehaotldwowrk, in the expenditures case of the wage earner being stricken down. ho is stricken Nay, even with illness, if it he not or his chil- the wage earner, but ve the need his wife w of medical services, where is the money coming we do, we who col- dlferrcoetmn thhtioas pmayonfeoyr athnedsewehxotrhaavexepbeunislets?up \tVhihsatgrceaant wealth, to alleviate their distress? That is, with us, a question of conscience. Su, known as the Nursing some seventeen Service, where- years ago weIensdtaubsltirsihaledpowlhicaythioslder has the right to the services of a they are not the btryaianneydgrsnaiducruksaet.e nTuhressees nwuhrosmes tahrec reiscpheceiamllpylotyr;ainbteldt ;they, having been mgarreatrd-euoaftepdubnluicrsensu,rshinagve. bAeennd ftuhirsthneur rstrinaigneidnvoinlvethsethaertv-ifsoitirngit oifs tahne MANAGHRS' ANNUAL BANQUE'r, 1926 house where the sick person lives, the examination by the nurse of the condition and prospects, the decision by her as to whether a doctor is needed, and, if he is needed, the direction by her that the family should employ a doctor. Thereupon, she places herself under the supervision of the doctor, going as often and staying as long as he directs. " Now, stop for a moment and see what that means. When a rich person has sickness, he employs a doctor, and if the sickness be serious, the doctor compels them to get a nurse, and that nurse is a bedside nurse. Now, what is the function of a nurse in sickness? It is to be the eye and the right arm of the doctor. Obviously, the doctor can't stay, and he Illust know at his next visit what has been going on since his last visit, what the prognosis is, what the condition of the patient sisy,mhpotwomtsh.e medicine has worked, and about the temperature and the It is obviously impossible in nursing sick Industrial policyholders, at our expense, that there should be bedside nursing; that is to say, that, except in very extreme cases where it is necessary, the nurse must visit, observe, give directions and inform the doctor. To a certain ex-, tent, thcrefore, she is the eye and the right arm of the doctor. She does kccp him informcd of the progress of the patient between his visits, and, obviously, in the case of wage earners, the visits are fewcr and less f re<juent than they are for pcople who can afford to pay for frequent and long-continuing visits. This trained nursing, not only among the rich, but also among these wage earners, is often the difference betwecn life and death, and we have convincing testimony from our policyholders who have been nursed, that lives have been saved; certainly misery has been assuaged, ctoertthaienlhyoucsoemhofoldr.t h. as been givcn, certainly instruction has been given The hygienic conditions of the house also have been observed. The nurse's business has been not only to nurse the sick, but also to look " about her and tell what is wrong-lack of cleanliness, for instance; what is wrong with the clothing of children, what is wrong with diet, what is wrong with cooking. It is her business to be a hygienic in- " structor in nursing, and, indirectly, we haven't any doubt in the world, that-not only docs she bring to health the sick, but she gives a great deal of instruction to prevent sickncss in that household and to make hygicnic conditions better. It must be naturally and necessarily so. Last ycar, the visits of these nurses among our policyholders num- bered 2,695,000, and that has brought up the total number of our visits since we began this work, seventcen years ago, to 23,500,000. Distribution of Literature Thcn wc follow that up by instruction-instruction in the form of literature-and we have pamphlets and lcaflets upon practically every known disease. This literature is distributed by the agents as they go around, whether there be sickness or not. It is preventive medicine, and in the casc of epidemics, this literature is very widely and in- " ,.; tcnsively and thoroughly distributed so that the people may be informed as to what the current sickness is, what its symptoms are, and what AOORUSS BY HALgy FISKU 50S can be done to prevent the sickness from attacking those who have not yet been attacked. Last year we distributed 49,000,000 pieces of health literature, which has brought up the total distribution during these seventeen years to 400,000,000. Consider for a moment what a seventeen years' progressive cam- paign means in the 0hovmiseistsofmweaonrtk?ingWpehoaptleh.as\Vbeheant haacscotmhipsliaschceudmbuy- lation of 23,000,00 the distribution of 400,OOO,(){X) pamphlets? It is a rolling up from year to year; it is auprinogaresmsioomneonft, hweahlatht tehdeuceafftieocnt ; haansdbweeen.knoBwu,t aist I shall prove to yo doesn't need figures. It merely means the bringing to bear of your reason on these facts, what must oe the result of the intensive educa- tion by trained nurses in hygienic work, by the care of the sick, and by literature of instruction. , to a smaller extent, is the meeting and care of Another form of help immigrants, and the Immigrant Bureau has cared for 8,790 cases, coming from thirty-issetvheins: coIufnatrniyespoalnicdyhdoeldsepratochf eodurtso hathsirrteyl-aetiivgehst states. coming The system over, he is invited to advise our Immigrant Bureau, to give the date of arrival, thempaonrt oorf tahrerivchaill,d,anodr stohme efadtehsecrripotriotnh,eifmnootht ear photograph, of the wo who is coming. The service consists in the mecting of the incoming immigrant, at the borta,t tohre agtettthinegpoofrt thbye oimurmmigarann, tththerocaurgeh otfheheCr uos-r of him while in po toms, the putting of him or her on the train, the telegraphing to the home where he or she Sisodtehsatitnewde ttoakgeo,thoefsethepotorarinwotamkeenn aanndd cthheilddraetne and and hour older of arrival. persons and sce to it that they are not robbed, that they are not exploited, but that they get to their homcs safely, that they are put into the care, in the case of women, of the Travelers' Aid Society, and, in the case of men, in charge of the conductor. The Sanatorium We have conductedasabneuenm. berPeorfhadpesmothnestrmatoiostnsimtoposhrtoawnt wwhaast tthhee result of our work h erection of the Sanatorium on Mount McGregor some twelve ycars ago, originally designed for agents, clerks, employees attacked with tuberculosis, and subsequently taking in convalescents or people sick from other diseases not contagious. It is a beautiful spot. It is about as near Paradise as one can find this side of the grav4e,.000Itscawseosr,kahbaosutbeheanlfeoxftcnthscivme.tubWcrecuhlaovucs.recTehiveerde there just short of is a large staff there of 200 people. There are numerous physicians and trained nurses. All arhe aiinr ftirreeaptrmoeonf t,buthiledirnegass,onvacbrmleind-ipetr,oothf,e orpeeansonto- the air. It is the fres able exercise, which have been found to be thc true cure for tuberculous people. We have ended this period with a perccntage of those discharged of 84 per cent curcd. (Applause.) When I say "cured" I speak as a layman. I don't \)jant to hurt the feelings of any doetor present, but -----_.." .." ......,.....,...... f~!t; . ~,. ~ " ~:~~)r;:t ~~!' ~ 506 MANAGERS' ANNUAL BANQUET, 1926 it has been my observation, through a long and wicked life, that a doctor never decides that a person is cured until he is dead. (Laughter.) When I say "cured," I mean that the person is back at active work earning a living, and Ollr percentage of discharges is about 84 per cent. Lowest Death Rate in This Welfare work of ours has had certain definite results which are not only interesting, but to me conclusive evidence of the result of the work we have been doing. Among the holders of premium policies, ages I and over, Ollr death rate last year the Industrial Department -that is, among the wage-earners-was 8.46 per thousand. That is the lowest death rate we have ever knowll in our history. (Applause.) I think that compares very favorably-though of course we have not the figures-with the public mortality for 1925, but I expect it will be tfhoeungdentehraatl ipt oipsuplartoiboanb. ly as low among wage-earning people as among Now, that death rate has been reduced since 1911 from 12.53 per thousand to 8.46. In certain diseases-I could give you a whole catalogue, but I shall give you a few which arc illustrative-the reduction in the death rate from tuberculosis in that period has been 56 per cent; in measles, 78 per cent; in diphtheria, 63 per cent; from scarlet fever, 74 per cent. The total reduction from all diseases has been 32.5 per cent. and the statisticians and doctors calculate that this means an extension of nine years of the lives of our policyholders, during this period of 1911 to the end of 192s-fourteen years. We have the figures, down to 1924, of the extension of life of the general population. We know perfectly well that in this period of fourteen years there has been an improvement in the general population, but the extension of life during that time has been five years as against our nine years. Put it another wav. We had 66,288 less deaths in 1925 than we would have had if we' had had the same experiellce as in 1911. If we compare our reduction in mortality from 1911 to 1924 (the latest year. for which census ligures are available) with the reduction among the general population, we find we had a saving of 33,713 lives in 1924 alone, over and above the saving among the general population. If you take the accumulated saving of lives during these fourteen years, we have saved 205,654 lives, over and above those that would have been saved by the general improvement in mortality. (Applause.) What that means to homes, your heart tells you. What that means to the economic gain of the country, your reason tells you. What it means to the influcnce on the surrounding population, a little thought will tell you. A little leavcn leavens the whole lump. It cannot be that this Company, in carrying on this work so intensively among its own policyholders, it cannot be that the influence of this 400,000,000 of pieces of literature we have been distributing, it cannot be that the instruction given to our policyholders, have stopped there. It must be, and I believe it to be, one of the reasons why the mortality of the gwehnoelrealcopmopmuulantiitoyn. ha(As pbpeleanusree.d)uced. It has had an influence in the ADDR~SS BY HALEY FISKE 507 Help H Housing vVe have had, since the war, sing, and another condition of wage earners, we have been lending money since namely, the lack of hou 1920, all over this country, for the building of new dwellings t, of hotels. and for During. the erection of ne awpearltomanenedts,$1a0n0d,,0t0o0,a00c0erftoairntheexteanccommodation of 25,- l4$a03s04t 3y,f0ea0am0ri,l0aie0los0,, aanndd hsianvcee hwoensbedeg9a5n,0t0h0is fawmoirlkiesi,nw1h9i2ch0, 1wseuphpaovsee, lmoaenaends perhaps at least 300,000 persons. Cooperative Work with Other Agencies What I have been describing to you is the intensive, particular work policyholders, of this preventive medicine and within our own family curative medicine, but of we have not stopped there. Vve have been very associations engaged in glad to similar he of work, assistance to and I have a other societies and very brief catalogue of what we have done , T in the way of helping other organizations. contributed a large sum of money to the building up of r a We have personnel by associated societies engaged in the fight against ore intensively done in New diphYork theria. The work is perhaps m has also been commenced in various other States. the City of 1r1, StatWe, ebuhtavite ewntiethretdheinUtonivaerssoitryt ooff Mcoopnatrrtenaelr,shanipd wwiitthh the local au- :r Montreal and thorities in the establishment of a training school for teaching graduate lInSe nisurasbWeoseuttahtreoe baferintcaoonfncditnurgacitanedes,duwrnveueryasrieonfgv.einrydugsltaridaltocosanyd,itbioynsMicnGCillanUandiavewrshiitcyh. n. re (Applause.) We have been assisting, and I hope with some success, in an entire ities, where now )\1 reorganization of the Federal alth work is distributed Government among five health or six activ different departments, the he lated, overlapping,towothrekinPgreasitdecrnot,sswphuicrphosweas,s and we have gotten up in Ne not corre Ive :ar submitted a detailed plan connection with a committee of experts and with the Surgeon General, all of this work will be :he '24 wbrhoiuchghwt eunhdoepre suwpilelrvbiesioand,opwtehdic,hbywilwl hpicrhevent overlapping and will ~'woeuen porfoCmWaoneteaaderaef.ficfiiWnenaencyca.inreg faincaonmcimngissaiocnomomn issosicoianl ohnygmieennetailn htyhgeieDneominintiohne ans Dominion of Canada. We are financing an effort by the American ents Public Health Associathroughout the United t it ,ght tion to States. set We up standards for have established health departm competitive fellowships for teaching health ar, the ools, fellowships given teaching to those who show, during a ye school children the ruics of health. that in sch )wn I of greatest efficiency in We have brought together nineteen of up thc on most prominent educators a programme for tcaching the in the United States as an advisory gro nust the health to children. We have prepared special literature for public school education and the health. 508 MANAGERS' ANNUAL BANQUET, ~ We have prepared clubs throughout the and are issuing country. special literature for 700 women's We have prepared Teacher Associations. and are issuing special literature for the Parent- We are giving films to health-three films. Two health officers throughout have been sent. the country on which our men saw yesterday. Dear Life." It is a fIlm One of them One is in preparation, is called "Working for cal examination. of sm to teach Another is the people the necessity smallpox film which of periodic medishows the horror allpox and the certainty of prevention by vaccination. The one fWthoaret DkwneeaorwhaLvtihefaet,j"ussoatmndperew3p,ea0r0ke0nd,0o0wa0ndpesohpallle sheanvde osuetenisthoenefilomn, d"i'pWhothrekriinag. the smallpox film. . that some 2,000,000 people have seen Demonstrations culoIsihsavSeansaptookreiunmofoonneMdoeumnot nMstcraGtiroeng,orth. e demonstration We hav of the tuber- two more. One was in Framingham, but with which my guests may with which e carried on one or my men are familiar, mission to Company, a town which not turned be familiar-the sending of over its health management a comto tl;e the town of Framingham, in Massachusetts. The commis- tstihimoanet ,wteuelbinmetrictnhuaeltoreesdisaanncddosutslatdaymebdpeefidvveeoroyutr gseirnxetaiyrteleyarsd:imTinhieshiredobajencdt, wpaesrhtoappsr,ovine rate from 120 per 100,000 to 38 per ly, and they reduced 100,000. (Applause.) the death morWtaleityknionw,thaendProovuirncCeanoafdiQanuefbreiecn, dasndknowwe, the very high infant Thetford aninfant Mines, where was 300 per the death 1,O rate during selected the town the first year of life of of died within a year. schoo We OC}-nearly one-third of the children born sent trained nurses there. We organized "> - taond96w.les (orAefdpuipnclseatdruustceht.ia)otnd, ebaethsidreaste,thien wthorreke ywehaircsh, fthroemtrathinee3d00nupresres1,d0i0d9, It was observing a demonstration that what had been done, had an immediate effect. the Province of Q Shortly after to do similar work in other parts of the uebec Province. voted $500,000 by tOheurMeixlbaamnpkleFoinuntdhaitsiown,orwkhiacgha,inasst Iturebmerecmulboesris has been followed $th2i,s00c0it,y00a0ndf oirn soinmeiloarr twwoorkofnothwe bcietiinegs ocfartrhieedSotanteiinto,fthhNaeseEwapaspYtrooSrpkird.ieateodf ~'.' - Am(?ricatf Citizetfship Then we have engaged, ting laws passcd-I think with the National Security the last number is in League, in get- . <'. amending the Constitution to and laws of the country as a compel the teaching thirty-nine statesof the Constitution struction. (Applause.) League in And part of the public we contribute to the school course of inwork of the Security convenient optohinerts,retsepaecchtisn, gfopreoipt lehatshelencetcuersesristyalol fohvaevrinthge country at tion trained in the Government of the United States, in the populaits Constitu- l.: ... ADDRliSS BY I-IAI.liY FISKH 501) tion, in its general organization and in its laws. That work is being carried on jointly by the Security League and ourselves. Then, this lmmigrant Bureau has not been content with receiving immigrants and getting them to destinations, but it has organized a series of lectures throughout the country in towns where there are large ioreign popUlations, gathering together these people who have just cOl11e over, instructing the111 in English, getting the111 naturalized. \\'e have distributed millions 0 f pamphlets on II rst cit izenshi p papers and second citizenship papers, and have really, at times, gathered together the immigrants after they have been sufficiently instructed and had them pass through the Naturalization Court. E urial Costs The last work which we are about to undertake-I say the last work; I have by no means exhausted the catalogue of what we have been doing, but have been illustrating as best I could the cooperative work of this Company outside of its own definite, intensive work-is this: Our men know, and everybody who has any information and knowledge about the poor has felt confident, that in cases of death, the poor were often robbed. They have seen the cost of burials go up. It always has been high, as we think. It has seemed to us that that was a service that we ought to give to the working people of America after having paid the death claims-to see that the money wasn't wasted. . We h~ve made various efforts with bodies of undertakers to get them to cooperate, to get them to fix standards, to get them to reduce prices. \Ve have failed, and now we are appointing a commission which will make a survey of the conditions and situations in respect to burials that prevail throughout this country. vVe are going to find out the facts. We are going to find out whether the poor are robbed, as many people think they are. Weare going to find out what a burial ought to cost, and if we can get the information definite, scientific, we are then going to make some effort to see that it is put into practical effect, and that the days of robbery are over. (Applause.) Group Insurance The Group Division, of which I have spoken, and which insures some 700,000 lives of working people, does that through policies issued to the employer, who, in 90 or 95 per cent. of the cases, cooperates with the employed in taking out life insurance, sick and accident insurance, and insured thri ft. The employer to whom the policy is issued signs an application which carries with it a register naming the employees covered, this is followed by a canvass to get the consent of . the employees. That is the general system of Group insurance. What a field that presents for work on health lines! What a field it presents for doing particular things for Industry! What can be done for promoting the health and domestic life of employees, and for their safety at work? What can be done in teaching employers that it is to their interest to look after the welfare of their employees even 510 MANAGERS' ANNUAL BANQUET, 1926 beyond the taking out of insurance? Nursing goes among Group policyholders; distrilJUtion of literature goes amongst them. But what about the employer? Service to Employers We have a bureau in the Group Division which is divided into some eight parts, all in charge of scientific, educated men. One is on nursing .!lnd hygiene, one on industrial relations, one on publicity relatioris,one on ~, one on production engineering, one on business / management, one on industrial information and economic research. The system is to get information from insured policyholders and others as to the conditions of operation, of their works in response to questionnaires which will bring out the facts on the various points which I have indicated and which are of interest, and the invitation to these employers of labour to make requests of us for instruction anel information as to what can be done for the hetterment of their estab- lishments. We received, last year, hundreds of requests. This involves the surveys of plants. It is done free of charge. \\There it is desired, we ',. send out experts to inspect the plants. We give advice on air, on sani- tation, on water, on methods of manufacture, on safety appliances; and we go further than that and go down into ,the details of the business and give them instruction as to how to carry it on and how to record it. It is a growing business. The requests are multiplying. The sur- ovefyGs raoruepinpcorliecaiseisn, gh.asTbheecowmoerkv,erays lIarhgaev. e told you, through the issue Ellding Class Warfare But, now, what are the ulterior effects of this kind of work? What are we doing? Weare introducing among bodies of people, among whom (here was a class war, 1<l~.-lQ.Q~I~SQ}'.e.ar:L.thcLehas cooperation. grown up t h You kno e deepest w that for antagonism - ~he be- 'fweenc::apital and Labour. It has bothered and worried the students ofee-onomies, aye, the students of government; and there is a great .:\. fear that has come on communities, on whole countries, as to what is to he the outcome of this continued antagonism of the employees against their employers. I dare to say that there is reason on the part of the working people. I dare to say that the history of Capitalism tfo9Ec,itvhielizlaatsiot n1. 00(Aorpp1l5a0usyee.a)rs has been a disgrace to Christianity and "rrlS iniily years since that I called upon you in the conventions that we have held here and elsewhere to have your ears and to have your eyes intent on indications of coming trouble. I pointed out to you that though the surface was calm, there was underneath a surging and a boiling of discontent, and that discontent was that the labouring people' had come to the conclusion that they were treated, not as human beings, but as machinery, to be used and scrapped, and that through education and through combinations the working men had come to feel that their time had come to bring their condition into view and to take concerted action for the reform of abuses and the establishment of rights. And _ ~.~!.iiIIIrio _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ ,_,,_._,,_, , ADDIU~SS BY lIALUY FISKg 511 I asked you to listen to that clarion call of service, to do what you could ill your contact with the working people of these two countries to bring about a better fecling-, at \cast to bring ahout some ameliora- tion of the horrid domestic conditions of the working people. The prediction was fullilled, anel since then you have heard of riots and incendiarism and murder-awful things l I don't defend them. I merely explain them. Now what can be done? We are trying" to answer that through Group insurance. What is Group insurance? It is a partnership between the employer and the employed for mutual benefit, a part of the premiums on the insurance being paid by the employer and a part by the employee, and they are ill partnership. Employer and employee are alike insured by the same policy. They are 111 the unlon-onne IVfctropoTitan Life. They have been gathered together in the ~ of Mother Metropolitan. The employee has been taught that nls em- . plaYer cares for him. The employer has been taught that he is dealing with human souls as precious in the sight of GOD as his O\nl. (AI~ plause.) . And that is the great object which we have in view in the prosecu- Il tion of Group insurance. vVe are pretty nearly alone in that outside work. \Ve are not content with issuing policies. \Ve are not content with adding to policyholders. We are not content with adding to assets. vVe use all these things-these billions of dollars, these millions and millions of insured-as mere instruments for the bettering of civiliza- tion, for the building up of a unit cd country whcre class warfare shall cease. (Applause.) . That, to me, is the onc thing that we started group insurance for. We didn't need the insurance. vVe were, year by year, issuing more insurance than any other company. We had more insurance than any t other company. vVc didn't nced to add to our assets. \Ve didn't need , y to increase our insurance. But wc saw an opportunity for work for e humanity, and what we are trying to do, through reaching the em- ployed by our insurance and by our health literature and by our nurs- s ing, is to reach the employer, to bring to his mind the responsibility that t is upon him for the health and welfare of his working people. That is s Group insurance! (Applause.) s t The Four Specters Before Working Men n I have told you before that in the life of the working man there are d constantly four specters facing him. One common to us all is dcath. We are providing for that by lifc insurancc. Another, a possibility, is sickness and accidcnt and the loss of wage. That we are trying to cover by sick and accidcnt insurance. The third is old age-dependent old age-a pitiful prospect for the head of a poor family, and that we are trying to provide for by a system of pensions, scientifically constructed; and, because the word "pension" is a word that is dis- s, liked by some people, we have given it a longer, but by no means a n better name, "Deferred Annuities:" a system by which the employee Ir saves a little, his employer contributes to it, and they build up a fund d which will provide an annuity when the person insured reaches a ccr- d ~~~'~?:~.O!; ". ;.~. ?!::-... ft" 512 MANAGERS' ANNUAI- BANQUET, 1926 tain age which is fixed by themselves, 60, 65 or 70. That is growing. We have issued a great many. We have had inquiries for more. Of course, the greatest pension system that we have is among our own people, and a part of the $12,000,000 that we spent last year on Welfare work-$4,500,OOO, I think-was contributed to building up a fund in this Deferred Annuities system, because all of our employees have their lives insured at the expense of the Company, all of them have sick and accident insurance, all of them who have been with the Company for five years have pensions or Deferred Annuities. We are not preaching what we don't practice. (Applause.) I Suppose the largest pension or Deferred Annuity contract existing anywhere in the world exists rig-ht here in the Metropolitan Life, which, as an insurance company, insures the Company as an employer of labour. Une11lploY11lent Insurance Ah, there is one specter I haven't mentioned-unemployment-and we have desired for years to be enabled to issue insurance against unNemepwloYymorekntd, oaensdnowtepehramveit buesento sctloopipt.ed because the insurance law of I am not going to enter into the discussion of the reasons why, up to date, the law hasn't been passed. Some personalities might be in- volved. Some current of obscure political, economical doctrines might be involved. Perhaps it is polite to use the mere word "conservatism," but it is a conservatism that, 100 years ago, would have prevented the formation of any life insurance company.. No data t How are you going to get data unless you issue the insurance? We hadn't any data for Industrial insurance until the year 1895, but we had been udnotiinlg1i9t07fo, rbufitftweeenhyaedabrse.en Wdoeinhgaditnf'toranteyndyaetaarsf.or sub-standard lives Does Labour want it? I don't know, but I am trying to find out. At one time they didn't want Industrial Insurance, but we did it, and the labourers took it. At one time they didn't like Group insurance, but we did it, and the labourers are insured. And we had the spectacle,a year or two ago, of labour unions g-oing to Albany and getting the bill amended so that-what? The trade unions could take out Group in- surance. They couldn't before, because Group insurance was defined to be an insurance by an employer of his labour, and, of course, trade unions are composed of men employed by different people. They went to Albany and got the bill amended, insuring with us. (Applause.) and Labour Unions are now Why on earth Labour should ever seek to oppose insurance against unemployment, GOD only knows. I don't. (Applause.) And I shall not believe that Labour Unions Oppose know it, and I have talked to them. it until I know it, and I don't Patience, patience--but as sure as GOD spares my life, we are going to issue unemployment insurance. (Prolonged applause.) Address to the Metropolitan Men Thus far, I have been addressing our guests, ladies and gentlemen. I want to say a few words in closing to my dear boys in front of me. .VlI1g. ~ our ar on up a oyees them :h the 1e are ;e the in the 1I1sur- t-and 1St un.awof hy, up be inmight atism," ted the lre you [1't any .d been rd lives lnd out. it, and nee, but :tacle, a the bill 'oup indefined ;e, trade ley went lfe now e against 1 I shall 1 I don't ire going entlemen. nt of me. ADDRBSS BY HALIiY FISKH 513 (Applause.) You have heard me during the last few days in your ce, hut oflen ; not briefly, but expansively. assembled conventions, not on The purpose of conventions is to bring together the managers of this purpose of great corporation so that we may inculcate. ventions, which I have fraternity. attended The for thirty years the triennial con his country and Canada, has been to has bring about fraternal been to acquaint the throughout t feelings. There is another purpose, which of the Company, for the purpose of men in the Field with the ideals anagement to the working force, that we may understand last three or up m havc becn working together for the tying cach four other, and we days trying to bring about an even better understanding than has brought into the service we have had before. of this Company, as Something or other I believe, the most loyal, faithful band of men that that any employer has ever had, (applause) and our frequent meetings for I like to think the last thirty years. this something has been But, there is another reason for this annual convention, and that I is to give you a picture of your Mother. For hours on Thursday of the work of the Metropolitan for the last gave you a general survey year. I tried to cover every Department, to give you every informayou a description tion, to give ork you all the available statistics; to give done by each Division at the Home Office and the work of the w in each Territory in the Ficld. Did you get a composite and say, "There is Mother"? accomplished figure which you could look upon tried tonight, in my feeble way, in addressing these guests I have d left, and the ladies and gentlemen in front and on e way which, no doubt, might have on my right an each side of me; I have tried in som been done better by others, to give them a picture of what this Commajestic pany is. But she is your Mother, and have looked at her ample skirts? you seen her I-lave you gazed upon figure? I-lave you face? Have you looked into her heart and soul? that you are serving a Oh, cor- hdpeoornra'bttiegononi!ganwaDanytonfr'tomlootkhius pcoonnvthenetiMonetfreoeploinlgitan as an impersonal eenpttityas! Don't think of her wealth! Don't think even of her power, exc a placing upon you of responsibility. upon her as having in her heart the welfare of the American Look and the Canadian people. (Applause.) Look at her; see her at work. throne and smiles. She is at work. She She is is not a figure which sits at work through every on a avenue that she can find. Primarily her She has work is through what this s, which I Company have tried does and what you do. to show you are cooperating with other association them. She isn't tied up to the mere prosecution of her every direction in both her or she with work through you. She is reaching out in associations of like character, countries to draw within her influence life insurance, out of like character as regard for the and for their welfare. Whatever they are except as to public, for their health, doing for the promotion of health, whatever they are doing extend life, to better whatever huemy aanrecodnodinitgiotnos,prwevheantet vdeeratthh,eywhaarteevdeorinthgeytoare doing for extension p- th of human life, there you will find the Company, hand-in-hand. (A plause.) !". 1['t",~!u/:~, ' Ii~i/{;: . ',.,00 i';' 514 MANAGnRS' ANNUAl. BANQUn'r, 1926 But you-that is your concern. And from here you are going out to prosecute business for another year. I am not asking you to in-crease the wealth of the Metropolitan. If you will do your work, you can't help it, there is no use of asking you. Your work-what is it? It is to get new members. That is your work. They wiII take care of the assets and of the income.- And new members-why? To get new people among whom we can circulate literature; new people to whom we can send nurses; new people through whom we can study conditions. We want to extend this work of humanity. That is a part of your work, and the other part of the work is to take care of those you have. You are managers. You are responsible for the men who work under , you. There are 20,000 men waiting for you to come home. There are 20,000 men who will take their example from you. There are 20,000 men for whom you. are responsible. Whether they break or whether they persist is in your hands. Whether they are successful or whether they are failures is your work. You can break a man. You can make eaxmeracnis,eadndyoeuter rsntietwy awrdilslhriepq. uire of you some account of how you have It is a great thing to have in your hands a body of human souls, to train, to keep from mischief and wrong, to lead along right lines of hboodnyestoyf atnedacihnedrsu.stry and ambition. It is a wonderful thing, this great And then, that larger family; that larger family of 24,000,000 people amongst whom your men make 300,000,000 visits. What of them? They will be treated by your agents as you want them to be treated. These agents can be, as I know they are in most instances, the friends of our dear children insured. It is for you to see that they have the sick nursed; it is for you to multiply the numbers of these visits and the number of cases that need visits. It is for you to see that this literature is distributed, and distributed properly; not disptrriebvuetnedtiveasmaeddviceirnties.ing, but distributed as what it is-instruction in It is for you to multiply the number of Group cases. Why? To bring into human relationship employer and employee. That is your job. Everyone of you has some sort of manufacturing or other establishments employing labour. What is the condition now as between employer and employee? What can you do to teach this bettering of this relation between the two? That connection is going on. It is going on for good or ill. It is going to build up antagonism. It may be going on for the promotion of friendship and union. And every time you write a Group case, and every time you and your men go around to see these new policyholders and certificate holders, and _ every time you go into the factories and visit them, and every time you distribute literature, and every time you send trained nurses-you are dCoaipnigtayl oaunrd pLaratb. ouYr.ou are doing your part to end this class warfare of Oh, my dear boys, yours is the care of the American working man, to be sons of your gracious Mother, to feel in your heart of hearts, aesveryyoupowliocrykhodldaeyr"bty d(aGy,re"aIt aapmplamuyseManodthecrh'esersso.n) ; I am brother to INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS dress Before the Chamber of Commerce, Cleveland, Ohio, April 20, 1926 HALEY FISKE, Presidellt of the :.~e!:/l.t?Ii!,a.Akitf~I.::.!It1'allCC Com/'ollY relations of employer and employee are the subject of most ng and perhaps the most important problems at present under ation in Industry. Just now matters are in a quiescent slate, s are very high and unemployment is at a minimum and the men are saving money. But legislation is pcnding in Congress : the matter in respect of railroad employment. In England re unsettled and it is felt that a crisis is approaching with respect Ig which may affect other classes of employment. have passed through a period of great unrest and many convolving strikes, riots and serious disagreements between emnd employee. They have a historical basis. The story of the dted and fifty yeats is one of exploitation on the part of capital wing revolt on the part of the labouring classes. I think it is !ral impression that these troubles date from the introduction inery and that they have been incidental mainly to manufacturness where enormous sums have been accumulated by the capind where labour has been underpaid and iII-used. But the ~oes further back than that. I do not know a sadder picture ~ condition of agricultural labour in the latter part of the eighentury. The condition of affairs then would be incredible if it It matter of record. The public policy then on the part of rs and of Government itself was to keep labour in subjection. valent theory was that very low wages were necessary as a f compUlsion to labour. The farm labourers wcre paid Is. 3d. Any higher wages were said to be too high for the station in labourers and 8s. to lOs. a week were the proper wage. s show that in a family with five children the wages of the lmily amounted to 8s. 6d. a week, and budgets are published that the cost of maintenance was lIs. 70d. per week. There o ways by which the deficit could he covered-one was Poor ~lie and the other was the imposed necessity of the work of d children in other employments. The Elizahethan Statutes scale of proper wages. If any employer paid more he was I and sentenced to ten da}'ls in jail. Any labourer who received 111 the scale was sent to prison for twenty-one days. The hours r were from five in the morning to seven at night from March 531 "".'.,l t:,i::~:} ~:.. .~' . 532 INDUS'tRIAL R~LArIONS to September, and from September to March from daylight to the end of the day. Later these hours were modified to make a twelve hour day from six to six in the summer months and in the winter from sunrise to sunset. Meanwhile fuel and pasturage rights were cut off by enclosure, which extended to the Commons, and gleaning after crops was forbidden. The daily fare of the labourers was one fit only for animals. The family was housed in one or two rooms and often cattle were stored at one end of the house and there were holes in ceiling and walls for chimney and windows. An instance is recorded of a mother of twenty-two children who lost all but two. In the last half of the eighteenth century organized manufacturing came into vogue, but public, political and social recognition was in England awarded to agricultural and mercantile pursuits. Manu- facturing was done by what is called the putting out system, where work was given out by merchants and pelty manufacturers to the labouring classes to do at home. Low wages and poor relief were considered proper methods for aiding manufacturers to outbid foreign competitors. Most manufacturers acquired great wealth. Women of all ages were seen everywhere walking from place to place busily knit- ting. Agricultural workers who could not earn a sulisistence were expected to eke out an existence by spinning or other forms of in- dustrial employment. They were denied a subsistence wage as indus- trial workers culture. because they were expected to exist primarily by agri- At the origin of the factory system wages were forced further and further below the subsistence level. One rule urged for general adop- tion was that 110 persons be allowed any relief on account of any child above six years of age who should not be able to knit, nor on account of any child above nine who should not be able to spin either linen or wool. It is actually a fact that the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor looked with satisfaction upon bringing up children in cot- tages, bettcr half naked labourers. and indifferently fed, because they made hardier and The illtroduction of machinery and factory labour did not better matters: A patent was granted for a new spinning machine, the chief claim for it being that a child of thrce or four years of age might do as much as a child of seven or eight years old. The intent of employers was that the family income of farm labourers should be based on the stern economic necessity of the lavour of their children. When fac- tories were built conditions for labourers did not improve, and their housing in towns were in hovels not much better than the farm labourers had had. A writer of the times about 1788 wrote that "the arts and manufacturers can exhibit as mournful a scene of blinded and lame, en fee bled, decrepit, asthmatic, consumptive wretches, pant- iAnO~'dfothrerberewaaths and said crawling half alive upon the surface of the earth." to be a more harmful if not more extensive exploita- tion of children. The gathering together of large' numbers of labourers in factory towns brought them into contact with each other and there was naturally a movement among them to combine for better conditions. Legislation ADDRESS UY' I-lAU~Y FISKli .133 was thcn invoked to prevent any combinations among the labouring classes. The common law and the statutes in regard to combinations were enforced with increasing rigour and oftentimes with relentless cruelty. ADAM SMITH wrote that the workmen sometimes formcd combinations and in order to bring matters to a decision, resort to the loudest clamour and somctimcs commit the m()st shocking- violaliolls and outrage. The masters were then just as c1amourous on their side and called aloud for the assistance of the civil magistrate and the rigorous execution of those laws against the comhination of servants, labourers and journeymen. Labour saving machines did not act as a remedy because they brought into necessity the employment of larger numbers of workmeli in order to extend manufacture. The Germ of Industrial Insurance The laws against organizations with the aim of determination of wages and workmen's conditions had one mitigation and that was the allowance and even encouragement of the formation of Friendly Societies, with a common purpose of the maintenance of a fund by specified contributions of members for providing some form of insurance against sickness and other misfortune. The meetings were generally held in inns and public houses and the funds kept in a box, and they were called Box Clubs. These multiplied in the latter half of the eighteenth century and it is recorded that there was a tendency for these societies to engage in mutinous disputes with employers, and we think we may say that these Friendly Societies were the germs of the later development of Trade Unions. Yet in 1793 there was a statute providing for the authorization of Friendly Societies and a Committee of Investigation in 1824 reported on the widespread utilization of Friendly Societies for Trade Union purposes. It was ill this year that the Combination Acts of 1799-1800 were repealed. These Comhination Acts indicated that the previous power of landlords and tenants was extended if not transferred to the manufacturing class. The Friendly Societies were the germ out of which grew Industrial Insurance. The leading Industrial Insurance Company of England. the Prudential, was formed about the middle of the 19th century. The system of' Industrial Insurance was the insurance of the working people and their families in small amounts. the premiums heing- weekly and collected at the homes of the insured. The Prudential Company has become a mighty organization which has on its books perhaps one~ third of the population of Great Britain. The system was introduced I into this country between 1875 and 1880, by two or three companies. My own Company was one of these and began the business at the end) of 1879, and its system was founded upon that of the Prudential of London. The evolution of the Metropolitan has, however, gone far\ beyond the work of the London Prudential. It has in force 350 millions of policies, of which over 31 millions are Industrial policies. Of the nearly 40 millions of Ordinary policies in force, a very large proportion are upon the lives of working people. We estimate that we 534 INDUSTRIAL RULA'l'IONS have a~out 22 mil}ions of the entire populatIOn of indivi.dual lives insured-nearly one-~fth of ICompany confines keeping up its the Umted States business. And year and Canada- to by year we ar whIch the population with the increased increase in 2 per cent. population; in 1925 for e pretty well instance, the general ilsivecsarirnieoduornCfoomr ptahneyminocsrteascd over 6 peranccdntt.he InnduumsbtreiraloIfnsiunrsaunrcede many cities where insured in this one-thirpdarotr inevceenntroensc-ohfalpfopouf latthieonpaonpdu there are which p thcre one company. are actually more There is Industrial one city, policies Troy, lation are New York, in olitan than cent. of the the tolal population. persons in the wage-e We have in force in the insurance on about Metro30 per tion. W c have insurance families in the urban in arners' families nearly 50 per cent. in of the the urban popula-, wage-earn 380,000 policies, of the po insurinpgop2u6l6a,t0io0n0. livIens-thaeboCuittyonoef-thCilredveland we ers' have or that of ptuhleatcioenns, uasc. co(rLdianugg htot ewr .h) ether you take your or one-quarter popular estimate. is. qouf iyteourrignhetw! President where he calleI dwtahsisquaitme eintrtoepreosltietadnincittyh.e sHpeeech . The assets of the total amount the Company of insurance approach 2,000 millions of dollars and IhnadlfusitsriaIlndiunssturial insurance. Tinhefodricsetiniscti1o2n bbilelitownese,nofOrwdhiincah about iums are payabrleanacnenuisallpyraocrticinallfyracthtiaotnsthoef Oardinary ry and insurance prel11- . ," remittcd to the offices of the the premiums are weekly and Company, while year and collections in Industrial insur arc;i ance" of the insured. are collected, as I have said, at the homes Responsibility and Opportunity You people. Mwiallnyseyeeafrrsomagothietsoeccfaucrtrsedthe interest I have in the working' ,. ,', of the insurance, the number put upon the Company ce insuredtoanthde tmheanwageeamlthenotfththaet tCheomexptaenny~ ment of the claims. and we h We rtain responsibilities outside had the power and we had of the the mere pay:- clone and ad the opportunity. what we are doing. WLeet amree tell you briefly wrheastpownesibhialivtye, mense betterment of the to have had its origin in conditions of proud of the fact the labouring classes that the immay be said we always bear in mind, tthheereeafrolriees, tofuorrmresopfonInsidbuilsittrieiasl insqrauce, and people. to the working. The Nursillg Service p o l Sixteen icyholde or rs, se by ventee visits n o y f ears ago trained we began nursing our sick Industrial tihs esecroiolluescltyinsgicakgeonrt,injured he nurses. sends word I f to an Industrial policyholder the District Office or ';',' Most rover of a our nurses aarnedmaemtrbaeinrsedofnVurisseitiinsgaNt uonrscee sent to the tells house. In ll cities towns where of 5,000 population or there are no Nursing o v e r - a b o u t A3s,s5o0c0iaitnionnsu.mbWer.e ' corps of the total nurses. number Our nurses of visits paid Associations we. have over 2,600,000 visits last our own year an4 since we began is over 22 millions. . These' ADDRESS BY HALEY FISKE 535 nurses visit the sick, direct the family to employ a physician if necessary and thereupon work under his direction as to the number of visits and service to be performed, Over 20 per cent. of the cases visited are maternity cases. The nurse sees the mother before the child is born and attends her after the child is born for a length of time to bring the child through the critical first stage. Thus we carry through our care of our wage-earners from birth to death. 11caltl! I'ls/ruction Our agents pay about 600 millions of visits a year to the homes of wage-earners. This affords us an opportunity to give health instruc- tion and we have published health literature of which a sample rests before me and is open to the inspection of anybody interested, covering practically every known disease, and also general health pamphI.e1s, such as the Care of Children, the Health of 'ff1~k~Hea1th Alphabet for young children, Cook Book. with instructions for diets, How to Live Long, etc. We are distributing about 50 millions of these pamphlets a year, and the total has run up in the 17 years to 400 mil- lions. I think I can sum up the effect of this instruction and this nurs- t ianngd b1y92g5ivhiansg fy"o~uwnouar riemdpucro~:voenmoefnt32in.3 mpoerrtacleintyt.,, awnhdicthhebeetxwteenesnio1n91o1f i the lives of our policyholders on 'the average of nine years. During the e same period the extension of Ii fe of the general population was between e four and five years. We estimate we have saved 200,000 lives over and s above what would have been saved by the general improvement in mortality. Reduction in Different Diseases Tuberculosis, against which we have made a special s- drive, 56 per cent. It Typhoid reduced 80 per cent. Y ,- Measles reduced 78 per cent. Diphtheria reduced 63 per cent. y Scarlet Fever reduced 74 per cent. 'e Total, all diseases, reduced 32.3 per cent. 1- .d Meanwhile we have been assisting public authorities in health work, ld have made health surveys for various cities, have furnished literature IS tpoubpluicblsicchaouotlhso, rtietiaecshefrosr adnidstrcibhuitlidorne,nh-aavs etopatiedacahtteernstigo-niviensgpepcriiazlelys ttoo those who showed the best results in health tcaching. We are in close contact with the National Cong-ress of Parents and Teachers, a national al institution having branches all over the country, whose work is to er combine the interests of the teachers and parents in the health of chil- lIs dren, in having them examined, vaccinated. immunized against small- ie, pox and diphtheria, with the care of the ear!', teeth, etc. These asso- Ie ciations distribute our literature and cooperate with our agents. There ~r. is a special drive on this summer among- the teachers in cooperation with the Metropolitan to get every child in perfect health before the schools open in the autumn. I hope you have noticed our monthly advertisements in the maga- S36 INDUSfRIAI. Rm,A'rroNs zincs, which together have a circulation of about cleven millions. These advertisements are really little health essays, descriptive, warning and advisory, with ulIers of our health publicatiOll!; Ull the tupics discussed. You will lind in thelll no exploitation of our business and 110 appeals for insurance. They are very widely read and the responses run into ~hu_nedrEedrs ~() if ~th(ou!sa~nd s. an d H t T h a r t a dio res u we ts give instruction every morning 111 much c~n-c-e-about whehailcthh.alsTu hberriengamreanaylsoresopcocnasseiosnialn~lrec~tTuiretser01a1tuhreeal.th--o-v-er--theradio~ No/able Jixpcrill1C11ts ill l111proving Health fie We have conducted experiments. In partnership with the City of l\lontreal we have established a training school for teaching graduate nurses the art uf public nursing. Through McGill University we are lin<Lllcing it surv lllit~~d.;tjJ~Jo ey th of e P Il R[, ldustria Slnl';;\T l o c f ond the i tions Unit e in d Canad States a. fo r \Ve have sllh~ j-eC)~tioll ijCthe health acfivities oTT -FederirGciverl1l11ent. We are financing a COlllmissiun on Social llygicile in Canada. vVe are J-inancing the Amer- ican Puhlic 11ealth Association to sct up a standard for Health Depart- ll1ents throughout the country. We have an Advisory Group of 19 prominent Educators ill a programllle. of teaching health for children. We ing aiirime sisstuhirnoglslpgercwiuatl llhitceCroaUtuiireTrfYo~rl71e00owf osmmeanl'lspcol:uCbosn. e We of are showdiphtheria and Ol1e for teaching the necessity of periodical medical examination. Three millions of people have seen the latter and two millions of people the smallpox film. \Ve have got laws passed in 39 States to compel the teaching of the Constitution of the United States in the publi~ schools. Thr(Jugh our Immigration Bureau we have received immi- grants belonging to the families of our insured f I'Om 37 different coun- ~tr~ie~sjs}e~n~t ttio!3l8!0S0ta1te!s~, .aannddarleeafdoilnlogwJhinegmt.h!eQmtiltlipoubty c,gitiivzienngshinipstpruapcetiro.sn. \ Ve are nO\\! l1t1ancing the survey of the country a~ to burial costs to see that the working people are not exploited by undertakers. We took over the health activities of the city of Framingham, Massachusetts, and in 38 per six vcars reduced the mortalitv 100;000, besides improving th~ from tuberculosis from general mortality of the 128 to town, especially children. Yif e took over Thetf()rd Mines, in Quebec, and in two years cut dowll the mortality of children in the first year of life fi7m13UDtn96pcr-TllOtl-sand. We have estahlished our own Sana- fOr'iiliilonMoul1t McGregor, back of Saratoga, for our own employees; have treated ahout 4,000 cases, half of them tuberculous. Our record is in tuberculosis that 84 per cent. of the discharges have been cured, hy 'rhich I mean that the patients are back in active work. Relievillg the [Jot/sing ,'</tortage After (he war therc was a shortage of housing throughout the COUl1try. We have lent 343 millions of dollars up to the end of last year, housing 95,000 families, or about 300,000 pcrsqns, Nearly 11 millions AOORBSS BY HAI.BY FrSKB 537 7h ve b~e.n loaned for thi~ purpose in the State of Ohio, of which nearl J ,v.; 1111I11Ons have been 111 Cleveland and over 2 0 millions in Akron. In order to show what can be clone for working people, wc accepted an invitation from the State of New York embodied in a special law, to buildtenemcnt houses. 'vVc invested over seven millions of dollars in Long Island City and Astoria in model tenements, on a new plan of construction by which every room has the outer air, with parks in the centre, at a rental of $9. a room, and have earned a net return of ov~r 9 pcr cent., all over 6 per cent. of which goes to amortization. ThiS example has been followed by Mr. ROCKEFELLER in Manhattan and Bayonne to the extent of millions of dollars. All of which perhaps led. to a n~essa~e of Governor SMITH, of New York, follo\\'ed by legislatIOn whIch gwes power of condemnation of slums and seeks to en- courage m?del tenements. The Legislature was greatly encouraged to pass the bill by the offer of the Metropolitan to lend on mortgage on sllch tenements unlimited money at 5 per cent. Meanwhile we have not be~n unmindful of the needs of agriculture and have loaned nearly 230 millions of dollars on farms, at an average rate of interest of 50 per cent., which however has now come down to a little over 5 per cent. on new loans. In Ohio, of course, the local capital is sufficient to cover the necessities of the farmers of the State and w~ get practically no applications, our loans being made mostly 111 the Middle \Vest and the South. GrollI' IIlSlIrallCl'-Nclaliolls of Capital alld I,Il[Jollr In the matter of the relations of capital and labol1r perhaps our most important Department has been in Group Insurance. Group Insurance is a system by which one policy is issued to an employer, to which is attached schedules namin~ each employee. By one stroke of the pen we took over 80,000 employees of the Southern Pacific Railroad; in another case, the General Electric, we took in 50,000. At the start of the business the employer paid the premiums, bl1t 9S per cent. of our Group business is now on the contrihutory system, by which the em- . ployer and employee contrib\1te the premiums in various percentages. At the end of last year we had 1.124 millions of dollars in force, having written nearly 250 millions last year.. Our business thus far this year is about 100 millions, covering 60,000 employees. We had over 700,000 as holders of certificates at the end of last year and the present number must be over 760,000. This Gronp Ill~urance i!' largely life insurance, but there is a great deal of it that covers sickness and accident, acci- dental death and dismemherment. The amount of the life insurance is sometimes in even amounts anel in sOl11e cases in varyin~ amo11nts de- pending upon length of service and wages. It is an interesting fact with regard to occupation that railroad companies are now insuring their employees. The.-l\JJ1rop.Q!itan has 21 railroacl companiesjnsured, with a total mileage-of 52,341, cc)v-crIng174:SUU--fives,-\vitI1 life ins11\'- ance of 2920 millions, and accidental cleath and dismemberment in- J surance of nearly 93 millions, and ",epkly heneflts in health and acci- S dent insurance of nearly a million. To show the practical necessity 538 INDUS'l'RIAL Rm,Al'IONS and advantage of this insurance, we last year paid claims on one out of every cleven of our certificate holders and the average period of sickness covered Il'as about eight weeks, Policyholders Service Bureau The extent of the service to these working people is by no means limited to insurance, They all arc entitled to the nursing service and to the receipt of the Company's literature, but the most important part of our Group Insurance system, .which is peculiar to this Company, is / the Service Bureau for E1TIQlQy~rs.. This has six Divisions:_ Industrial , / Hygiene; Publicity and Insurance Education; Business Management ancrTUftlOVer; Production Engineering; Safety Engineering; Economic and Business Research. The Bureau. of In_dustriaJJ{ygiene put out last year 5 millions of. pieces otl1e,iffi1-11tCrature, and the nurses paid QYcr-S;OOOvi:<'i"ts-:' Last year the correspondence with employers num- bei--cCl ovcr-4~300 letters; 64 reports were n}.<!,d~91LPhysical Examina- tions, Hazards, Sanitation, Night Work, Vaccination, Dietaries, Op- tical Work, Sick Benefit Funds, Advice to Medical Departments. Fre- quent 13ulletins arc sent to employers, a few of which I may name as bearing on Industrial Relations. I have samples here which anybody can look at and have copies if desired: Training Key Men in Industry; Suggestions from Employees; Industrial Thrift and Savings Plan; Lunch Rooms for Employees; Profit Sharing; Employees' Stock Own- ership Plan; Employee Representation Plan; Vacation Plans for Em- ployees; Employee Mutual Benefit Associations. ' Surveys of Industrial plants arc made hy competent engineers con- nected with the Group Division. Personal visits and adjustment of grounds of misunderstanding are made. Studies of plant finances are made. And the Division generally is a clearing-house for information which has a very ample library of current material and makes a special study of particular questions and obtains information from employers for the benefit of others. In January 'we had 70 prominent employers of labour at a dinner ~n New York, some carrying Group Insurance and others not, who listened to our explanation of what Group Insurance :, and some of lI'hom gave testimony in striking speeches to the value of Group Insur- ance in binding together employer and employee. . A H eallh Laboratory , , ,. Our relations with our own employees, numbering some thirty thousand, are most harmonious. We have a system of Group Insurance, partly free, partly contributory; Accident and Health Group T11 sura nee ; f rce nursing; Pensions or Retirement Annuities, partly free and partly contributory. The income on our own Pension Plan is over a million dollars a year. Our Home Office, which has between eight and nine thousand employees, is really a health laboratory. It has free medical and dental clinics, gymnasium, classes on different subjects, and any number of social organizations which the Company helps, and of course free nursing. 1e out iod of means :e and t pa~t :11\,. IS ls'trial ement nomic It out ; paid nnmmma, Op- Frene as {body Istry; Plan; JwnEm- conI1t of s are ation lecial )yers inner who Ie of lsur' hirty ISUr- roup artIy Plan Neen t has subeJps, ADDRESS BY HALEY FISKe 539 to Recently the subject of Pensions, or as prefer, Retirement Annuity Allowances, thc has persons conccrned seem riations are made in the employers as to classes general scheme to suit- come to the front. Vathe particular desires of sions, respective contriobfutcimonpsloyoefese, mlepnlogtyherofansedrviecme,plaomycoeu,ntdiofffepreen- ages to retirement, interim disabilities, known as the Insured Thrift Plan. returns at death 011 what nt is Unemployment Tl1surallcc peopGleenatlnedmeifn,yothucrceanarpeutfoyuorursspeelfctrinesththeapt oasritc haunting the working with a tolerably large family, whose income ion of a labouring man hardly excecds its outgo, put yourself in his position and just sees when he peers into the future. think Thes for a moment what this man and sickness, dependent old age and e spectres unemployment. are death, We have accident covcred thdheeeaaltthh bayndliafecciidnesnutrainncsuc;ranwcee;hwavee hcaovveerceodvesreicdkndeespsenadnedntaoccldidaegnet bbyy all pension of these system, and employers throughout the policies. And Unemploymc!nt Insura country are taking do but for to do it. thc fact that thc State of New nce wc would gladl York does not permit us The Way to II/dustrial Peace What I and labour, have been trying and what I hope to show is the may be the past relations of capital can we do in the tions? Every Metropolitan Life for future relations. But what thc bettering of these condi- of his own man has got to do just what hc can do by business. But what we can do we are doing. the limitations insurance on one-half thc labouring urban communities. VVc began families gathered Herc we have together in the 30,000 care contentcd pea pic by with our own employecs, and we have caring for them, and cvery one knows we for them. Our heart is employers. vVhat can wc do with them, which of for other employers itself is a lesson to \V c have thought enollgh of our own to set an and thcir employces? cxamplc and precept lbayrgtchefaicntsotirtyutiionn MofasGsarcohuupseItntssuarnandceth. c Scommpeloyyeceasrs waegroc wgcathinesruerded a dgeentht erweinntthpreercsohnaalllsl.y bteocaeuasceh ohnaellwaonudld hnaontdhold them, and the toPresi- Group Insurance free. do yop think was Thesc people had ed out ncver seen the him certificates of before. What children when theythewesennt tiomuet notfofthtehseesehaemllpsl-o"yTehese abnodssthdeoireswives and _ me." Gentlemen, the first requisite to bring about hettcr care for relations is to instil in heart-that the mind of employees the fact he doesn't regard thcm as pieces that thc employcr has a and thrown in the scrap hcap, and that he of machinery to be used does know that every em- sypoololuvyeecdeanthhaegsetatrostuhobautlleijnuinstththaese mprreienlacdisouosf inthethewsoirgkhitngofpGeoOTp>leasyohuis wOiWl!I1.havIef member Pre years ago at one tions of our between capital and labour. I meetings a man who was an reex- sident of one of the local Federations of Labour, who expressed his 540 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS belief that if all employers had treated their people as the Metropolitan treated theirs there would have been no Trades Unions, and that if the time ever came (he was a bold brave man), if the time ever came when all employers shall treat their employees as the l\Jetropolitan does, then Trades Unionism will die. Now I have no desire, and I do not want to be misunderstood. to bring- up anything against Trades Unions-I believe they are good for the men and good for the employer and I believe in collective bargaining and I don't believe in their abolition, but I do express and quote this from a labour man to show that it is pos~ sible to bring out through some mutual interest better relationship between the two classes. And Group Insurance has furnished this, that employee and employer are each contributing, from his pocket and f rom the pocket of the corporation, to a common fund which protects ag-ainst death, sickness, accident and dependent old age. That way, that way leads to Industrial peace!