Document QJ6kJOnJanN003Mr7pLqxyB9L

FILE NAME: Insurance Industry (INS) DATE: 1934 July 7 DOC#: INS059 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Article in The Weekly Underwriter with Comic <1 m Published every Sotur day by the Under writer Ptg. and Pub. Co., 80 Maiden Lane, New York, N. Y. Sub scription-Five Dollars per annum in advance. Single copies, 25 cts. Canadian subscription, $8 per annum. * 1/V '^ Kx.ia._L Wkt H M I2 I w ta r ik r ESTABLISHED 1839 This paper is indexed in The Industrial Arts Index Entered as Second . Class Matter March 28, 1880, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y.t under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1933, The Underwriter Printing end, ^Pdbitfyiif Co.r * L . A l e x a n d e r M a c k , President P e r c y W . B a s in g e r , Secretary F r a n k B . S im p s o n , Statistician C h a r l e s F . H o w e l l , Vice-President and Editor E . T . C u n n i n g h a m , Editor Casuatty Dept. W a l t e r E . S c h r a m , Editor Fire Dept. C . B . itT R T E , Dvpd. * F r e d . S . K n i g h t , Editor Legal bpt. Voi. 131 S A T U R D A Y , J U L Y 7, 1934 ' No. 1 Farm Moratorium are living in an age that is orderly and full of promise The majority of insurance company executives dislike compared to many periods of the past. It is in this way, the Frazier-Lemke farm moratorium bill which President Mr. Falvey believes, that we may acquire a " sense of Roosevelt signed last Saturday. They feel that this meas balance-- relegating the vast affairs on our broadened hori ure is likely to prove injurious to all insurance companies. zons to philosophical consideration in our periods of The bill provides that farmers who attempt to reach a leisure, and proceeding, undiverted, with our own more debt settlement through county conciliation commissions intimate affairs." Thus may the hope of civilization be may petition the Federal Courts to be adjudged bank realized--men and women going diligently about their own rupt. The Court, at the beginning of bankruptcy pro affairs with a calm and confident outlook, and doing their ceedings, would appoint appraisers to determine the fair bit in the world's work with faith that the way is ever value of land and chattels. Should the appraisal prove onward and upward. Most of us will agree with Mr. satisfactory to the lien holders, the farmers will be allowed to pay off their indebtedness over a six-year period, with- interest starting at 1 per cent and increasing to 5 per Falvey that true happiness and satisfaction go with a life so ordered. cent. Should any creditor block the settlement, the Fed- ' Social Insurance cral Court is empowered to grant the farmer a five-year Americans will watch with intense interest the progress moratorium, during which period the latter would retain of plans outlined by President Roosevelt for consideration his property, paying a fair rental value to be determined by the next Congress as regards unemployment insurance by the Court, and this rent to be divided among the and old-age pensions. H is program proposes a moment creditors. ous departure from all previous American attitudes on this subject. It would do away with our preference for Sense of Balance ' Present-day life requires a fine sense of balance and a sane and hopeful philosophy. Such is the opinion of thrift and substitute something closely approximating the " dole." Programs of other nations designed to meet such problems as unemployment, temporary sickness, mater 1'resident T. J. Falvey, of the Massachusetts Bonding nity, permanent invalidity, old-age, and widowhood do not & insurance Co., and most of appear to be applicable to us will agree with him. There American conditions. Such is mental stimulus, knowledge undertakings as have already and much entertainment to be derived from the broad field of vision that opens to us all been made abroad fail to give any real idea of what is in volved in a policy of social in as we contemplate the rapidly shifting complexion of na tional and world affairs. But Mr. Falvey warns against our becoming too much diverted from our individual or local affairs, with the result that sometimes, instead of being inspired we may be depressed by the seemingly hopeless wel ter of world trends and events. When we begin to conclude that never before has mankind experienced such confusion and elements of conflict, it is 1 well to remember that we have, after all, only witnessed a very small part of the devel opment of civilization. Mr. Falvey recommends recourse to history, fie believes that by so doing we must inevitably come to the conclusion that we IT WAS EVER THUS surance for the whole United States. National schemes along this line now in effect in Great Britain are costing that coun try approximately $1,200,000, 000 a year; they would cost the United States, with its population of nearly three times that of Great Britain, something like $3,500,000,000 a year. And would our coun try be content with the British scale of benefits? Thrift, as represented by recourse to life insurance, has by no means been a failure in this country, and yet the fact remains that our national Treasury is ex pending more than $100,000, 000 monthly for direct relief in the present inescapable emer gency. It is `evident that we must all help. But how ? M O ' r; I > r