Document XRrJV62qnqLBgXLBNBeB3qXqw

FILE NAME: Metropolitan Life (ML) DATE: 1916-1926 DOC#: ML019 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Fiske Speeches A M OTHER'S BEAUTY IN M ETROPLITA N 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] The'Iratify" S a H U Y " T " Triennial Convention. T " 7 ,h-r" ,ears- of 30,000 miles or so in a vea^'^S^ , conventlons inv lv? the traveling from the Home Office T J,,nno ^at meana ?ood deal of absence answer to the question in th P JpRvf R Cleveland gave the best 3 expected to do Thcre rr n ? h l " 3 ' t0 mf P, Ut for them what they hi. a man in execm L eX ge o i ^ S f o f & fr `" T " - over a territory as far Met c j ce ot t 5'000 men>work ng west as Sin f S n c L o and Hon, ^ to a place up in Canada near--it, ^ V* EnSland> as ^ D\Tg0L0IV ^ e Mexican border cthaen snreomwesm, wbehrertehennnlwaKm,ef-ws o0m*erw*h ^ riip- b-T fcfnief NiNoor^tiTl -Pt^oollee, 1among* representing the holders of 16 000 O ^ o ^ n n ^ 3" ever. | oes (aPPlause) men where thev work ! L - ,UUR of Pohcies, without seeing the vantages, their fbstacies, S g , f S T S Y U ^ that an executive officer can n r n L l, ! * to face` 1 do not believe a swivel chair and an executive desk conT1Par?y hke that from ^typographic pln'lbm 'bv !i piSe o f ^ l h gT w ^ d ^ ^a (Applause.) V d 297 298 A M other s Beauty in M etropolitan Business fhe pTcTfi^Coaft?1iih f rr it5^ W a V iX TM TM ? WeU k st FaI1' 0Ut on with which the men met the Home Dffie touchJl? to see the gladness No. 1 Madison Avenue and in T L 5' J , h.?y never have seen see it, and to know that the nffiTM human Probability they never will just to meet them ami I h h t h ^ W15 % t0 travel 8 m miles them brought straight tn the- u ^ tbf m j-and talk over business with & & X E S? 3 3 iLS all in the lower part of Tllinni a a&metin f yu men together, meet shoulderto ThouMe hav n ^ v d0Wn ? ere in S t LoukT-Just to your own interests Well there F your con^erences and talking about down argum ent or anvbodv th , an ? er reas0n' and that a knockthat is,' I hold hee ccoonnvveennHtioonns bHec'ause Ir "warnttatto.the(AHpopmlaeu0seff.i)ce- and The Picture of Your Mother awayOTm night in a s^ran^t happeiV;d to an^ of yu to have been alone, and in th doonfof the Whefe you didn>t know anybody, hotel; you 3 7 anl t Vemng y u ,sat in a dark corner of the reverted to home and mother^efth ^ the m rrow >' your thoughts your children; and I s m p e r t ih a X T r i T th-e mther of you have furtively felt in voiirlefth y . ha^e been so circumstanced at a photograph YoVdid W ! Pcket- pulled out and looked face of th fm o t h e r t L c u r iv h e ^ 0nef 1 bn^ } yUr mind the fair touched your soul Now T knn th ? tbf ckl d' and yet the picture ness sonretimesyou^et^very^onelv^ fault has been found with y\ l yT busi' &et dlscouraged. Perhaps the fault has been found w it h ' ?d perhaPs yu are conscious that you wonder if you can go on 3 * " J0" F 1 discoura^ d> and . leave; you are down hearted T h ^ m a T "*" lf y U had not better r ss enthusiasm, a new ambition And if t c*' a n e w loyalty, a new largest number of policy-holders of anT com ra01" ^ 01'' Jt has the millions and more of policies in force T h i '7 ^ menca~ Slxteen income of any company in the world It ha^th ^ Iargest Premium of any company in the world Tt hac th tbe argest total income income of any company b he world ^ inCrease yearly in has for years' t h a / a ^ c ,, ^ p a ,, T k ,h ` "orM 7 % 7 7 7 ^ somebody says: "Ah yes vou are an Td,, t - i A A d f' Perchance, the world. (Applause.) And we gZ X T s ,, Z e X Z 7 c Z T riennial Address, Haley Fiske, 1916 299 pany in the world. We 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 com pany. But at the end of last year we stood No. 4; in March of this year we passed the Equitable and now we are No. 3; in July of next 1 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 eve ning, and I shall want you to understand what I mean by them. Ordi nary insurance is that kind of insurance which is written by a con siderable 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 i 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" [I Now let us take the Ordinary; and I am to prove and show and I 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. We re-began that business in the year 1892. 300 A M other's Beauty in M etropolitan Buisness begun the Industrial* business kiT he" ^ 'fsTo busir`C3s' but, having Insurance Department ran doTM 879 7 V Iet the O rd in a l only had about three millions nf ' ' at tbe .end,. *^ 1 I think we fTMorce mfiavye boer ssaiind mtofblleionSeo-eHo-rJMyw <SY"^ "' CiWthrinikr fthhree" m"illtio"ns Win' And we begarf'that L " ! s on a ,, 1 7 / re-b<fa " ..tl<efore, in 1892. the older men may remember that fi f lJ" naPl'-s- Some of like this: "The Me t r onol i t an*hr 1 rat.f~book, which read something Plain bnsiness m"n S i f " " ifTM ,h' Has come when th! whole story upon its fact iP-, ^ am h^3111683 contract which tells its nothing from hope, puts in plaindollar' t0 ^ ima'ination> borrows holder is to pay and ^n plSn vvnrHc i j p;^ Cen,ts what. the policyand when he is to receive it " Thai a b^V.re? what he is to receive the Ten Commandments h s l e m s * a ,httle'Iikea edification of honest. And yet it was Something new T was S1Hnesslike. and 8 non-participating policy exclusivell t! ' Z T , the descnPtion of a expected by the policy-holder beyond the Sab?'that n?thmg could be tract, and, in order t o u n d e r s t a n d ^ s temiS f 3 written conthe conditions then were in the insuran fi nc.e,' >'n must know what was a kind of riot-that p ^ S ^ d ? Z And We find there participating insurance. P 7 th msurance written was Now tZ arl `"" i',9, " i durance participating' fiber e" Padicipating and non premium; that is X e d by 1 mg'. 501b Start " .* "> m e net heavy loading-they say for s a f ! in 2 "d'cipatmg m?urance adds a occur. N o n ? p a rtic ip Z g L S l S c a v m pay expenses. Novv that is the r h i w 'P;d=a.cS which never t, fad in g just to the premium, therefore is different anrWL betwee? those two, and because the participating companies'o u ttln ?6 prt?mi?es, are different, knowing perfectly well in theirheartsPthat ?h load,n and will be needed for mortality and oueht M t f n T hlgb P,refmium3 never promise to the policy-holder that thev w;n r ! needed f r exPen3es, on those policies dividends Thaf u keeP an account and pay ance. Well, o comse " D id d e n l" f CalW P a l p a t i n g J J . no such thing as dividends ta S t n L TM TM " ' be dividends, but a portion of the overcharges 2 1 18 return<:d not then in vogue were the overcharp-W nf ^ r 7 U see' tbe P^ns that some part of the overcharges w f u j be r e h i 'm ^ N ^ the P.romise insurance was charping ii,si ,,th A , Q De returned. Non-participatine beyond the face o ^the policies T h a t ^ 635^ 7 a" making no promise wha, the practical r e t T S T f c e S t S o t S r " ' L" " very heavy. They were not neederl Participating premiums were needed for expenses excenfwhere 1 m former yearn mortahty and they were not culations at the end of the year and rehwn ! d t0 m,ake their cal' so-called dividends annually7 But man! these overcharges of any hay kept them hack and put them l l W t ^ m p r S t * , 1" T riennial Address, Haley F iske, 1916 301 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 policies lost everything beyond the face 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 every one 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 World. 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 bonuses 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 rebat ing, 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, 302 ,, & ' "^IKOPOUTAN BUSINESS don w hhftte ? SeW ni^ r ted With the oftciaI b" - o i company and hic^iT33 rne ^ cer who thought he m f^.Ween two sets Z Z that thought ? h ^ \t.lh e re was m other set of n S P yw S.td *'" a r a b-emg not to kick ise,h,,a/ r pln!' (Laughter ) ^ d V i f ^ them both- and the o u b h r lf ^ 3 PTinted them S t-" * ^ ssa sg s tan earlv ram . ^ ),tnis 1s a ten-cent comoanv" t/ , ' ' this is an 5 S # ^ 52S S ^ S ^ ^ S S S * l# ncrs flyino- bands S " either side crowded with ?s bo.ttom of a withstand ihe demands1^ the Sh UtS resounding? ban~ acmombimtiiosnsioonfs and hnii^g"h?err P! rethmiuamgse?nts Wthaast ;t<heiyl shnouuildd hhav*e highetor * ^ * 3 Sr T riennial Address, Haley Fiske, 1916 303 into the scramble?" Was it easy to pursue that narrow path of duty against these temptations, and refuse to be 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 described was made. Mr. H ughes 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 any one year; and when it was published the other companies said: "Why, that is outrageous; we cannot live. W hat Mr. H ughes 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." W hat was the reply? "Look at the Metropoli tan. (Applause.) For thirteen years, without being required by law to do so, they have kept their expenses practically down to the re strictive limits of Section 97." And the answer to these other com panies w as: "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 com pany they all laughed at--to be selected as a standard for the law. The Limitation of Nezv Business The other restrictive section was known as 96. Not only did Mr. H ughes 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 any one 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 com panies, 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. W hat 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 maxi mum 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 forbidden by the State of New York; and they said the Metropolitan was the pet of Mr. Hughes, the favorite of the Legislature. W e 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. I 'll 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. Some body else was judge and he decided that it was constitutional. He said 304 A M other's Beauty in M etropolitan Business it was a constitutional thing for the Legislature to grade companies in passes, and ne put the Metropolitan into a class by itself. (Applause.) And so the law was sustained, and we went on. But there was that ugiv question. 5J An Elastic Amendment Mr. H ughes 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 Jeaps 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 ic n ,TM 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 w rite,any more business deliverable this year; we are reaching the limit. And then in December I got frightened and I sent you out a ixr "Don't collect on any more business you have written." We disobeyed the law one year and ran over a half a million dollars, th a t 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 lim it; and we ended the year with the whole side of a room piled up with policies--$20,000,000 or $30,000,000 of them-- ready for delivery the first of January. This year it is the same; mil lions 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 Ordi nary 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 T riennial Address, IIaley Fiskij, 1916 305 over the limit. And we had to send out telegrams--I suppose you received them--stopping the business after tomorrow. I am sincerely sorry for you. It is a hard thing that men who are ambitious to write Ordinary shall not be allowed to write it. It is a hard limitation for us. I know that it puts you agents under temptation. I know 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 argument to prospects--that everybody wants insurance in the Metro politan 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 Company 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 work ing 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 fur nished. We devised the Intermediate policy. It was an uncharted sea. We didn't know what to charge. We didn't know what the mortality was. We 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 we 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. We 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 exces sive, we would return the excess at the end of five years and then annually thereafter. We issued millions of this insurance. I suppose we have seven or eight hundred thousand of these policies now. About ouo A Motber's Beauty m Me--t-r--o-p-DoUu5tIaNEkSSBus,ness Why, on some plan^lhesT clivideSds^veie^si^'h Y ^ V '3 the result? the insured on the Intermediate poli~~ w a s ',blgb that tIle net cost to the rich man's policy in the Ord n i r T n CSS fthan the net cost of Character. Beauty. Urdinary Department. (Applause) T, - ~ -- yjv,o u o -jta n d a rd Risks They " e " Se r < : avt " L l ,, Pr le,, ' V1;0 ** red. tones, bad personal h isto rief a snh.^ P u P j Wlth. l?ad family his- health. To them the doors of'the insiir^" ^ condlt 'on f personal shut. They needed insurance They had ComPanies were naturally other people. Could we do anyth,TM f olves and families like the year 1900 we devised what o fv n as 5 , ^ nd .s* about There again was an uncharted sea Nohndv ^ pecial Class insurance, to charge, and so we finally decided In i T ? 1 could tell what amount and for the same premiums as in t h ' n ^ 165 fr the same bnt to put on the back of t h S e volic es * DePart ment , hen to be determined between the net le" ' the amount of that Actuaries' table and one made uo L I Pu 7 m 1n,ade UP on the mortality. Then we said: `I f w e c h a r e f n n A,CtUaries' table of separate account, and at the end g much we wil1 keep a lf >e ,m ke any, , d , ,he end of .tes^cond"? <" >re * vidind same and annually thereafter - and If ru d ,6 years we wiI1 do the we will pay the dividends in cash Wl *5" UT ever et wiped out millions and millions of this insurance We J h T Ult? We^issued Pacacnosunotfs, Sapnedciaw]eQsaossmanaged tha? n l a n v dld kreeP t our hat separate on some hens were wiped out and cash ckvidends n n i i " 7 ? u S lar^e that the holders of sub-standard, Special Class in^f d' and tbe net cost to the han was paid by the heahhy Peop e became less (Applause.) The thing had neve^ been In n H P rduInai7 Department, ance the whole world over. I am oointincr m *be blstory of insur I not pointing out that we did S a n t < S -unicIue things; but am classes of the people, and th en V a rrF e d T ,P' haes P the needs of all acter. Beauty. d them out with fidelity? Char- The $5,000 Whole Life Policy fro, ,0 Mr. Wooowaru, a of our fives for the poor a ? i bu ,n * o r t"W Pret`>' h" d had some rights in the world Co,,15 u the well-to-do people Now, what is the advantage of beinJ v v for them? it is to have a hygienic house - it ; to u ed_to-do? Well, of course It is to be able' if you are sick to g<jd ^ood.and plenty of it. to have a trained nurse; if y o u ^ e ftire d 6 tn lf y,ou need one' people so circumstanced ought to live W e f t l y ^nd rest' Nowthey ought to live longer thon ft,-- 6 Ioner than other people If above fte r is e 's : T riennial Address, Haley F iske, 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 leading. W hat 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 insur ance. The mortality has been low. We are running about 48 per cent of the American Experience Table. We 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 divi dends. 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. Adapta tion to class. Character. Beauty. Dividends Paid W ith 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 partici pating company. They said: " Now, we will see what the^Metro politan will d o ; it has got to raise its premiums." _W e 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 of 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 of insurance. (Ap plause.) 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 OUo Mother's Beeetv TM Metr,,e,, UT4n B,, smBSS nrK 1Xt. , m ,0 i i T O ,, s y ; The Com umH : " Pi; al a"<> `t o d i i w ar daPaP,,'drS ' The st* " L ? " S " "P to half a f f i j l i o T d i h, L P, ? , m more A d w L t w 'WTM S S : per cent Wellth7 C<lpital' and t w e n T r L ^ 1^ & ? !? is S d i v i d e n d s ^ S d ^ T Shuld be " w 'a n d * i 2 H 8 &j: Tl . Substandard Industrial under averagiU`it seemedTo hTM " C'aSS of IntIustrial risks that tnal policy-holder with this claLThat* t0 pu? ish the O rd in a l Indu^ our experience, we eot ,, f that, were shorter lived m / t,, a sub-standard Industrial poIicyW U''6 prernium's and issued sms smi^mW mtsm& And then c a m lm T >V" caanrae tint , moment. cro" nluii a:t of m utuality-and we want to T riennial Address, IIaley I 'iske, 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 par ticipating company, and yet we had a perfectly free hand to do what we liked. Then, why change? It is a proper question. You ought to have an explanation. I he company had two millions capital and forty millions surplus; and people began to sav: "Why, what a money-making concern that is, that, on the face of it, the stock seems to be worth 2,000; and such small 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 surplus, and even pay a good price to do it? They got eager, lliey came down from Canada, they came over from England, they came up from Wall Street. It had been selling for 150. They offered 500. 1 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." "Well, what are you paying?" "Well, we will pay as little as we can. "500?" "Possibly." "Well, what are you paying 500 for, for a stock that pays / per cent, on $100? That will only net you about one and two-thirds per cent. What are 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 buy it; and then take a seat on a bench in Madison Square; you'll never get in the front door." Because, meanwhile, fore seeing 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 vou felt; and now I've found o u t; I think I 'll go home." The Canadians were a little more open. They said: "We've come to buy your stock and we've got an offer--an offer for 500--and it is to be turned over to us, and. we have come in to see you because we like the way 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." Well, what I said'to him wouldn't bear repetition in polite society. (Laughter.) He went home. And then, shortly after, in came a Herald reporter. He said: "How do you do? Looking comfortable, aren't you?" "Why not?" "While 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." "W hat is he paying?" "Can't tell you." "What do vou know about it?" "Why, down in Wall 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: "We are trustees for the working people of America. W 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. We don't sell." (Ap plause.) At the same time it was very unpleasant to have these rumors going around. Why, they are going around. A year after 310 fh* r* u^uuitan B usiness " S " f 0?" % f J,:k' lp ' i ' c e n ' Js!,M. " S n S i d y " we h?d < SupposrtheVd'ed T Sed Presid" `- A l f f i a,f ,'h' c O"Pany " d infant's stock afg<fci nno d to this guardian g "T Ma,nd some_ said? r tj , at a share" W u ' 1 Wlil buy y0Ur saidf Could he have said nu What would the guardian u & S n ot Ar J - L 2 f M A n 7 S " f S 4 " d ,he" ftp q S wa^what could' `h' S W i a t i o n T t S K " T h ,la,,0"S' N<,w 'ok a, , S ,? n ,r 7 " / 0r? oompanyfor 300 \ ' S- fr or more , * " ? / "> ode of the fact th T ;,, 1 0tlce ^ou don't applaud And d over to this except bv th 7 r hCS s.tockholders have never 1 am, quite aware Z walking d"" "W hat's 7h an" ,*TM 'he w T ^ f a s * h < S r S i * " had W ' iS * Wal1 Street one day and a remember very ell i f Wi,t y O U 1 "I < f e ? " * " " d said' of a n V ^ i S ' " ? 1 a` ^ ?r W ta t diS" Street man I camp / Is a/ e ^ou ?" I didn't renlv w yU thinkinS 2" W'ftout a w o r ? ST Tkey can go down t0 A"d ^ Thsre as noTM " S T TM ^ TM ard those stocilSde s T v e They can d,e with the knowled .h ! ?" SCTO' *oid of o t W , i P'o ted " nd'^h W r7 g W ' f A n S f S 'y " f = red > hem 1 - d hey refused. They he,d to a m o d e s t o ^ h S 1 T riennial Address, Haley 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 wealth because it is labor which produces wealthy ^ 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 com munities, but in the 188 towns every third man, woman and child you meet is insured in the Metropolitan. Do you know that down in Mem phis 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 Metropolitan, 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 life? Doesn't his wife 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 % A - 3 4 312 A M other's Beauty in Metropolitan Business duty was devolving upon them in the management of this great trust beyond the mere paying of insurance policies; and it occurred some years ago to Dr. Frankel, cmr 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 the 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 w ord; 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. "W hat's the matter?" "Oh, the chances of my trad e; my leg is h u rt; 'twill be all right tomorrow." It isn't all right. Fever comes on. Fie 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 am putate; he is a working m an; save him ; get him to the hospital ; save him." She insists, and he goes to the hospital and he gets atten tion. 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 T riennial Address, Haley F iske, 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 mother how to dress it and how to feed it. They look around the house and find d irt; 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 work '1 ingmen 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? Who can tell what it is to mean in instruction in hygiene, in bringing home to the workingmen their duties to their families, and how to live longer and how to live better ? Who 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.) 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 policy holder in our Company dies from tuberculosis. Well may it be called the White Plague. W hat can be done? Refer it to the doctors? They are helpless. They can only attend the cases they have. W hat can be done? Well, what is tuberculosis? 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 com mend 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--bacillus. We know what it is. We know it is in the air. We 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 expectorates, he is spreading these germs. We know that the streets of St. Louis are full of them. We know you are breathing them now. We 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 tuber culous germs. They have not died of tuberculosis. You are not going to die of tuberculosis. Why? You have the power of resistance. Well, that points out the cure. How are you to build it up? It has been found out. -We 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 t j . 314 A M m , m 'S TM Metropolitan B,,s, ness prevented n S it v c I S heteC l' hwhai cMTMption is, how it can be = shack can be builtT i ' o "V a 1 ^ " ' 'f ,hl* 'TM " count " ? tenement house, a bed can be devis-d and if *h<T live in heads will be kept out in the fresh air alVTu ,v:ndow so that their inside covered up. Who can tell what tbe ,time' their bodies being can people are to instructed hv ' ^ ^ be? The AmeW prevent it and how to cure it Can ^ ' what ,tllberclosis is, how to thought not until a short tim C anything else be done? Well we Australia where e u b t l s " ! I l l " 11 hsard f a P'aceTu went into the town and examined pvervlTri a P^ace where they anybody who had tuberculosis germs th 7 T wben tbey found body from catching it and -S j ' tbey IsoIated him and kept every- would like t? " 8 /TM ? Z l l T ' o t S ' " ' , ' " \ be d " ' ? ^ appropriated $100,000 to be snent in th . D^ ? Ctors a few weeks ago with the National Congress Pfor T.,hl n e .x t ,th re e years m connection town given to us of 5.000 or 6 000 inhChVS'S'an<? lf we cah &et a and examine everybody in it inhabitants, wherewe can go in isolate them with the idea of r ^ astde tbose that are affected if we succeed, what t h i ? Well D ? that if a government spends million " d- dHving * And *S Vef'V tond f saving cholera hi hogs, he wonders f th " ~ J T * 7 ^ t0 'cure human lives. (Applause t And -r cannot sPend niillions to save if this tuberculosis plam,( shaIM,e 1 be a s"" a >d somewhere in that K r e t e m u L o f Z . T ' ' ,h" `` " 1 oo .ha, wi,, be embiaaoued S e S a tU M The Care of the Child is the mortafit" LST i l Z n , nandaiw? know why'' b * T " ' how great do " e liT e X d,,l,,ak1,,Cr,b e t,,:h' " d > > 4 t m " pP' o t she holds the child to her breast It is not ^ ? iT V he mother the closer we find the children on the fifth ct * " 0t 2" tbe houses of the poor that They don', know ?hey caT be Z o h t ` " gVem" h' "- nulhons of a little book railed "The Child" `T 50 i " P",biished three It is being distributed by you It tel VC? beautlful pamphlet, herself in pregnancy l l to 'd o fo ^ e T w i d ^ Z " " d " i,h m regard to its health. Then we have n rin tL - m, bringing it up about the size of my hand--simple rules^TM-6,-! SIX mi bons f leaflets can be pinned on the wall so that thn m ft, tbe Car,e baby--which household work, can read it We rmhH Ijh| r' aS-ft-16 goes about her on milk, which is a great source of d t f * T ' ns of Pamphlets pamphlets on flies, which carry d te^ e m .c b l! d r e n ve million trying to educate the poor mothers in the 7 WIth children -- children in health. Why we have some brmg UP their a child's birth is registered send out a ea ^ <<?*cers wbo> when mother. We made pn o r', ! ! " } - ,opy of The Child" to the Minnesota by which (there are^OOOO baK ^ B<?ard of Health in year) we are to send out^ c o i L T "ThP Minnesota evei7 try and educate the whole State of Minnesota! a n d f c ^ T ! ! ^ T riennial Address, Haley Fiske, 1916 315 tion, 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. Where was it--the other night we met somebody, some gentleman with whom we were lunching or dining, and he said: "My two children have 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 grand child was named H aley, 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 1 Fighting All Infections Diseases There is hardly any infectious disease in which we do not give in struction. We have issued three millions of pamphlets on Teeth, Ton sils and Adenoids, because we have found that bad tonsils, or the pres ence of adenoids are simply beds for the cultivation of bacilli; they cause all sorts of diseases, tui -m io sis and others. We have taught the mothers in this book how to tmu out if the child has symptoms of ade noids or diseased tonsils, and then what to do. Three millions of pamphlets on "The Health of the W orker" 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--pamph lets on scarlet fever, measles, whooping cough, which is said to carry off more people than measles and scarlet fever put together; smallpox; malaria--oh, 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 M other! 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 W ilson a few years ago got worried about unemployment. W hat 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 mil lions of people, took down on cards the result--nature of the employ ment, sex of the employee, how long unemployed, cause of unemploy ment, whether sickness or stoppage of work, part time or whole tim e, took these cards to the census bureau, classified them, analyzed them 316 A M other's Beauty in M etropolitan Business b D Cm',n th1e,F ensus BulIetin in accordance with the intent on the part of President W ilson to carry out his scheme for the benefit of workingmen by which he will mobilize labor and have great employ ment 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 ot a tuberculosis sanitorium; we are now working in three counties in the btate of New York on a similar one; got the thanks of the city ofCleveland 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 MotheV schndrwL ^ein^' ^ ^ g d f Ur pCple' f r the &0od of Metropolitan Care of Her Employees c ., A n d , then she. ha,s her own family, twenty thousand of them; w lee* V hoUland. mr th(; field and five thousand at the Home Office. What does she do for 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 P^ IUKm so that if you are taken ill 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 vve 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. W hat then? Mother takes yon home (Applause ) The Sanitorium on Mt. McGregor--you will see it pres ent y on the screen-1,200 feet above the sea. Pure air; fireproof buildings, no corners, rounded walls and surbases and ceilings diet icians in charge of the food; trained nurses in attendance; skillful ohysicians 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 ST mgKt0 ueVerybody as we went by. one of the gufsts said . .I .have be(;n bothering my head to know which were the guests and which were the patients, and now I have found out." "How do and ? ? J Y hy,' every healthy lookin P ^son I meet is a patient and every sick looking person is a guest." (Laughter.) You will T riennial 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 1 I never can forget a visit I paid there a few months ago. When i go up there I 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. F iske, 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. K nigiit 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. What I mean by "cured" is what they mean by "arrested." W hat difference does it make? The disease is stopped; 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, nourish ing 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 library; free cir culation. 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 M other's Beauty in M etropolitan Business fhe best in New York. Brass Band 1 in . . uniforms blue, white and eold th* r pieces; ^ggest in New York paredness Parade the Tther d t t C mPany's colors; in the Pre headed the insurance part of the procession ** the ^ l uitable; they people said they are applauding the E q S l e i apPlauded; moved on and the applause continued X ' , wh,en the procession Metropolitan Band. And these children re a ii;ed tbat it was the benefit of the Sanatorium o the S aff S, T T 6' of course, the Mother I6 " ,h" ^ w, ^ The gents the Big Brothers yes. Butaaroy0Uu children Mh th?r? 0 h - h '/b ? S m a^W hat people who have . ^ 00 ^ at the door of a I" " " " '8 Chi' d' " t a f T t a 3 S t S v 'T Y YTM are the only to knock the H ereT ooT X r irfrie id i S ? with 33 years on one route. (Great applause ? here ficniglit; for years ago and now he is insurintP? X i-w insured children 33 be insuring their grand-children ( T p l a u s e T u T pres? ^ wil1 same homes for 33 years How mi ,,,??!#UC' , He has visited the many years right in the same homes? H oL T haV been for many> ;ly life of the American w o r k in u n e o n lr H , yU get t0 the fam' life. Husband and wife had a r a R t'h,H dos? ^ ou get to their sides and try and determine the dispute^ YU hear bth You get a piece of the cake W ares r a i^ d ? g v g t0 get married ? smiles. Out of work? You see ? a d? You see the family ness? You send for the trained nurae B ? ? countenances. Sick- the mother's tears DparE . ( . T 6, -Toy gone wrong? You see What opportunities 1 And th<m # ouse- .You stand by the coffin. How do you bear them? You w o u lX T T to T h ' What rf P onsibiIities.' couldn't. You wouldn't rh # fE 1 ? to them>would you? You feed and d t e y o u t h s e " S '" d r " *0" ' You couldn't. The" people They pY 'a " f 1^ ' "P >">" thJ giving you this dinner tonieht T h n T theSe pe,ople- They are you couldn't lie to them. But are y w the h i/h " cheat n ; you have. Are you c o u r t e o u s T e l u S )r0thers? W h a t^ances Are they glad to see you when vou c o m T n 7' ^ ^ U sympathetic? word, the friendly shake of the hand t L i ym glVC them the kmd looking into your consciences ? A r e you a n d S " "\ Smile ? Are 3TM you be, always and everywhere M o th e r iT f Yu U have not been will work among these people that Lip-ht th t \rnS' beann& aloft in your plause and cheers, standing.) g ^ Never Fails? (Great ap- MOTHER METROPOLITAN Address of Haley Fiske, President of the Metropolitan Life Insur ance Company, at the Triennial Convention, Taft Hotel, New Haven, Conn., Sept. 4, 1920 ' [Stenographically 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 r c c i triennial Conventions, but the influenza, and the railroad difficulty, and the war, prevented my holding them two years ago as 1 t l i . e 6 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 and Why Held These conventions arc 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 t ? ^ e11, / have severaI answers to that question. I think 1 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. (I-aughter and applause.) But I suppose that ex-President Cleve land, in a speech before one of our conventions not so long before he d'.ed> gave the best reason for these conventions. lie said that the I*mid 1-orce had a right to be called together periodically to have the officers give an account of their stewardship. He made a very wise speech and it struck me that that was one of the best things that he said_ I be .eve in it. Well there are other reasons. The conventions are held--have been held these twenty-five years--largely for my own sake. 1 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 West, from New Orleans on the South, to a point far beyond .Edmonton, in Canada, on 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 dif ferent languages; the different parts of the country differing from each other, the North from the South, the East from the West, the 107 ' and all oM Im , TM i ^ ^n-uSR Metropolitan the Pacific Coast f i s t S d 'r z z r : ^ the men where the, ,,o t kc<l'"cc ,, h a , " " " " 0 and see their environments whit thpir o i ^leir circumstances are what know the men. A ^ t h e ^ l l h T f f n o t h ^ disa^ n ta g e s . I n d t o bave a 'ght t0 know me. They haw TM ? i f 301,1 15 that the men o her officers appear before them and fh" ght t0 have me and the 1 great corporations will form m m hi n , l'P- Because, men in poration, and, for my part I object tr>h I?`Ctures j the heads of a coror a facsimile signature r a h E hemg considered a rubber stamo a picture on a wall. I [ l E it i - ' r abundIc of statistics, or even conventions by one of the young a S tHPreSS^d at one of these stand at the door, usuailv i n d h t ^ ' At the end of the dinner I out, and one v o u n ^ f E ffaced f'eMn0'1 T the hand as he goes very long, as he Ic n t out sA l ' Wh ,had not bee" with us Mr. F isk e; I am so triad tn i* ' , ani S0 to have met vou Wood." That wa" it He wanted Tn h3t y?tu are a man of flesh and circular, not a signature Sometime <h Wt 11 Was a rea* man--not a m their minds if thev do not k n L t L offi/0TM mental Pictures X C SS ^ SpSSk 1 not stretch myself up any L Z r B t d >?dred pounds- but I could mmd? The President of T larged y U SCe W,lat was in his world ought to be the biggest man L l msurance company in the ought to be a riant tt est ,TMan he ever saw. (Laughter') W "ry ward, s I was lad to i^D Iiave etro seen it^ n you. To Mr ni f 5appmte S '* ? d: J" But a few i ." 5" 1 weeks a ftS said- "I am s , X o " t,,e ^ j-- - vi,o j. ruyress the I T X "S T w h i T Z i f C, <?< " P through voted to discussing business The o Z L " 'ght' and th<= day is de- atbn7d thi,aekyecUoPmm nee-*deuPpaorntmtheenmt afmtedr ,a.notn oandt ,thhey reead rthemreenc'oradnsd they lay before ,, T ,, " adfv'" fg the future, and and the records ot the districts n t t l d ` ?n f the Cmpany as it is But, I have reserved for myself a l w a ^ t ^ h CT ention as they are.' one topic. The earlier topics wh ,, T e d, TM' r at "%ht, some % L r S i ^ 0r r s onthe reiatious of the C rlyToSeS.^"T iitS T riennial, Address, IIaley F iske, 1920 109 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 direct relationship, no matter how young, no matter how recently brought into 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 fighting 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 from hope, stated in plain terms what the policy-holder was to pay, and what contract the 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 twentyfive years, it is worth your while to look at the figures then and now. Then this Company was one of the smallest. It is to-day far and away the largest in the world. Then, our assets were twenty-two millions of dollars. We ended last year with nine hundred and eighty-one millions. Then, our yearly income was eighteen millions of dollars. We ended last year with two-hundred sixty-three and a half millions of income Then, our insurance in force was $441,000,000. We 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 called 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.) W hat 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 Offices, or at the Home Office, the rates differing according to the ages and plans of insurance. That is Ordinary Insurance. And I have been wondering 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 insurance `hat is, Industrial Insurance. Xow Industrial Insurance is just as scit dfic, 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 insurance can be given for that given premium according to the ages and plans of insurance, and* * See footnote on next page. 110 M other M etropolitan - th= guests se Thn \ glves -vou some notion of th T 7 -CVery week in 10-cenl riien, take the Ordinary Department Ti?B? nit,ude of this Company aith and confidence right i,, the i ^ n of 92- we Put our whole S3 u w n tin g o f Ordinary ^Insurance m n ' `( S`" d " " " f r ^ L ^ a S 0r , % ? rt e i r - f wto: S w S & H f ago of. Twenty-five years ago our w r i t i n g ? u d has never seen the like UUU,U0; was Industrial.* The most -,L r Ordinary, and $590- was a fact quite unprecedented--thlr mg figUre last ycar, I think ance m force last year, added aCtUal,y gained more insur- hn fi Such a had neve? bee, any other company should gam more than any o t h e r TM '" heard, f. that one company Do I claim tin t thi. ,, company could write P 7~~ >fue.lo the holding t tlTM "'TM " th e amaaiig results were panies have growig and rapidlT aiw f'0113* Not wtollr th e ,' corn! something lias put this Comnanv a ugnWn ,t0 he large companies but company in the world. Somethina ha!'0" d ,5lrs ahead of any other - progresMve, the most efficient, t h f mos^ene? ^ C?mpany the most ad almost said the most affections e"er^ tic> the most faithful m the world. (Great a p p I a S me! \ of y company esulted from what we might call tin 1 lk,e t0 think that this has S i si a,nd `t is the wonder of everybody T Ia the world has (applause) think there has been no d j % /h" the fifty fv e conventions I not said this organization is the most a m . some of our guests have they had ever known of. There I thinl?Z'ng and effective thing that ~ T. . ' I think, we may say, is one of the -ose here PE a ^ fo r g a ? ^ w hfchX lp'eSe" T riennial Address, Haley F iske, 1920 Ill results of these numerous meetings between officers and men. Well, now, as I said, I have always selected one topic for the evening meet ing. And to-night, it is the simplest one in the world---the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; what is it? What the Company Is Is it five and a half billions 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 call her Mother, and I want, if I can to-night, to show you your Mother in all her majesty, her beauty, her beneficence--her soul. Well, then, superficially, what is the Metropolitan Life? Well, it is a great society, or association, 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 from whom they get no 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 coffin 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 flow. And he doesn't know anything about it. The most beautiful thing in the world! Now, what are these people doing? Why, they are pouring money--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 common fund. And let us follow along to see what that means. Of course, it is for 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 room at a table twice as big as that round table there, and they had guests there, and one of the most 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 figures were then, but the conversation, translated in the terms of to day, would be something like this: "I say, Mr. K napp (he was then 112 Mother Mrtropoutan in force?''' '``Yes!''' P 'A n d P g0t S'X 3nd onc' lla,f billions of insurance eigluy-one million's of assets?" " Yes" "W d f 0* m"6 hundred and me how you are going to pay six and 7 half .r ' W,U -vou kindly tell and eighty-one millions?" Well we e x n f i b' 110nsLvvlth nine hundred insurance, how, if we take rdne'n exPIained to him the system of !>> I'M of ,2 ,,h ,* h ^ " " t' S t a y - o n e ast year, was about nine hundred and d J A W1u-1 as I estimate it t hy compound interest, and increase it h i t tniIllons> and improve loduce exactly six and a half billions when In ^ I?remiums> it will billions become due. That is the science i f "ife insurance" ^ * half We Are Trustees There is a double lows therefore, doesn't it that thn<J i P t( lncrease them. It f0l- are trustees? And n o i, i t T O M s e A W W f this 1*TM TM m.ne with you. What arc we? Why you and"l A ! " " witl' me and to get that into your heads because b' i= a " 1 . trustees- I want only the darkies down South that call me t h e ^ ? Bo th Uf r U is he negroes and the porters in the narlnr n g Boss/ k ls only ' lodge." I am a codrus.ee i S T ^ ' W o T a , d 'W "Co1TM '1" ' plane: co-trustees for this fund And noJ h , 1 3re 0n the same 't ? Well, so far as the improvement by comnn ' T - WC administered Home Office has done well. The laws accord n 7 df,mtefest &oes- the ance upon which the premiums are based call fnr the.plans of insur- three and a half or four per cent L c o rd in i t i u P lntcrest rate of passed, and we earned over five ' T " ? ? e le the Iavvs were You are to collect the futurepremiums A n/ But ^ u ? the bield men have performed their duties PYf 3IV bou.nd to say that it used to be said about Industrial In su ra n rJ P lP P -WC L You know and extravagant, and some peonle said f ' that * Was a wasteful it was a lapsable business. The people S m P f i P 6 !nsurance>because so ate as the Armstrong in v e s tira tio n th ? T vvent out- And, had a long debate with me when I was on t h P P !ir tbat committee was gambling or not, as to whether Industrial^ St3nd aS t0 whether it depended upon whether a man just^hannened ^nrance, m its benefits, that he came in and went out and it P V ' !t was c,aimed a man was in when he happened to die / P f l g3mb,e whether make an examination for sePeml years and I f P bee? at Pains to have are for 1918 I have ey, yCar^' and the last figures that T of the other companies. Lefus see ^ T h a v e h* ^ P -19' but not those between Industrial Insurance as carried on hPthTM ^?'"g 3 comPar>son by y o u -a n d Ordinary Insurance as carried on p ef M etropolitan-and 1hat do Ordinary business alone anH u n P the Hrge companies year 1918, the numbePoPfaps^ s lessPl^ ; WW* f 1 find? For the trial Department of this C o m p l y i n r S j 'to tl0UrSe' " the Indus' pohcies in force throughout th e ^ e a r Pas < aP T 3n number of i educed it to 5.02. But now, take 5.34 and m Bast year> you of the Ordinary companies - the lowest nf ft, mpare^It with the records " &25- " d Triennial Address, Haley ITskij, 1920 11.5 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 Ordinary companies with their Ordinary insurance, although there is an average of twenty-six weeks throughout the year, when our policies can be lapsed, and in the Ordinary companies, only twice a year. I hat is very strikingly illustrated by the business of last year, where, of all the policies we wrote through the year, with this average of twenty-six opportunities to lapse in the Industrial Department, there was in force at the end of the year, of the business written in that year, 8 8 ^ per cent.; so that you performed your trusteeship very well. The Extent of Our Business 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 m ind; 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 Metropolitan is one million one hundred thousand. Why, in Canada, we have over one million four hundred thousand policies 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. 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 Metropolitan. 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 insured in the Metropolitan; and the same thing is true of the little city 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 Quebec and Montreal, known as Three Rivers, and there was a time when we had more policies in force than the entire population. 'Laughter and applause.) You have all seen the name of Mederic Monast, who is Superintendent in Quebec. He used to be in Three Rivers, 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.) m- T riennial Address, I-Ialey F iske, 1920 109 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 direct relationship, no matter how young, no matter how recently brought into 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 imagination, borrowed nothing from hope, stated in plain terms what the policy-holder was to pay, and what contract the company made with him. That was a distinct light against that form of gambling insurance known as tontine. 1 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 twentyfive years, it is worth your while to look at the figures then and now. Then this Company was one of the smallest. It is to-day far and away the largest in the world. Then, our assets were twenty-two millions of dollars. We ended last year with nine hundred and eighty-one millions. Then, our yearly income was eighteen millions of dollars. We ended last year with two-hundred sixty-three and a half millions of income Then, our insurance in force was $441,000,000. We 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 called 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.). W hat Ordinary Insurance means is that it is insurance in units of a thousand dollars, where the prem jums are paid quarterly, semi-annually or annually, and aie paid at the District Offices, or at the Home Office, the rates differing fccording 1o theU ages' and plans of insurance. . That: ,s Ordinary Insurance. And I have been wondering 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 insurance `hat is, Industrial Insurance. Now Industrial Insurance is just as scic nfic, 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 insurance can be given tor that given premium according to the ages and plans of insurance, and* * See footnote on next page. 110 Mother M etropolitan before*them, ;U U w hom S of t h r S i u i i ^ T w e m 'f i " ^ gUCStS See eighth millions arc poured in to o u r ^ Two and pieces. It eives vou enmp tm.' Uf V^easury every week in 10-cent Then, take the Ordinary Department 1 ^ ," la? nit"de f this Company, has done both Industrial andSti-H' This ls ordy Company that We do n o t\a v e \n y G ^eJal Apen?sry thr?Ugh the same men offices. We do n o f h a f e ^ G e n e r a d haVC any p e n s iv e eral Agents and a corns of ,, 1 * Aen,cy system with its big Gen- this business in the FaH of '91 or th? Spring When WC Started faith and confidence right in the I n d n f S f 92' We put our whole them, in the writing o f Ordinary Int^ran `" n ' tof stand or fall by sound. \\'e had very little Ordinary h n s i? ^oundatins were years ago the total amount of O rd in a l Ins'53 f rce- Twenty-fiye 1'on. We ended last year with $3 500 ^ S n n " t WaS f venteen TM1we wrote $14,000,000 of OrdhnTM J 0' Twenty-five years ago, <lone pretty well. LTM ^ w e 1 ' ( " | i * 1 w= had that record of last year was one that fh! .T V '000 ln one year- and of. Twenty-five years ago our writings foT th d ^ ,leVerAenen the Iike and we thought any company ffi nt 2P u e y<Tar were $308,000,000, millions of insurance was a big c o m p a n v p 1? 6 r four hundred of ours, these fifteen thousand men, wrote $1 652 men in one year, of which over a hillinn t e. j 1,b`)4,000,000 of insurance a 4 000,000 was Industrial.* The moW a m a z in /ff3 rdinar^ and $590,- was a fact quite unprecedented?fhatZ J ? f,UrC last year- I think, ance in force last year, added more laJ actually Sained lore insur- TMrote Such a thing 'had n e v e rle e , ther C0IW S Do f"claiiTtiLt^thisT7 ther C mpany c uId write^ 006 COmpany- due to the holding of t h ^ o n J e n d o m h? ? ? f an? nng results, were panies have grown and raoidlv and wholly. Other com- something has put this Company a bd'ioTdollars'^ lf 6 P T " " : but company m the world. Something ha l n r " other- ' progressive, the most efficient the me ? VCn 1 Company the most I had a,most said the most" f fc S o rS ? 1 in the world. (Great applause 1 the m St faithful f men of any comPany resulted from what we might call t f f i ^ 1 t0 thmk that this has for a quarter of a centTM S r tn e n n t l e T u ' the fact that me and I with them that r t , n the be d bave been meeting with that every vear on Superintend? P " 1 meet them `nennially, and ference. "th ese flie s? T ' ^ ? rk f r ` on- Hi my judgment, are what has produced w h a t ^ S T * Con1ventIons. in effective organization that any Corporation in theb' ' P ? u ? the most and ,t ,s the wonder of cverybodv ln S f i f T ? " (applause)- thmk there has been no dinner but that 7f VC conventlons 1 not said this organization is the th 1 e of our guests have 7 7 ^ ever f,,o w ,, d.o* K f e e " f e "r ,> r a ! l f G S r ; C L X " ',, U 'c `h werreDdeiived9l9; T riennial, Address, Haley P iske, 1920 111 results uf these numerous meetings between officers and men. Well, now, as I said, I have always selected one topic for the evening meet ing. And to-night, it is the simplest one in the w'orld--the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company; what is it? IVhat the Company Is Is it five and a half billions 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. W hat I want to do to-night is to show you the soul of the Metropolitan Life. You are accustomed to call her Mother, and I want, if I can to-night, to show you your Mother in all her majesty, her beauty, her beneficence--her soul. Well, then, superficially, what is the Metropolitan Life? Well, it is a great society, or association, 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 from whom they get no gratitude. Did vou 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 coffin 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 flow. And he doesn't know anything about it. The most beautiful thing in the world! Now, what are these people doing? Why, they are pouring money--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 common fund. And let us follow along to see what that means. Of course, it is for 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 room at a table twice as big as that round table there, and they had guests there, and one of the most 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 figures were then, but the conversation, translated in the terms of to day, would be something like this: "I say, Mr. ICnapi- (he was then 112 Mothhr Mutropoutan in force?" ' ""Yes*"' ^ `I n d ' l P 1' S'X and ne' haIf billions of insurance eigluy-onc millions of setsTM SYes" ``w * T " hundred and <ne how you are going to pay six and a half S ' W,U- P U kind1^ tel1 and eighty-one millions?" Well we e x n l a i n e t u "16 hundred insurance, how, if we take nine'h.m rlr^ a ,him the system of that part of it which represents h d d a" d elp ty -o n e millions, or last year, was about n i S E whi ? aS 1 tm ate it We Are Trustees ani a " TlTM a double low, tlicrefore, * J t, w tS are trustees? And now nt nnrp ,rr.,, cnarge of this operation mine with you. What re we? \ v h v v n if re atl0n with me and to get that into your heads,^ beatle ft' i f a ` 1 W3nt only the darkies he negroes and down South that the porters in the call me parlor ctahres^tBhai ftf Bssvs sV , S. TM^ fly "Judge." I am a co-trustee with you. YoTmd I ar'e on I P ' ' r plane: co-trustees for this fund a,, i , a , 1 arc on the same anee upon which the premiums are based n il ? * the.plans of msur- three and a half or four per cent L r o r r l i^ tn i r 5 " mt,Crest rate of passed, and we earned over five ' T in t S tlm<; 1le *aws were You are to collect tSe fuame pren.imns A n d " / But the Field men have performed their duties e x tm d y vvell it used to be said about Industrial Insurance tW it ' Y U kn?w was gambling or not, as to whether In d u s tria l Stand as ,to .whether it depended upon whether a man just h a p p e n e d ^ X T n - 'ii" ^ b?n.efit*i that he came in and went out and it i n f t a b , ' ]t TMas cIaimed a man was in when he happened to die l i t ^ ^ gainble whether make an examination for several vears - J tf^ i bee2 at *)ains to have are for 1918. I have got our own figured for 919 l l T * f l f 1 of the other companies I et ik qpp t t , . ' no^ those between Industrial Insurance as carried on ^ee", malim&a comparison by y o u -a n d Ordinary insurance as carried o f * e. Me,troP ltan-and that do Ordinary business alone, and what do f fad ? CT pan'es year 1918, the number of lapses less revivsk J t 1 ? , For the trial Department of this Comnanv in n tln ' ^ ^ourse>in the Indus- policies in force throughout Pthe year l a s 5 34 T i nUmber f reduced it to 5.02. But now take 5 34 I f 5 . L?Y year, you of the Ordinary companies;'the lowest o f t h e m e d 1 ^ L d l h ^ 0^ 3 was 6.25, and the next 6.49, and the next 6 50 ^ W e beat t t S T riennial Address, IIalEy Fiske, 1920 11.5 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 Ordinary companies with their Ordinary insurance, although there is an average of twenty-six weeks throughout the year, when our policies can be lapsed, and in the Ordinary companies, only twice a year, lhat is very strikingly illustrated by the business of last year, where, of all the policies we wrote through the year, with this average of tweniv-six opportunities to lapse in the Industrial Department, there was in force at the end of the year, of the business written in that year, 8 8 ^ per cent.; so that you performed your trusteeship very well. The Extent of Onr Business 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 Metropolitan is one million one hundred thousand. Why, in Canada, we have over one million four hundred thousand policies 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. 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 Metropolitan. 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 insured in the Metropolitan; and the same thing is true of the little city 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 Quebec and Montreal, known as Three Rivers, and there was a time when we had more policies in force than the entire population. (Laughter and applause.) You have all seen the name of Mederic Monast, who is Superintendent in Quebec. He used to be in Three Rivers, and I met him one day, and said, "How do you do, Monast, vou've done well. Is there anything I can do for you?' Sure, he said, "send me more population." (Laughter.) 114 Mother Metropolitan The Poiccr of the Company When you think of these things, and you see these centers of population with these enormous proportions insured with the Metropoh an, two or three things will occur to you. The first is the power ot it. 1he power of having in the membership of this Company so twTo? Hirr ? 0rt'0'! flhC- cntlr(= popu'ation. Let us look at that from or three points of view. Did it ever occur to you that the same peopie will elect the President of the United States next November that elected me I resident of the Metropolitan? They will elect the President of the United States through the college of electors and they 1eenn Zet usr Xlook at dthisarffCrlomf DairneoCtrherS'poAinntd'off vthieawt .oc-T-hedy atroeytohei foundation of government. Labor casts the vote. Labor elects Govrnors, Senators, Mayors, Legislators, Congress and passes the laws Because, as I said, these wage earners, commonly called Labor are he governing power of this country, and of every democracy. Well tion1nf nil I tla r lfr0ni .another P,nt of view- They are the foundaihro,ur, f : v 1 havc JUSt cT e froni thc Rocky Mountains, passing a ro o Z V T UVeV S0 d', siIver- TMPPer, iron. coal, millfons of ^rlin ! f 1 thoilsand] and thousands of acres of soil, with waving grain marvellous crops, forty and fifty bushels to the acre, they aro going to bring in this Fall. Go back sixty years. The gold was there- loft S` VCfi 'VaS tHiCrC : th j coal -was there : the forests were there ; th msent billionKsrcofi dollaltarRsOmodeawnawshlifle? t1o1 twheasEnaostt?worWthhaatceisnts.enWdinhgat mhials- ha? anf "!,lllons of d(?llars ,his >'car to the East? Labor. Labor that works the mines and cuts the forests and cultivates the soil Very theref0rC' arC corporation! as^rep^- 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 with these people. Surely that is Opportunity, and the question that will occur to a thoughtful man is" does it bring Responsibility? And, if so, what responsibilities arise out of this opportunity, this close connection with thc power of the Amer ican and the Canadian Government? To determine that, let us look at them from one or two other points of view. By and large they are not a forehanded people. If you take their career through you will hnd that their outgo about equals their income. That is to say their outgo for houses, food, clothes, just about 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. The first, 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 T riennial Address, IIai.ey Imske, 1920 115 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 bv 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 before 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." IIow are you going to get data, unless you insure people? "Malingering" ; that is to say, false representation about unemployment. Why, life insurance is full of fraud, and we manage to live. " Improvidence: why didn't they save enough when they had work?" Well, 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 young 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. My 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 cook. I asked my wife, "Well, what did you do?" You nurses here know what my wife did. Just what you would have done. Wrapped up the baby and took it out on the front porch in the sun and the fresh air (it was Spring and it was pretty cool) and left it there; looked after its diet. Alma was giving the baby, who was about two 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 know.. What then, could we do for them? Ought we not do something for them? If they are the foundation of our wealth, if they are our members, if 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 t o ; and the presence of these dear ladies on my left whom I am always anxious at these >V- `'-.r-v ... _ - i r ~iin~ir<i-- m -- -- i 116 Mother M etropoeitan dinners to have near me, bring to mind one of the things that we thought we could do. 6 The Nursing Service yl a? ag ' a ,happy th0Ught occurred to Third Vice-President ilnstsirtiuhtSedd the saySs/tem` loeffSenPuersiPngC' eWvCermy lgshictknUInrsdeustthreiaml - poAlnicdy-shoo-ldweer Was ^ck enough to have a doctor, where the doctor thought a An^ele r U1i adv'sabIe- Here they are, the sweet things: Nurses ngeis, I call them. Angels. I have never seen their wings. (Laughter ) But you know I made that remark at one of these conventions at I; Newark, New Jersey, where we had an ex-Governor as a guest. He made a speech and he said, "If Mr. F iske 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 H hn A bT thCre -r slc,k'ness' When they come in, you go out to the Uub. 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 pfiflllloowwss.hlSAAitrntfhhealb,OeUd,st i.:dIeklcsktasnadrs Uthued wthiefe,beadnxciIoouthse. s; Imt uissseas suepri'otubsc fflm andrsavm" I ? IoSe a day's waf - a serious thing for her to look at Ppecrrh, aa"pds "aftytt'hhaJtSftihmeego0n'negoff yboeuSwlcakl,,kIos ni?n,aonrd, lpoesrehhaipss iothba?t"is Wnootryrioeudr. y' .r nd yu will see on the screen presently a little mailing card that they can fill out and send to the Nursing Headquarters, or to vour headquarters, and then, in comes the trained nurse. Straight to the bed side; 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 pillows perhaps giving him a cooling drink; a kindlv w ord; a question; but all "13 X l ? Peering peering. What is it? What is this sickness that is M coming? Does he need a doctor? She makes up her mind that he 4 nuts'h e r l l P l<? th n Wlfu "C allj he dctor," 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 remember some years ago, there it" "/ preTm.uim ?n a PIicy in Canada, and the trained nurse had made, the last 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.) 1he crack of doom will come before we get our money back But what difference does that make? A life is saved. We save lives We get grateful letters from policy-holders. Perhaps Mr. F rankel fhp w i S nn,thlMg about tbat today- PcrbaPS be has read some of Jhi l n Pl - ^ tf^ b C th?y arc sometlmes>almost. Badly written, badly spelled, but they are letters that come from the heart. Gratitude^ Gratitude. Gratitude to M other-their Mother. Lives saved; misery assuaged, comfort given. Sometimes I think that is a by-product, for 1 Triennial Address, Haley Fiske, 1920 117 it is the first duty 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 decently clothed? Is there a bad smell in the house? Is there open garbage? Arc the windows tight shut? Are the doors barred. Is there any fresh air? Are the kitchen utensils cleansed, or are they greasy and sour ? And it is her duty to speak to the house mother; to teach her; to teach her cleanliness; to teach her the proper c othing; 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 there anything else we could do? And we thought we might teach them bv literature. And we have pamphlets or leaflets on practically every known disease. I think there are about a hun dred of them. \ ou cannot name any disease that we have not covered by a pamphlet. Tuberculosis? "YVar on Consumption." The chil- s i}1?,eff,e s\ A book--the best thing ever written--called the Child. And then, specific 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 causes it. Yellow Fever, Smallpox, that of course. Down South, I ellagra, and Hookworm. We distributed eighteen mil lion last year; and it brings the total distribution up to over two hun dred million. A Look Ahead Have you got a vision? Can you project your mind forward five years, ten years, twenty years? What shall it mean? What shall it mean, this wider and wider extension of territory covered? Last year issuing one million and a half Industrial policies. What shall it mean_ this wider and wider membership in this society ? More and more nursing visits paid on more and more people. More and more mil lions of literature distributed. Roll them up; roll them up, year in and year out. What shall it mean a generation hence? It can mean but one thing--a revolution in the health of the United States and Canada. (Great applause.) I can see it coming. We have taken statistics of the decline in mortality in the Industrial Department between 1911 and 1919 and have compared these facts with corre sponding figures for the United States Registration Area for the same period. I he Registration Area for deaths, as I suppose you know, is that group of states, counties and cities, which, under penalty, require physicians to register deaths and the causes of death. We arc thus able to make a comparison of the decline in mortality in both groups Now, what do we find? Between 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 Registration Area of the United States. The typhoid fever death rate has declined 68 per cent.; in the United States Registration Area, the decline was only 56 per cent., a difference in favor of Industrial policyholders of 12 per cent. Take tuberculosis: our death rate declined 30 per cent., whereas in the Registration Area, the reduction was only 21 per cent. For heart disease, our reduction was 20 per cent., and in the Registration Area, only 7 per cent. For Bright's disease, the death rate of the Industrial department declined 23 per cent., and in the Registration Area, only Mother M etropolitan 7 per cent. There has been a greater decline, also, in the death rate ot 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. 3 The Fight Against Tuberculosis ,, ,Anf .wc are Caching other corporations, and teaching governments, take this matter of tuberculosis. When I was a bov 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 not hereditary, and it is not fatal. Oil, 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 does 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 i t !" 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 Well, we used to tell them not to drink whiskey. We 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, an ict. And, we teach them, as Mr. F rankel 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, per haps 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. Well, I am laying down, you will say, a very extraordinary proposition, perhaps the guests think. Prove it ? W e_ lave proved it. Some years ago we built a sanatorium on Mount Mc Gregor (you will see pictures presently) for the care of our tubercular agents and clerks. We 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 arc about two hundred and forty-six - of them--at the Home Office. Cured and at work. There is very sel d o m ^ convention that I go to that somebody does 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 upon the leaders of men to watch their staffs, and report sickness. .A t k " :c'2sj Bwwiwnwwaiww>tMrtma \^;i^< ji> & .^ .^,l T riennial, Address, Haley F iske, 1920 1 19 A Lesson to Government and Other Corporations We 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 Super intendent 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 vires. 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 reasonable 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 Cor porations. 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 and welfare work." And, we had at Chicago, at our convention, one who is perhaps the leading sociologist in the country, Professor Graham Taylor. And his address was directed to a review of the relations, in the matter of health and wel fare, 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 wel fare. We try to teach governments. We took over a town three years ago, the town of Framingham, fifteen miles from Boston. By its con sent, we took charge of its health and put in a committee headed by Doctor Armstrong, who is there yet. It involved the physical exami nation of the inhabitants, and I suppose we examined two-thirds or three-quarters of them. Isolation of the tubercular. Looking after the milk. Examination of sewerage and water supply. The working conditions in factories. What has been the result in three years? 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, and a final report made to the Surgeon General of the United States, and other physicians on the committee with him. W hat do they think of it? "A most inter esting experiment, but keep it up for two years more. Five years ought to determine whether a town can be made a spotless town." And, we are going to do it. "Oh," you say, "maybe other towns have im proved too." Well, we took ten other towns in Massachusetts, of the same size and general character, and in every one of them, there 120 Mother M etropolitan has been an increase in the last three years, in death from tuberculosis, and only in Framingham a decrease. We 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. We have been sitting here, say two hours and a h a lf; 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 from 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 pathetic 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. (W e had a United States Senator at one of these conventions who described the condi tion of the poor people sent to hospitals in Washington with tuber culosis. It would make you shudder--patientsexposed 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. F rankel, when he heard that, made a very striking remark. "It would be better," he said, " for the Government that spent fifty million _ . dollars on hogs, to spend a few million dollars to save human life?' ~ , (Great applause.) Assisting Government . We are taking over the functions oi government. A few years ago President W ilson was worrying about unemployment. W hat 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 F rankel, he went all over the country, visiting fifty or sixty cities, and took a survey of unemployment; how many unemployed; how long unem ployed; why unemployed; is it sickness? W hat is the nature of the occupation? They took a card index of this information and pub ;'.Vr' " lished it in Washington, and that is the basis of these Unemployment Bureaus. You will find them all over the Union. We are in partner vl" ship with five States to get the people nursed. North and South :P : 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 -, .V. 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 T riennial Address, Haley 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 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, 1 thought that was the limit. (Laughter.) But Mr. Stkwart, the Su perintendent 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 time 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 fake charge of 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 me. 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 bv 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 country, although they need them there for farming. It was because they could not stand the isolation. \nd an appeal was made to us, 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 retriedies 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. You 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 122 Mother M etropolitan Mctu^whtan L if c - a mighty good rule. (Applause and laughter) J hird Vice-President I-rankel went down there to Kingsport and saw sixty-live houses that could not be repaired. Burn them up ' And hey are to burn them up. It was our Comptroller that went down 3n<i f 10WC( thcm how t0 build their houses, our trained nuree that wen down there and established the trained nursing system - our experts that told them how to lay out their streets and parks; and'that wn is a Metropolitan town. The people in the town are circulating ILaro ^ h Cifen"esse=eratUrC ab" thcy ,h' mselv' s Tcaching 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 do each policy is attached a register containing the names of the em ployees corrected monthly. My junior officers wanted me very much frnnhimt<t / ' ji Sa,ld' 0 h ' no> The Premiums are low; awful lot of trouble, big overhead expense. We are writing all the insurance we . ought to write. Finally I was persuaded. Why? Because, the work- one n il' 6 ^ ^ chlIdren ? f 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 mdlions^ of dollars. But what did it mean ? Forty-five thousand working men and women to be nursed. Forty-five thousand men to whom to five litera ture. Forty-five thousand children of Mother. But, it is more than Ihat. 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 SUR eyS 1;iantS {T ,i charSe- The safety engineer goes down 0 r n ? e says' an.d this- and this you should do to save lives. dinic ? T ^ ,0m J g,fdoT and say- "Why don't you start a medical" clinic? The Metropolitan does." Another one will say, "Why don't you start a dental clinic ? It is trouble with the teeth that is the cause "w!110Si d,`seases- The Metropolitan does." Another one will say Why don t you start a Co-operative Store to keep these people from being swindled? I h e Metropolitan does." More than that there tomes out a periodical monthly, or semi-monthly which is really an ' re?ccntlly^. mPu.bbllisshheHd,SaoyrS'o^n su"cTh a""p'ag"e0 nofisuachceartpaiangemoafgasuzicnhe,a obrooink such a lo umn of such a newspaper of such a date, you will find an artic'e right on your own particular business. It will pay you to read ooff ithhneirr uoirk, Paln7d CwVill,hcintchi:dnegnStatlhlya,t hweilUp htheelPirthweomrk'ingthpeeopproles.ecution 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 oav a purt of the premium, the employer a part, and the employee a part J he policy provides for the payment of a sum less than the wages T riennial Address, IIai.ey Fiskk, 1920 123 during sickness. The scheme follows, in certain particulars, along the lines of the English social insurance. Originally, it was made in Ger many. It has been in force for some years in England. We are not opposing it. but the question is whether it is better to pay a man when he is taken sick, or to endeavor to prevent his ever being sick. Sir Arthur Nkwsholmk. connected at one time with the Local Gov ernment Board in England, has been over to America, lecturing, and in his conservative way, he said it has not been proved that the scheme is a success, or that if the same amount of money was spent for the prevention of sickness it would not have brought better results. The National Civic Federation sent over a Commission to England to inves tigate. The National Civic Federation is a society in winch capitalists and laboring people arc joined. Perhaps its character can he best indi cated bv saying that Alton B. Parker, who was once a nominee for the Presidency, is the President of the Federation, and Samuel Gom- ncRS the Vice-President. The Commission has made a report in which they say that the American workingman does not want social insur ance. He does not believe in paternal government, lie believes in self-dependence. Some things the Commission reports the Government might do. It recommended that the Legislature should consider the appointment of a special Commission to make a careful and exhaustive investigation, and study the expense, the treatment, and the preven tion of sickness, and specifically to study and to report upon the meth ods and means for the eradication of disease; for the education of the people in the fundamental principles of health: the methods and means of bringing adequate medical 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 persons applying therefor; the development of Public Health Nursing; the methods of the adequate care of maternity ; the co-ordination of private and public health agencies. You will notice that several of these recom mendations arc what the Metropolitan is already doing. IIow much better it would seem to me, to promote the general health and prevent sickness, than to try to palliate the conditions of people when they are taken sick. ' The Labor Problem We are living in times when there is a great deal said, and no doubt very truly, about the difficulties between capital and labor, by which is meant the dissensions between employers and employees. At one of these conventions some months ago, we had an ex-Prcsidcnt of a local Federation of Labor speak. He was an eloquent speaker-- not a ranter. He spoke in a plain, conversational tone, but in good English, well delivered, and he took for his subject, "Trade Unionism." lie painted a beautiful picture as to the ideals of trade unionism, and I want to tell you one or two or three of the things he said: "Mv father was a workingman, and in his early days, at the end of the week, the employer came out and handed him his pay envelope. `How do you do, John, how are you? How is your wife?' Mv father lived to see the day when his pay envelope was thrust at him through a cage by a hireling like himself, and he never saw his employer." And then he said two remarkable things: "If," he said, "all employers 124 Mother M etropolitan of labor 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 Metropolitan 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 does care 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 see them. The other day, we issued a large Group policy in Western Massachusetts. And how was it done? The em ployer hired three halls, because one was not large enough, and went from one to the other and saw all his employees, and he told them how faithful they had been and how much he thought of them, and what he hoped he might be able to do for them. And also he told them what he was going to do then, and lie 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 i t ; God grant that Mother may do that. Agetits 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 Industrial Agent is the only man in the world who has a contract right to knock at a door every Monday 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 arc 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 T rirnniai. Addrrss, Harry 1'iskr, 1920 125 had a lapse for months and months. Why? Because he feels it his first duty when a policy-holder gets out of" work, to find out what his occupation is, and scour the town, and get him another job. Boy gone wrong? You see the mother's tears. And it brings up the Boston agent to my mind, one of whose boys on his debit had gone wrong. He followed him down to the Court: "Judge, he is very young. It is his first offense. 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, about which he knew, and we did not. The mother sick; the father out of work; 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; went back to the family and gave it to them; got a trained nurse for the mother, and inquired why the father was out of work. It seems the man 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 back. Husband and wife quarreling? Well, each one tells his story, and you hear them both. And up comes the figure of the Chicago agent who called where the husband and wife had quarreled and had agreed to get a divorce. What did he do? The elder brother--the elder son--he sat down with them. "Whom Go hath joined together, let no man put asunder." He reasoned with them; found out the cause of their dif ference; pleaded with them; got them to abandon their purpose, and live together amicably. Tuberculosis? Then, I think of Murimiy. Last year, in January, when the Superintendents were passing the Directors' table, greeting the officers, somebody said, "Here comes Murphy." Well, 1 never had seen Murpiiy, but I knew Murphy. Murphy was an agent in Canada, got tuberculosis, went to the sana torium, got cured, went back on his debit. In his canvassing, he entered a house, and found the wage-earner 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! What did Murphy 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?" "Mother 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 to 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 iliat school, which would certainly have happened. But here is the 126 Mother Metropolitan ernor MorrovvHl H c ^ a s^ o u t1^ b y th ? Governor of Kentucky; Gov- iHC f0?1 f a niuntain, and hemfoundItthat1h(1 nigh, .overtook him at ah night on his horse, and all mVht inn ^ he wou d have to travel and the dim light of the dawn hehad a ^ 'VaS ascendin? `he hills; a horse coming down the innnm'- a >a vlslon--a woman astride of l.?r d d le . I?,,.a8 a " " " I' b,Kk X of kenlllcliy. nursinj the sick, and t c a c h i n g S TM 8 a",0nS Cabins Men/ for Agents greedy, g r a s p i n g commercialized, selfish, can he a part of it, and nobody\?fi critw le vnV rIr S h'St0ry>- and you collect and canvass; g0 home7 at n m J i 7 Canvass and collect, heep your little memorandum'book* m 1 C llllt UP yur earnings; made; buy a bond; Iniv somethin? f'm vn ^ 10W mUch >'ou have on it; give your wife a piano - indulge vTM " i ? "se* 0r Pay something save money; get a hank account When', f In Some. littIe luxury; take those things with vou. Bui the nextm C ''le ' d'e' you cannot a little paragraph; good husband: kind fmh 0rmnlf PaPer will have man; left his family well provided for R .f /' ^ thnfty' abIe business are where those things won't help v o u ' The 7 U ai\ not there- You the dm and clamour of this life if von mT `S another way: Above w,l heai- a clarion call to service IJ, w i f P your ears ale> you under-world is seething; once in a wddle > 1 there ls convulsion. The you hear the cry, but whether vou hear it all over tins world comes up this vearniU thu surface- and ' 'V s there>and from t,mes<during the past year t'ci-haos irrl^ y Cry r service- Some- tive of your opinions on political problem s ' ^ i ^ Pa ltlCS' irresP> year your mind, with mine has L p ' perhaPs during the past Jhcre is a lonely man, very sick He h a d T " ^ Wash.in? ton* where brothers, not enemies; large nations , S l ? `n: natl0ns should be upon smaller ones; there ought to be n o n t TM eUCrTMch and impose ought to be arbitrated; th e rf ought to h e ir 6 S' a d lf tbere be' they be a world court; there ought toV peace dlSarn,am entthere ought to his reward? ''Schoolmaster! P r 5 n P f ' What was And yet. I am asking you to be idealists r Lnprf?tlcal! Idealist!" v,si0n- Canvass and collect; col ecTand' m u S you to have a eager to find people to hein and in ti canvass- ah yes, but always you have among these thousands of famihe 'ri^ fIied opportunities that dies that everyone of you cover f i i J n these hundreds of fam- qutre; look; tr y ; perhaps you may r n a i V ^ T ' ^ uto scrve. InBut, in any event, when you come to d ? mu,f1/perhaps you will, l yS\,Z s' take with you. Oh, my dear boys start ou't W` haVC something to these weary pavements not with' 1 1 to`niorrow morning. Tread K sl`.v Whirl Cod tbf hut up" n ( Great applao L d c e " ) " T T hat NTM METROPOLITAN ACCOMPLISHMENT AND PROGRESS Managers Annual Banquet, Hotel Astor, New York City, January 31, 1925 ' H aley F iske, President My dear hoys, 1 am under the necessity tonight of 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 address ing 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 Com pany is. Ladies and gentlemen, my dear boys scattered throughout the coun try 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 billion and a half out of the Ordinary Department. The Industrial Department issues those policies on which the pre miums are payable weekly and are collected at the homes of the insured. The Ordinary policies are those which are paid for quarterly or semi annually or annually--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. (Ap plause.) So that of the total amount of insurance placed, this Com pany alone placed 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. (Ap plause.) 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 Address by Haley F iske 445 the world. (Applause.) It is even greater than any we TMrsclYc^ a^ heretofore made. It means that we wrote and placed $8,275,000 o insurance every day. It means premiums received during the year of $370,750,000 o nearly a million and a quarter of dollars every working day. (Ap- ^ T t 'h a s brought our assets up to $1,628,174,0 0 0 -a half billion more than any other company has. (Applause.) nn . lv t0 Now to allay any possible anxiety on the part of what it means to have this enormous amount of money m ^ co"^ of one company, let us see what we do with it. Of his, $708,540,UUU L " " sted hA on.ls and mortgage,. This means .hat wc hav^ con tributed that enormous sum lo the housing of vc carrying on of their business. For housing a one been loaned by us, accommodating 72,000 families. In 1924 a one we loaned $80,000,000 for housing, accommodating 23,000 lamilic*; Of the mortgage investments $162,000,000 arc on fat ms trlbNearly$700,000,000 of our assets are invested in other bonds ; a small amount in stocks-those stocks bought long ago and onw hich there has been no opportunity as yet to realize then val. . them as fast as it pays us to sell them, so that shortly we shall be with out any stock holdings at all. . That One-half of this investment in bonds is on railw ay SLLU" 1 `j F makes modern civilization possible; it unites North and South, Last $200,000,000 is loaned to Governments, a larSe W an ing on the war, and the rest for the benefit of the people in them o.gan ^^N eTriy $100,000,000-over $94,000,000-has gone to public utilities telegraph) telephone, traction, light and power, which make moder Ufe About* $115,000,000 is in loans to policyholders, to enable them to keep up their insurance and to tide them over temporary financial embarrassment. You see how we make the billion and a half work for public benefit, as we had less than $16,000,000 in cash and m tanks ready for investment, and more than that sum we had already promised. Over 32,000,000 Policies in Homes of People We have now in force 32,447,000 policies, insuring 22,000,000 people, as I have described, the premiums are collected vee ^ ^ of the insured by our agents, and this means that our agents make 300,000,000 visits a year to the homes of wage earneis. 446 Managers' Annual Banquet, 1925 In congested cities we have a much larger proportion of the popula- l msut <vl Tn Mnur VA4*i t*1 i_ Hi_j .. i .. T . icmnsc ----- ^ vviui Luc extent oi our ,avc Opportunity. We have believed that this imposes I|J1UVC LV . U Ulac we nave tned 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 distribu tion of earnings outside the contracts. That sum alone paid in benefits outside the contracts amounts to $54,000,000, and, of course, the pay ment 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 insurance of more than $129,000,000. Last year we paid 1,405 claims a day--one every twenty-one sec onds of every business day--amounting, in all, to .$153,000,000. We have a death in our membership every four minutes. We have im proved 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.) . Health Improved and Sickness Reduced by Metropolitan Educating and Nursing But do our responsibilities end there? We have thought not. These 300,000,000 visits a year to the homes of workers--what do they mean to us except opportunity for Service? For fifteen years we have been engaged in Welfare work. We have instituted a free service to the sick by trained nurses, and these nurses have made probably 30,000,000 visits to our 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 dis tributed 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 readers our lectures on disease and health. Address dy IIaley Imske 447 We have made campaigns through schools, and now we are pre paring an intensive campaign directed to 21,000,000 school children through 875,000 teachers. The result? We have compared our mortality for the years 1911 to 1924, inclusive, with that of the 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, 69 per cent. Tuberculosis; 50.8 per 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. We have blazed the way for governments and welfare foundations, which now are spending millions of dollars to do the work that we showed could be done in Framingham and L'lictford Mines. (Ap plause.) . We have $862,000,000 of Group insurance in force, 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 nursing, our distribution of literature, goes to them. We have sickness insurance for them, as well as life insurance, 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, Workmen 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 surveyed 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, cn- 3C 448 Managers' Annual Banquet, 1925 titled Personnel Management of Railroads. It covers, in various chapters, employment, promotion and discipline, stability of employ ment, education, 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 business management and, most important of all health and indus trial hygiene. This last is under the charge of Dr. W ade W right, 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. W e 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? Have you in mind that they are the working people of this country? Have you a vision? Do you see the growth of this Company? Do you see it embracing more 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? (Applause.) Over 20 per cent, of our nursing cases have been maternity cases. The next generation of working people will be our children. (Ap plause.) What 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, mil lions of attractive books that children can read and study, and attrac tive pamphlets from which teachers may instruct? Have you a vision? Can you sec 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 come to believe that God has a use for owners of millions of money." ; We have the millions of money. W hat shall we do with it? Must '% not we reach out to the wage earners? Must not we try to bring gjpijig Address by IIaeey F iske 449 made them capitalists. Hvery ownei c`ar 0{ tls RW e 5have talist; he has property. 1hey labor may have in objec- nothing to do with any manifesta \ . thi `but thjs: That if we can tions to the terms of cmploymen bring together these two classe w| may ameliorate, to some 1 1 ^ ^ ve effcctj that thc expcndi- extent, their mutual piejudices. coordination in expenditure S a ? e 5 S f - - " lhC,Tl" Sw !r rwas settled, .so tar as its tve let them see their mutual icspoi ul ,t ,ilcm gow to themselves? Can t we nurse - Can't we push the pension live? Can't tve encotu'age them to s .jc ? wS t0 preve,lt sicknCM* aS K 11- aS ^ t ^ ^ w o k th lt you`and I are engaged in. Great, great "esponsibiiity re^s on the can do the good^ genera y y mcthods of communication; w easier, and bcttei. We can l h But with can make domestie life more conrtortabl^^Wc c a n j o ^ ^ ^ this wealth tve can do mote. " " ' b ,, [mum, unless you go --- -- `to t 450 Managers' Annual Banquet, 1925 it is yours to benefit humanity, that it is yours to bring people into this Company for tbe 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 us, for that sweetest word in the world--Service--by that sweetest word in the world--Mother Metropolitan. (Applause and cheers.) H on. George S. Silzer Governor of New 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 looked in yesterday's World and here are just a few of the headings that I read: "Shot by a Taxi Man. D. J. K enney May Die." "Soldier Confesses Killing Servant Girl. Says He Threw Her Into Moat at I'ort Adams, but Officers Doubt Story." "Thug Gels Forty Thousand Dollars in Gems. Bids Victim Be Quiet Under Penalty of Death." Ih is is all from just one column: "Hold-up Man Gets Three Thousand Five Hundred Dollars in Cash When Cashier Is Attacked." "Six Die as Stolen Car Collides With Another." "Cop Who Killed Bandit Is Promoted and Praised by Court." "Pleads Guilty of Murder 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 tbe 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 again 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. We began at Baltimore, and then Washington and Richmond, Spartanburg and Jacksonville and we are on the way West to go to Birmingham, New Orleans and Memphis and so up through the Middle West. For the last twenty-five or thirty years, I have been going about the country every three vears holding these Conventions, at which I meet all of our Managers and Assistant Man agers and members of the Agency Force who are gathered at con venient points. Reasons for Triennial Conventions 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 envi ronment and the advantages and disadvantages and the peculiarities 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 thought it was important that the Executive Officer of this Company should know them. Then, I believe, too, in these modern days, in personality. I believe that that modern note is one which is charac teristic 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 institution. 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: "Is 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 expected to see a great 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 Insur ance Company in the world should be the biggest man he ever saw. . 189 190 T he Metropolitan A P ublic Inctitution (Lauglifr.) He probably wanted to see me seven feet hisrh and weighing about three hundred pounds. Well, then, a little later I thmk ,t was in Detroit, when the men were posing out of the l oe r a,. alvvays tfy t0 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 dried D you,,kn 7 ' 1 always thought you were a little, old weazened dried up man. (Laughter). Then I felt better. (Laughter) ' of think: that the men should know the ideals the Company and they ought to know them from headquarters They ought to know the plans and the purposes of carrying on the S ' ' L' fe ^ sreat Company, and they can L o w it in no other way so well as to hear it spoken by the Chief. The Personal Relationship Has Counted, Greatly _ At any *te' the.se early Conventions of twenty-five or thirty years f i l l V h6 Conventl ns of a comparatively small Company, f a th e r ooked down upon by the older Companies ; and todav it is^^far and away the richest and the largest Life Insurance Company in the thk 1 ( Ap.pIayse`) ^nd, I cannot but think that a great deal of whh theCHS 15 nffit0 the personal equation, the meeting of the men oanv 11 H f j ^ erS` any rate' something has given this Com- thinl 1 efficient, the most loyal, the most ambitious, and I think the most affectionate body of men that anv 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 uo n l I n c thl)i generation. Now, at the business Conventions, various plans have been discussed and much advice given. They have been ," talks' but 1 reserve for myself always at the meeting which closes the Convention, some one topic, and tonight my desire is to ^ af f i ^ L t u Metrepo,it" Life Insurance Company as a What Is a Public Institution? Now, what is a Great Public Institution? I take it to be a corporahon 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 communi- p fS wh`ch 11 'vorks; that it goes outside of the business of its Charter and reaches out for the benefit and uplift of the citizenship o ,, h h i w f ? m Wl Gh 14 w rks` A11 great corporations are not public institutions. You can have m 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 than great public institutions. Now, what I want to do tonight, if I can, is to ht in a description of the Metropolitan Life as having the qualities of a great public institution. s H The Metropolitan'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 Address by Haley F iske 191 ,,,,rsue the objects .hat you ant to iollow out This is by iorjand h :y s je s a x % ?* % g have^'uddely extended influence : I S T ^ S U S S Sydney on the East to San Francisco on the > North to New dear u'p in the very Northern part of Canada, >J`he North o N e w Orleans in the South, covermg nearly And then you must nearly every Province in the Dominion of Canada. A na men y tave not only the extent territorially, but you ms have a sufficient think for a moment o L i a . so that, taking Z i T o great countries, every sixth man w orn and child is a mem ber of the Metropolitan. (Applause ) I say," and every policy- because the Metropolitan is a ^ 1 '\'f we come down to holder therefore owns a share of * e e a^ tSr where we have particular parts of the T t h e r e the xmulation is congested, been in business a long while and ^ Y o V ta k e X g eat City of New a ! l Louisa, aT firiy-eight per cent oi blemphS', - r y T r d 'm a n 0! -- K i d a m m b oM be Metropohtam Metropolitan. Go still further Metropolitan. Go east. are"24,0^3 policies^and 24 000 P ^ ^ d ' b / t o ^ C o ^ e n t i o i hls^a this Conventiom The territory {here are 292,000 policies population of about 59U.UUU p p territorially the number of policies is about 40 per ceni u b e , , , -n the territory generally that every third man, covered by this Convention is a , ^ t^e Metropolitan. Or, . population take this City of Atlanta, and you may J ^ le W !S ihere are covered m Atlanta by 1S, t Mev insure^l.OOO individual lives. 113,000 policies, and we take it that they 1isure01 . ula_ S "M A - ^ 1^2 The M etropolitan A Public Institution individual lives, the number of policies is so large that, taking the usual percentage, we have got mere lives insured in Troy than the total population, (Laughter and great applause.) Well, I said this the other night at a dinner where Governor Sm ith, 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 Company alone has in force nearly eight billions, and you see that is one-fifth, so that one-fifth of all the life insurance existing in these two great countries is covered by the Metropolitan Life. (Great applause.) Why, if you take the business of last year, the total amount of business written by all of these two hundred and fifty or two hundred and sixty Companies last year was nine and one-half billions, but this Companv 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 Company'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 for their benefit and reservation about $400,000. You see, therefore, to begin with, how we touch the people economically; how large a 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 Metropolitan 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 corpora tions especially are very wealthy and in some way or other, they have got their money in New York. Well now, we have not got the money in New \ ork. Oh, usually in the West 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 where they sell property. That is the function of Wall f. Address by Haley Eiske 193 :ar Street,--to sell and distribute property-- tor, what is property in the last analysis ? Nobody believes it is cash. Nobody believes we have $1,800,000,000 in cash. We have a lot of pieces of paper which rep resent property. And, now let us see how it is distributed. Of the $1,260,000,000, $510,000,000 are in Bonds and Mortgages. 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 buildings 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. W hat 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. What 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 West 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 are in public utilities. W hat does that mean? It means the electric light; 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. Now, 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 T he Metropolitan A P ublic Institution umS now .he S s S r ailioads h a i i they shall he run There T f " 0" by " say abom h " subjects or vassals of the State of h e l V C,ramp' subdue- *e that they are owned in Wall S t r J _ t h "priat^canit 1W `i 7 tne railroads. But. they have not. They sold tlfem T tf ' . h\ VC own the railroads are the nennle of iL " m' The who small investors and i Iuvp country. and largely the ^ h e a K M S i h a ^ h S h t 0" re Z S S / g ) erty, diminishing the value of the knn/ 6 attackln& railroad propmem for the promotion of r a f r o ^ / T TM '8 P'Plc from mvest- proper e r m i J S ^ they are d l L t to talr" " " ^ "' for hands and out of the Dockets of the g V -0 take IVone>r out of the S tate, (Applause.) ^ b l ^ l S Th`he U dted h'ttmg plutocrats. They are h.tt.ng (he o L m ^ k l n i pyeopLe " The Company of the Working People wepT,Lof ,his.great cr p" y of " fh policy-holders, y,,,, Y ,, TM a, once , ^ 0 0 a r ' " !- "1'" 0" f Naturally so. The business of 1 j e. worklng' people, partments. One is called OrHinn l dlvic*ed >nto two De suppose the reputation of ?his r 7 the ?ther industrial. And, I Ordinary Insurance is insurance in units of $1 firm a. h but starts at the other end The ah o S ^ 7 e r ,, m " i Inf" e 15 i^st as scientific hundred millions written and placed Z o r a aW^ iu n blII' n and ei^ht the Ordinary Department, a n f i ! ^ TT*" something like seven hundred and seventy-five mUhons A nT ^ one may say that in the Ordinary Department T e re a t deii of ^ ' there are many moderate sized policies held by people "who'have Address by Haley Fiske 195 bU` "'h m 1>r0tec,ins thcir families b? sav`ngs Labor the Foundation of All Wealth So that, when you hit property, when legislation is directed o f w o r k ^ Perty'l U '/ i `.rected g a in st the pockets of the great mass of working people of this country, and it is the pride of the Metro- ^ n n t V hf f ey aVL `V f r,' think a moment! Who are the working people. Labor is the foundation of wealth. All wealth is built up upon labor Then, look at these people from another point of viewP They are the voters. They elect the President, the Governors, the elect tthh*e PPrnesdi'd^e1nft "of7 6th[ye tUTnnidted f SStaayteinsg etlheactt tthhee sParmeseidPeentPloef wthhoe Metropolitan Life They elect the President of the United States through a college of electors. They elect the President of the Metro 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. A Bulwark Against Socialism 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 do not want people of property. They call them the Bourgeoisie, and 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 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 Metropolitan policies, and Communism has no use for them and I am particularly anxious that our policy-holders should know this. I remember a few years ago I was addressing a body of agents on the East Side of New York, and anybody who knows the East Side of New York knows that it is a foreign country, and I do not suppose that among those agents was a single American born man. My recol lection is that there were some fourteen different nationalities rep resented in that meeting, and the policy-holders were of the same nationalities, and they were people of verv moderate means, living in rather congested quarters on the East Side, and those people were accustomed on Sundays to go up to Central Park; and I told our agents to inform these people that they were propertv-owners; that they owned the Company, and that when on the way 'from the East Side up to Central Park they passed that marble building on Madison Square and looked up at the Tower, it was theirs. And, I said; "When you go up to Central Park and look into the windows of the Plaza Hole1, where the shades are always up and where the diners are always " TMaS ef re -S6 Vlstea? act' (Laughter)--"Now, when i x n e n i there you will see people eating rich food and drinking 1 wines; te your peopIe not t0 be envious. Don't look in YoounVthhin?kieynoVuy athreemen`joying nyeouSrtsaenlvdeosubtsyidweaasntidngsayEou<rYmuonPeoyo.r fWoohlas!t * 196 T he M etropolitan A P ublic I nstitution yoii are doing is to pay money into the treasury of the Plaza Hotel 6 Ui Pay Inierest on my ei&ht million dollar mortgage'." t o h L ^ H okT ' " " the pe0ple of the East Side wh wn The Metropolitan's Great Power 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 thev d and/ V S not, tiieir faVlt- They have never been educated and hern d r kT l Th ? W t0u IVe -and the ^uestion >s--"Can we help . For. what I have been discussing is the great power we have coormneeds fro^m the possessio1n woafnto?neoubti0llihoanv, *-twthoe h^uenadtrepdowaenrd wshiYxtcyh l Sna f Tm.iill-ions o^f memP?bWerCsr; Ythaet gCre0matespofwroemr thhaatvicno?mneisneftreoemn ahnadvinognea- I W dollars a d,ay lncm e: the great power that we have in invest I f 1 ls money where it will do the most good and putting it back I 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 r n iw ith ^ 1*3 PPortunttyf. 1 have said that these agents of ours collect their premiums weekly! Our agents pay two hundred millions a! TndtS ? yf ar t0 the h T S of the working people; and our agents, s Industrial agents, are the only people who have a contract right i1ay * kn-ck 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 hey come? Ah but that is Opportunity; and those v S l ^ e made to 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 over yonder brings to our mind one of the modes of e p. lese girls are trained nurses. Now, my guests on the right and left know perfectly well what trained nurses are. When they have a severe sickness in the house and the doctor looks grave and S T hls liea,fl and sa>;s: "! would like you to get a trained nurse." Why. It is because the doctor cannot stay with the patient. He 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 doubt, that the presence of these same nurses means often the difference between life and death, w hat chance has the poor man for trained nurses? I do not know what you pay down here. In my town we pay seven dollars a day. \\h a t can the working man do? It is obvious that he cannot do anything. Here, then, is the opportunity. Some years tW t. Address by Haley F iske 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 further trained than the trained nurses that you 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? Well, of 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 are 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 Workingman'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 stav home-- the 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 go 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 badly clothed? She gives directions for a more hygienic method of dressing. Is the baby badly fed? She gives directions for diet. In other words, she gives oral hygienic instructions to these families. Last year we paid two million, six hundred thousand (odd) visits hv these trained nurses to the homes of working people, and it brings the total number of visits that we paid up to some fifteen or sixteen millions. And. then, that work is followed up bv printed instructions. The guests will find at their tables tonight a binder filled with little leaflets and booklets.' They are samples of literature--literature on 198 T he M etropolitan A Public Institution '1 :^ 0 a " iT t ^ phlets on disease, "W ar on Consumption er' Specific Pam- of children. T h ^ e is n o t a%" b S ^ S - ^ * * * are the le a s e s typhoid fever; malaria; dengue L e r 's v o n " ^ 7 5 PamPh1 ! measles, whooping cough, scarlet W r u L W 11 down here-' And then, there is a wonderful oamnhJet and the like, the mother how to take care of herself a n ^ bdd>" which tells take care of the baby and herself w h e n /h / P ^ nancy and how to wonderful book on the subject ever written A n / T TM 5' the most booklets of instruction like the "Cook B o o k ' / / ' the/ eareLgeneral wife says, and she ought to know for x / ' e, of the best> my published for the benefit of the people tn 'S h cook~ that ever was There are pamphlets for the babieSP the "M o t h / r * dlstnbuted- carries health instructions alone- with ?tber Goose book which alphabet-hints for thrhousehold-/n5- , the ,et^ r s - a health and handsomely illustrated, which attract ^ / e n d / ' beautl,f.ul,1y Printed on to by the people who receive them T h S th J J T 1 ? ,ch T bdd pamphlets were distributed bv these men i / 7 * m'lh.ons of these Ota, distribution up t0 h ^ t T a n T s e ^ V ^ ^ i i ^ TM ^ A Death Eveyy F '<r and a Third Minutes this Company thar/to1tdl v o ' / t h a ^ beter jdea f fL`e extent of one-third minutes, and since you have * deatu- Very four and have lost thirty-five of ouJ m em he/ v dT n af this tab,e here, we selves but the Amrel of D e a t h h ' ^,u bave been enjoying your- sat down and * / * * Since we one-third minutes one of them d i / f r / / / ' T * 7 thlrty-three and lost seven from that dread disease uberculosis, so that we have them that is d ir e c t t A p S l e t ' ^ * is to disease now known as tuberculosis l" CTonSumptlon" This "Consumption." There nrTM ' w? s when I was a boy called First, it was hereditary and suPP?s^d to be two things about it. the father had it, the mother hadT /the incurable. If and they have all got to die. Thev 'slid have have act of God is somethimr rhar 7 ^ was an act of God." An everything that h a p p en s^ a i ThTtis f' W-hy is il that God and everything good that happens t / / they ,say 15 an A*t of In my day it was an Act o f V l n P lu the-v say is Luck? 2?? r ir S a ^ it t s a g d. And. it sets forth the cure Tf " b ^ Thispamphlet proves cure it. There are th refsim X thints7 ^ ^ ? in time> yu can and teaching that night air is iust af e ^a TM*' j resb.air day and night, and reasonable d i e / That is all t h i / d a*S day a,, ; reasonable rest No! Alcohol-well of course thL 6 '! t0 Patent medicines? not to be able to S it-b u t ileohol "PPS' d air ie G oo, X a u d it s^the* cure, *and`r e a d a b le Vn > s t d i e ^ w e R^- Address by Haley F iske 199 within tiie means of most people who are sick and we teach these peop e o\v to get tresh air day and night. If they live in the country, they can put up a shack in the corner of the porch or in the yard. * *1 u ar-6 jn 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 mside, and they can breathe the fresh air all night. The Company's Sanatorium I suppose somebody is saying to me "Prove your case," and we have proved it. Some years ago we erected on Mount McGregor, nine miles back of Saratoga, a Sanatorium. You will see pictures of ^ i ^ Sent- n i he screen- an4' since we have built t. we have received l,4o4 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 CUrCj ,, T iey llave technical names--"arrested," "quiescent," "im proved. 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 anv of our truests ever come to New \ ork, they will visit No. 1 Madison Avenue, which is a great social medium and medical laboratory. You will see pictures of it presently. We 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. McGregor." 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 Mt. 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, healthv looking and with the best record of anybody in the Convention, and I say "cured." (Great applause.) It is a demonstration. 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 oppor tunity that I have told you about, and hold ourselves up to a certain responsibility. What I want our men to carry away with them tonight 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 M etropolitan A P ublic Institution S v i d , " t a . e ^ S S ,heSinH L I eh O ffibe" ^ A tto K ' 1 McGregor whirh ca,,s: "We do nnt ? ffice covenng one from Mt. tuberculosis." We know that in a patientf enou?h here with thousand employees sateen thousand T i f Y has twenty five in the Home O ffice-w e knnw ^ m the held and eght thousand than are here at th Sanatorium and ^ Cases of tuberculosis the responsibility of Managers and it t lat COmeS nght down to often how reluctant " Z S 1 1 n ? Ve7 Senous one- 1 he sees when he is pale perham hp Y * Wlt a g0od man' and yet> the cough; but, it may 'not have go, S ' l a r 1 7 ? iti" u T responsibility to watch his staff and tn i If L the Manager's S " ei f 1 " " ? f a t " d" 2? te t S . ably z , ; s : prob- 7ho hSlPi, t t e t e l TM ? ? -e te t = h i r h L X erchMeCfsUgevery T m e ^ ^ X ^ ^ e ' h T i s careleL^whh well as every nurs^should teach and c, Y 7 agCnt Sh uld teach as for we believe 7, c a n ? sl,,Sped ^ St P ,he P'^ nSS ` * * . We believe that our responsibility goes further than th ,, r :EiHSSSTiS"H = ? things we are doing along these t o Lev T 7 ? ? ', SOrae of ,he Potations; that Sanatorium i t n e ? hem' Tf in ? Z ^ r t h S c S ,8 fZ e h tsZ S tz z t Steel Company said to me t Y hospital " The lesson that' 5 cL i r,, r ,r eRr a ip r ^ Y d \ the RePubllc Iron and down and see my million dollar they had the povve to erec tten* T h S M Was that was erected Pg a l ,, ,, ' ,, " S t S n I,"w as " T t " t w ^ Z Z " ^ nght, as an insurance company, to erect Sanatoria. It was " J S L Address by Haley Fiske 201 vires." Having paid my respects to the doctors, perhaps I had better say a kindly word to the lawyers. I used to be one myself. "Ultravires?" Well, I put it to the consciences of the members of the Bar present whether it is not often used by them to give advice to clients that they have not the right to do what they do not want to do. ``Ultra-vires"--beyond the power. (Laughter.) We had to go to Court about 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 Directors of the Metropolitan Life believed that reasonable care includes the furnishing of a Sanatorium for their tuberculous em ployees, 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 steppingstones, 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. F rankel, who ordered sixty or seventy houses burned up because they were uninhabitable and we sent down Mr. Stabler, 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 lay out 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 T he M etropolitan A P ublic Institution to do about it. A Erea? E s o n - K ? n n T t0 'ay * 0ut' and what porations who luve fhe planning of towns ^ leSSn t0 c r- Lessons to Corporations X x z r x z z z r z r v , to ,hHe rda,ir ,hat th= he system known as Gronp S ' L e Grono T S ,hr " ?h Stas X S L I group insurance. It is very low priced The \ LCta,nt u take Up i5 a 3 C - f f iF E ig f e w r S is s r a ^ p ,, ^ w ^ h r 6 K a ; m h sfta sa ? * is r .- J v that address was largely that clarion call to service which T asLet you to hear and to heed; and since then it J asl? d P m tlV X s 2 d ,:Sth2et S f t Uhui2Sl " h a t " I w H h S i X X Z Z X Z Se" %- as well as our employers." "We are entitled to be treated as human beings, with a fair wage and with a right to the comforts of life/" A Contented Family That ls the meaning of this class antagonism. You and I regret the outrages to which it has given rise but vou and T ha ^ sympathy after alf, with these gpoor p e o * whoTre n n i t L l ^ a 'p TM test against wrong methods of living and carrying on business We' A ddress by H aley F iske 203 thought we could see through Group Insurance some opportunity of carrying home to employers some sense of responsibility. And, if you will look at the screen in a few minutes, you will find the lesson to corporations there in the treatment of our employees. Whoever heard of a suike in Inc Metropolitan? Mere arc a contented body of men who see the Company grow, and with it their own compensa tion 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 Metro politan 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." (A.pplause.) And that from an ex-President of tb~ federation 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 Worcester, Massachu setts. 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 certifi cate 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 1 (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. HE M etropolitan a P ubUC Institution Tha. . The Pollcyhlders Service Bureau Group Division" a ' connect l with the that ,s a Bureau for the mstmcHnn ^ ' ^ ' d e r s Service Bureau" it consists of some twelve or fiffp* Z assistance of employers and are offering their s e r v i c e s ^ u a t J ^ K 't h hey are issuing publications to t h e ^ 1 1 emplyers of labor, and * y, are teaching them improved mct-h P " ^ teachmg them safety teaching them improved me? h n l i Z 3 ,f " p e e r i n g ; they .e ^ ass'flca|tI0ns. methods for fa c to rie s^ b(?okkeePing. profit making f " 'm b u K t v = ^ s ar,,en r r f ,, 'r hich has the Opportunity which fill bn ^reat Company of Power an instance down in t h T L Z u fiIIs,the Responsibility I Jm eZ h? and then went down t s u ^ T Z ^ ? e issmd the employees had not any milk ' T h n l ^ that the children oi nd it was through our efforts that *h7 had to use condensed milk- Z T betenthe,tea'nch^ri.<n^g1ucthtieonaecotuf>artlheutm^m-bp?tlo^yer^t^It ^ in tah,nodsefrwesahvs^ we enefit of those who work for th e m ^ e s s o n s to 5rporati.ons for the wessons to corporations! Lessons to Government J " '" TM '"''" ''" GW erbefc"iih",'; c " ' allied wilh tbat W0,uld g`ve Rself over to us f kd for some town Massachusetts a town of fifteen t L **J S f heaIth>and Framingham offered itself to us a n d w e s e n " * 'C o S F ST nteen t h o u s a n d ^ been there ever since and are n L Z TM T - of, experts>and they have hey did was to physically examine the abors- phe first thing quarters of the people submitted to e x a m b Z 0" ' Z 1 suPPose threefo isolate the tuberculous and then in *m "atIons the next thing was >n a trained nurse, and of course we looS T S ^ u - C0Urse- ^ p S I am told that every employer nf i ed ? fter tbe milk suPply. Now as you Will see th a t V e T a ^ f a t a mAedical such employer of labor has a trained nurse 1J f ad,son Avenue, that every And what has been the result? M n Z ? r " has a trained nurse7 cut down fifty per cent in the s i f years 7 TbTM tuberc1u,osis has been been improved 20 per cent T / The general mortality has cases as the year U o r e and ff ^ ^ -n,y half TM those new cases came from other townT C^rectIy, form ed, most of as to what it can do if it will do w h Z i Z * esson to every City other towns did as well we mad, WC d' d' And' lest yu say that Massachusetts of about the same size f ten ther Cities improvement was only 18 per n, J d " d * * * he .j "THE THING I WANT YOU TO TAKE HOME AND THINK ABOUT" Business Session of the Managers' Annual Convention, January 29, 1925 H aley F iske, President My dear friends, I have left for myself but a very few minutes to say something to you at the conclusion of this exhibit of the year's business. I don't like merely to read this record and dismiss you. I won't see ysu 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 possible limit, and what I shall have to say there will not be directed entirely to you, but also to the listeners-in, who, this year, will be millions and millions 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 speak 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 B ull is one of the most dis tinguished men in England. Fie 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 surrendered, and thereafter he lives the Community life. Father Ball's Visit to Home Office Father Bull was in this country delivering a course of lectures at the General Theological Seminary. He became 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 con sidering, he said he never liked to meet or know rich men or the officers of rich corporations. You can see his idea. lie 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 Home Office. He lunched. Then we showed him around. I thought he would never get through. He said lie thought he had walked ten 439 440 M anagers' Annual Banquet, 1925 visit* to v!";!' TM |W" i 'C, T " saylns: thoroughly enjoyed my " t o & S X S t t Z m" ,,`!clearly ' vil1' " d a - Cooperation Our Mission 1I.C w i^n'r'rv!,; f 'akiGg ?ursclvcs instruments of good, carrying out 0 n- n s i Tl ^ - 1^ T TM ? of ^ t y - i s th L t or is ft not aanndd tthlnaTt iss tthhee thl ini g I? want youg to Wta`?knet ht0omSeayanad wthoirndk oarbotwuto. abnt, hut as^n ]ifI8';tIS PUt Up n US' not nlerely as a life insurance company, the co m, v anCi CT Pally Wh'ch has one' fifth of the Population who n X m o m o o n Wh0SC SyStC,T H1V0lves weckIy visits of agents, who net h ^ '00?r?? OI\,more cal!s a >'car >n the homes of people tunitv and T o-, ],|lat, `S 1le sltuatlon; 11 develops at once Opporcnea^ed in a 7 * 'a , r S men belonging to a great corporation and 1 s to aZv i tl a iiitn hunia ef [ 1 C ^ ' * pUts i beings, such as you and Upon your us Responsibility, and agents are, can't afford to get into tins daily those opportunities. relationship with (A p p la u se .) other human beings and nekglect 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 7 r ' IC >agr r tS,, ?' inurancc company, but human beings. They \ |,.S 'i? tbem- They have, as human beings, human relationships' and this Company creates for them an abounding human , n a r S7 - 11 Puts them into weekly contact with millions and mil ions 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 oppor tunities 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 gooc ic can, not contenting himself with simply keeping the contracts which the Company has made for him. 1 he Home Office Furnishes the Means i 7",', S0, wbat can vve do? W hat we have been doing at the Home Office is to furnish you the plan and the material by which you can meet those Gon-given opportunities. First, of course, is nursing, and 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 under stand at all the act of an agent in neglecting any sick Industrial policy holder who needs a nurse. dhen, I am talking about literature year after year, and I don't want to say much about that. But, gentlemen, if you yourselves read le literature that we issue, you must be impressed with the fact that r is very, very instructive and helpful, I am persuaded that it has A dDRUSS BY IlAUvY I'lSKE 441 been largely circulated where it would do the most good. I do hope that you will continue to see that it is distributed where it wdl do the most good and in the manner in which it will do the most 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 ot human sympathy will enter into men's breasts 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 friend ship 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. 1-Ie 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 mind letting me in for a few minutes." . , The man's face softened, and he said, "Well, come in. The agen opened the subject of insuring the father and the mother and the chil dren, and he made no headway. The man got up in a kind of disgust, left the room and went out into the kitchen to shave. Of course, tne 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 you would like to listen to a Christmas address made by the P resident of my Company to the men and ^ b e 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 y UWelir of course curiosity got the better of the woman, and she said. 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. 'T here was a listener-in from the kitchen. He M y b j t Inin the room and said: "I missed part of that. Do it over again. It was done over again, and the agent left with the application of father and mother and every one of the children. (Applause.) ^ " ^ k n o w that story isn't told for the Impose of any exahation of myself. It is done for the illustration of what I am insisting is true- that the hearts of working people are yearning for TMmpa!hy a id human relationship; and as soon as that man found Managers' Annual Banquet, 1925 "K : s erbt g ,* * * * * . a member of the corporation t h Z P F ' h? .Said: "Xwant to be dle welfare of all bis policyholders of w w T V 1'" 1' 5 ^ Christmas of Do you see? Can you L that a i m e L w } T Smg to be one-" was in the man's mind ? That feeline i's at .fee]in&- that mipulse that People, whether they admit it or not mmds f aI1 wofking he Meaning Reaches and Touches Men Who Work reachtas i' to hose' mm 7 n ''t h T m a t e " ,, " t " "'" 1 I ' TM , s mutual contributions tics Up in a u " ' W11C1' m effcct' ties UP in the employe, and ties them up in a f a S y ^ s r 5^ ^ emi?Ioyer and ship m business, and thev in n ^ y ,e" se: are in partner- ownership, that mutuality which is L f joint binding- together of millions of n m n tgf 7 f th? MctroPoIltan, that beautiful thing in the world It s /he m - lWd supPrt* the most the employe that he and his hose ^ consciousness on the part of - t h a t is the great beneS t U TM^ ^ MetroPIita" family does ameliorate and is ,ure i Pr,?duced !>y Gro"P Insurance. It Capital and Labor, the employed a n d in T f 6 the [eIat,onshiPs between it * yoa W ,, , i o n Z c Z f ness which we are doinc dnimr t i u , 1 3m bri"SGroup Insurance busi- small extent as c o m S , 2 ,12 T ? 6 cxlent- < '* valuable things from a ti!l|l]ic point F| 0:>'', ,ll:,'cs is one of the most He engaged in tha, is interested a, aU ' n>' f " " T ' i , " " " UnMn<> Bonds of Mutual Interest * Emp,,,i,, something about the^great'poweTo^ t!^ 1 thmk 1 saidto >'011 last year, wealth, the great responsibilities tin t 11S-corporation, its great mass of - come. But g e n t l e d who enn which has not only the working a,nd the ^rcat dangers that ' S and, tbe attltude of a Company tied together in Group Insniinr ? r SUred,, but emP,0>'cr ai'd employe try all''membSs of t h e ^ UStries f ,this ^ come to any company the define - anCy t!'e Power that would any company that has' on its hnnh a^ainst assault that would come to this country masses of n c n l ^ of the Population of their employers. When you t a K ^ r " mdTStry 111 cooPeration with poUan C e p .,, L a n c e A ddruss by I I ausy E iskis 443 Group Insurance is the study of hygiene of the worker. Did you hear me read that list of forty different things that Dr. W ade W right is doing in his division ? Can you see that he is T O K R ll^lR S^info'all the hazards of employment; that his purpose is to bring home to the 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 through the employer, or independent of the employer, and looking after his health, his domestic conditions, his methods of carrying on his employment, the things provided for him in the place of employ ment. And this hygienic investigation and survey of Dr. W rigiit 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 you see now this human relationship extended to the nth 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 you see that it is the sweetest of all things, the tender human relationships, the heart touch of crowds who will say, as you go on in this work, that you are marked men in the communities in which you live? The working people will look up to you as their friend and their advisor. Employers will be seeking you to know what more they can do. Capital and labor will lose their strife, and, as Gob's people under the one roof, whether they be capitalists or laboring men, they may be brothers, and you and your agents, as you 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 H aley F iske, 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 Home Office people are not to be neglected in what I shall say. I am present ing 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 . ^^urance 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. ls 37 pgr cent. ol_.all the Industrial insurance written by some forty companies doing Industrial business. (Applause.) 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 con siderable amount, a billion dollars, was written on what is known as the Group insurance class, whereby, under a contract made by em ployers, all the employees are insured. I suspect that if we took account 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 502 M anagers' 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. 1hat is one-fifth of the gain that was made by all the 300 companies, he 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,UOu more than any other company had. This group insurance, of which 1 have spoken, insures 700,000 working people. The gain in Group in surance 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 from the receipt of the weekly premiums on the Indus trial 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 In dustrial premium of $734,000 is nearly 69 per cent, more than that, made by any other company. Also, it is half as much again as this Company ever placed before. The amazing record of an increase in vvcekly 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 number 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 Metro politan advisedly, because the Metropolitan Life is a mutual Company. I here 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 information for some of our guests, the United States from 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 and 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 are only about 4,000,000 people in Canada who can be reached by Industrial insurance agents. Therefore, you Address by IIauy InsKE 503 may say that two-fifths of all the population of Canada that are eligible n ^ L ^ L a t e S r c d muler "j t f t h e 000. We have Industrial insurance in force in P . larger, families of wage earners. In parts of j o j h y the f i g ?n gthe If you take New England, the percentage of families ins Metropolitan is 3 7 * . In the South it is over 34 per cent. In New York State, it is over 32 per cent. income of the Company is This is an enormous business. T ic t0 d the resuit is that we some $531,000,000. It has <to beseated for d t l ^ ^ ^ $1.8S4.- had built up the assets of the 000,000, and long before e cn shall have $2,000,000.000 483 000 That income of $531,- of assets. We gained, last ye oqo'oOO'more than the income of any s a t-- ;!* - ,* * " r irc ' - L oE $40,000, 000. .... r . nnmiHtion of the United States To have insured one-fifth of the PPU nronortion of people and Canada, to have on our books that la S P 1 agents at the (22,000,000 lives), whose premiums arc c o g e t ^ visits to homes by homes, involves, I : ^ ' f S a T insurance agent is our agents. As I have often sa . , Monday morn- h o u le" ? > w of no ,!lcr b u s in L or profession where that contract right exists. The Nursing Service What is involved in 300,000,0001 visits is a question that was pu possibility of the sickness of t e thc are s m k whose Iocc thc household where the ^ Ladies and gentlemen, Plctur/n0tK . S_e carner is at work, in the expenditures equal the i n c o m e dmvgn Nay, even if it he not case of the wage earner g stricken with illness, or his clul- their distress? , :,,nce So, some seventeen That is, with us a q u c s t . o n of conscicn ^ , ServicCi where- years ago we established , j tpe ri,rht to the services of a by any sick Industrial policy .unpC;allv trained- they are not the trained nurse. These nurses are X e m n l o J M u. they, having been mere graduate nurses whom t h : rteh en to. 0 ^ jt is M ACnd this liurslng invoives the visiting of the 504 Managers' Annual Banquet, 1926 S^ ~H Sl l SS ^2HSSHS s i i V c ^ v 'SiTM 'TM b s" 'mp l ? " K'`1,C'" e hM " *>. > bout t a temperature and'the It IS obviously impossible in nursing sick Industrial nolievhnlrW* at our expeare, that there .should be b e d ile nursing, t a ! is to w t a ' except in very extreme cases where it is nerp^^nrv ft ' visit, observe, give directions and inform the doctor To a certamTx tent, herefore, she is the eye and the right arm of the doctor She visits anil mf rn?cd of the progress of the patient between Ills r g ^ l,, TM ^ to the household. - ly 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 hnr pier, t i i about her and tell what is w rong-lack of clean h L s foi in ? what is wrong with the clothing of children, what is w^ong withVeV what is wrong with cooking. It is her business to be a hygienic in' t l T r f T S`,ng' ar*d-,indirectly, we haven't any doubt in the world' Un^i f0t T 7 ,d0CS she bnnS t0 health the sick, but she gives a great deal of instruction to prevent sickness in that household and to make hygienic conditions better. It must be naturally and necessarily so b^redaS2,695,0CK3,e ancTdiat h'asbroughtau]>^he0^^ ?^ n u n b err ofnUm" V1Slls S,,KC " b'6 " this work, seventeen years ago, to S S .O O O Distribution of Literature Then we follow that up by instruction-instruction in the form of literature and we have pamphlets and leaflets upon practically every known disease. This literature is distributed by the agenfas thev go around, whether there be sickne nr nni t* .s as tney go and ,,'the case J5T 335 " S * A ddress by H aley Ihske 505 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 homes of working people. What has this accumu lation of 23,000,000 visits meant? What has been accomplished by the distribution of 400,000,000 pamphlets? It is a rolling up from year to year; it is a progression of health education; and we know, as I shall prove to you in a moment, what the effect has been. But it doesn't need figures. It merely means the bringing to bear of your reason on these facts, what must be the result of the intensive educa tion by trained nurses in hygienic work, by the care of the sick, and by literature of instruction. . Another form of help, to a smaller extent, is the meeting and care of immigrants, and the Immigrant Bureau has cared for 8,790 cases, coming from thirty-seven countries and despatched to thirty-eight states. The system is this: If any policyholder of ours has relatives coming over, he is invited to advise our Immigrant Bureau, to give the date of arrival, the port of arrival, and some description, if not a photograph, of the woman or the child, or the father or the mother who is coming. The service consists in the meeting of the incoming immigrant, at the boat or at the port by our man, the care of her or of him while in port, the getting of the immigrant through the Cus toms the putting of him or her on the train, the telegraphing to the home where he or she is destined to go, of the train taken and the date and hour of arrival. So that we take these poor women and children and older persons and see to it that they are not robbed, that they aie not exploited, but that they get to their homes safely, that they are put into the care, in the case of women, of the Iravelers Aid Society, and, in the case of men, in charge of the conductor. The Sanatorium We have conducted a number of demonstrations to show what the result of our work has been. Perhaps the most important was the erection of the Sanatorium on Mount McGregor some twelve years 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 hnd this side of the grave. Its work has been extensive. We have received there iust short of 4,000 cases, about half of them tuberculous. I here is a large staff there of 200 people. There are numerous physicians and trained nurses. All are in fireproof buildings, vermin-proof, open to the air It is the fresh air treatment, the reasonable diet, the reason able exercise, which have been found to be the true cure for tuberculous PeW e have ended this period with a percentage of those discharged of 84 per cent cured. (Applause.) When I say "cured" I speak as a layman. I don't \yant to hurt the feelings of any doctor present, but 506 M anagers' Annual Banquet, 1926 ^ E X ' S S U K S li d Lowest Death Rate 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 p r e m i u m S - thInat is among Tthe ,1w"aghe-rela`rCners--was i8n.4"6*peInr dtuhfoturisaalndD. qT,hSat Sis the lowest death rate we have ever known in our history. (Applause ) 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 tl" s i'e r a l TO Uh t o ' " 1" ' ^ people s among N ow that death rate has been reduced since 1911 from 12 53 ner oguc, but 1 sshhaallll g. Iiv'1e CyCorutaian tfdeSweaSwChr icJh aCre0UiWllugstVraCtive--^thwe rhedoulcetioXn in the death rate from tuberculosis in that period has been 56 per cent- per cent. 1he total rmediduicpthioihnc rf.irao'm6 3alpl edr iseases has bseenc32 5 ner cent, and the statisticians and doctors calculate that this means Pan extension of nine years of the lives of our policyholders during this period of 1911 to the end of 1925-fourteen years. We hive the W e T ' d Wn 19,24, f the extension of life of the general population We know perfectly well that in this period of fourteen yearsIhere has been an improvement in the general population, but the extension of life during that time has been five years as against our nine Jears Put it another way We had 66,288 less deaths in 1925 than we would have had if we had had the same experience as in 1911 If We compare our reduction in mortality from 1911 to 1924 (the latest vear for which census figures are available) with the reduction among the' geneial 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 gam of the country, your reason tells you What it wwiillll'tleelll/vynou,1.C `Af t HlittMle leavnenthlfeasvuernros uth,nediwnShopleopluumlapti.on,Itacalinttnleot tbheoutghhatt 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 w'e 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 general population has been reduced. It has had an influence in the whole community. (Applause.) ? Address by IIalEy F iske 507 Help in Housing w . i._vp ivl(i since the war, another condition of wage earners, ,, a m S he lack rhom ing, and w= have been lending money s.nce 2 0 . ail over this eountry, for the building of new dwcUmgs and or the erection of apartments, and, to a certain extent, of hotels Uu g. last year alone we loaned $100,000 0)0 ^ o fZ jv Ann fnmiltf*; and since we began this work in iy/U, $343,000,000, and have housed 95,000 families, which 1 suppose, means perhaps at least 300,000 persons. Cooperative Work with Other Agencies W hat I have been describing to you is the intensive, particular' wo within our own family of policyholders, curative medicine, but we have not stopped there Jave been y S S w o*1, s f r s s . ". * " " ^ y to - s * ^ . ? h e r t e bL T t ^ C ^ nurses the art of trained nursing. . . j conciitions in Canada which is McGi" " * rsuCrk1^* not correlated, overlapping, w jfrcsidcllt A i ch was gotten up in ^ roughr under6super bision, which "will prevent overlapping and will promote efficiency. . . , , in the Dominion 0, S S w T c ^ " m m S' W " * lhe D t e " e L S S ^ ,, States! W e Z v S f e h e d competitive fellowships f o r c i n g h e a l t l r 1, <" h" w e Z i i p r q "<l special literature for public school education and health. 508 M anagers' Annual, Banquet, (1926 dubs tlirouglw urthi1a w n t^ ." 5"1"8 Sp" lal lltera,url! for 700 women's T e a S e r 'T s s o S S ^ TM iSSUi"S Sp" ial lito a t"rc f" " * Parent- br M l K iS s r`,mT w,,, h S f b e S C"entt h r o S f a ' f i r u ? ! ""'? ; r r K t t h 0 " ,of ,"" m is cal examination Another is the\m lt &41^.necessjty f periodic medi- , ^ e ar rate, and w~e know trhatpsl=ome ?0f~)r>nm~,,,,,, i. i & the smallpox film. AUUU.000 people have seen Demonstrations w T . Sv e f n 1 ,bC `Uber mission to a town Ih ic lt Turned over T s h e ^ 6 f a COm' Company, the town of Framingham, in M a S h u s ^ ^ T 6"1 t0 *he sion went there and stayed five or six a S , The commis- cv that tuberculosis could be v e rT e T -u T dinJn . Was ! prOVC Vy & 7 l an infant was 300 ncr 1 m i l l ; , " " rst year of life of died within a year We sent t y 10ne"t*lirc^ f the children born schools of instruction besides the^work " T T t5 We organized and we reduced tl aTdeath rate in 7 Ch he tra,ned nurses did> to 96. (Applause ) ' `CC yCars> from the 300 Per 1,000 It was a demonstration that had an immediate effect Short!,, ttoo SddonVs1i'1m^iilWarlawt o1r:k.ldi.n^coctnhedronpea,rttsheofPrthoevinPcreovoinf cQe uebec voted ?$550000,0O0O0f) by SeUM ' Z k F TM ,, d a b ,, r ; \ f r ' n f / i " ' " ;" " - 11? bM" 0 0 0 ,0 0 0 lor similar work J ,,, b e i , J c a r r i e d F ^ r T ' P I S " '7 two ol .he c itiS ' American Citizenship " iS ? A 5 E S ? r F iE S `i ";S S p i tT o ^ S V T tV G Address ijy I-Iausy Imske 509 tion, in its general organization and in its laws. That work is being carried on jointly by the Security League and ourselves. 1lien, this Immigrant 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 foreign populations, gathering together these people who have just come over, instructing them in English, getting them naturalized. We have distributed millions of pamphlets on first citizenship papers and second citizenship papers, and have really, at times, gathered to gether the immigrants after they have been sufficiently instructed and bad them pass through the Naturalization Court. Burial 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 have made various efforts with bodies of undertakers to get them to cooperate, to get them to fix standards, to get them to reduce prices. We 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. We are going to find out the facts. We are going to find out whether the poor are robbed, as many people think they are. We are 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, docs 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 in surance, and insured thrift. The employer to whom the policy is issued signs an application which carries with it a register naming the em ployees 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! W hat a field it presents for doing particular things for Industry! W hat 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 M anagers' Annual Banquet, 1926 beyond the taking out of insurance? Nursing goes among Group policyholders; distribution of literature goes amongst them. But what about the employer? Service to Employers Wc 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 and hygierie, one on industrial relations, one on publicity relations, 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 and information as to what can be done for the betterment of their estab lishments. We received, last year, hundreds of requests. This involves the surveys of plants. It is done free of charge. Where 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 veys arc increasing. The work, as I have told you, through the issue oi uroup policies, has become very large. js.numy u iass vv arjarc But, now, what arc the ulterior effects of this kind of work? What are we doing? We are introducing among bodies of people, among whom there was a class war, cooperation. You know that for the _has .grown up the deepest antagonism be tween Capital and Labour. It has bothered and worried the students ot economics, aye, the students of government; and there is a great tear that has come on communities, on whole countries, as to what is to be the outcome of this continued antagonism of the employees against their employers. I dare to say that there is reason on the part oi the working people. I dare to say that the history of Capitalism for the last 100 or 150 years has been a disgrace to Christianity and to civilization. (Applause.) IT is many 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 boding of discontent, and that discontent was that the labouring people ' 7-: 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 V action for the reform of abuses and the establishment of rights. And Address by H aley Kiske 511 I asked you to listen to that clarion call of service, to do what you could in your contact with the working people of these two countries to bring about a better feeling, at least to bring about some ameliora tion of the horrid domestic conditions of the working people. ihe prediction was fulfilled, and since then you have heard of riots and incendiarism and murder--awful things! 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 in partnership. Kmployer and employee aie jdike insured by the same policy, lliey are in the union of the Metropolitan Life. They have been gathered together in the family of Mother Metropolitan. The employee has been taught that hTs~employer cares for him. The employer has been taught that he is dealing with human souls as precious in the sight of God as his own. (Ap plause.) And that is the great object which we have in view in the prosecu tion of Group insurance. We arc pretty nearly alone in that outside work. We are not content with issuing policies. We 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 united country where class warfare shall l cease. (Applause.) . That,^ to me, is the one thing that we started group insurance for. IWe didn t need the insurance. We were, year by year, issuing more /insurance than any other company. We had more insurance than any other company. We didn't need to add to our assets. We didn't need to increase our insurance. But we saw an opportunity for work for 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 ing, is to reach the employer, to bring to his mind the responsibility that is upon him for the health and welfare of his working people. That is ' Group insurance! (Applause.) The Four Specters Before Working Men I have told you before that in the life of the working man there are constantly four specters facing him. One common to us all is death. We are providing for that by life insurance. Another, a possibility, is sickness and accident and the loss of wage. I hat we are trying to cover by sick and accident 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 liked by some people, we have given it a longer, but by no means a better name, Deferred A n n u i t i e s a system by which the employee saves a little, his employer contributes to it, and they build up a fund which will provide an annuity when the person insured reaches a cer- 512 Managers Annuag Banquet, 1926 tain age which is fixed by themselves, 60 65 or 70 T t,,f We have issued a great manv w a <oo or/U . Tllat ls growing. funding tifisrDeferre^ A M UUiesi s y ~ WaSbCOntril)U^ ^ 1^ U^ ' ^ a^ 0" have their lives insured at ti c expensTM'o M h e 'c 31' f our,fmPloyees have sick and accident insurance ,11 ^ u C P T pany' aI1 of them Company for five years have pensions' ^ f w Wh<? bcCn with the not preaching what we don't practice ( A i X i t e ^ T 03' W " T largest pension or Deferred A ,,n,,t . 1Applause.) I suppose the world exists right here in the M / co[!|ract existing anywhere in the ance comlpanyy, innssuurcs tUhee (Company as an emLpll,oicy'erwohficlha-boasur.TM hisur- Unemployment Insurance we "n h' th,Cre 1S, flle spcctcr 1 haven't mentioned--unemployment--and hn to d^m^theS^0111!8 t0,ei}ler into tIle discussion of the reasons why up tolved ' W W aSn/ paSSed Some Personalities migln be im be involved P e r h a m ir bs" re PoIitica]- economical doctrines might if d' ^ ps 11 lb Phte to use the mere word "conservatism " s^^HrSSSSSSSS if n iL " ; t s r g & T s S insuring with usS (Applause.) s s ' ^ Labour Unions are now unemployment,1 GoD^nly" knows T d o n 't" ^ (A to?36 % g a in s t - /? to issue"S K S . , i r T piotoifsd ap p lL 'il'i WC g in|! 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' Address by IIaeEy F iske 513 is : ^ : S S -3 t e ""o ^o ^ i T h M S f . re- S f u n E or ^ l t % Ce i;,K V 'h a s cw rT id , '(applause) and 1Mite to <h" this somethinE 1ms been our frequent tnecun8s lor the las, Hurt, years Rut there is another reason for this annual convention, and t a is , " u `: Picture accomplished In each Terr, o r, ,n the .1` fieure which you could look upon and say, >sVfother" J each side of me; I have tried in some way winch, no <(JU)l' n h f been done betted by. others, to give them into1her h S S S d S 3 ? "Sh, don't gomvay from this convention feeling that you are serv`" g a y, and the Canadian people (Applause.) Look at h e r, see 1e_ j. She is not a figure which sits on a throne and p r;m^r;iv her She is at work through every avenue that she can find. Primarily her s p |? f i g l = s i ? s w m m m m oM tumanhl?, thlre you will find the Company, hand-m-hand. (Ap plause.) 514 Managers' Annual Banquet, 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 will take care ot the assets and of the income. And new members--why? To get new people among whom we can circulate literature; new people to whom wc can send nurses; new people through whom we can study conditions. J 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 vn'^n herC a!"e ^ i 000 mcn w.aitinS for you to come home. There are U,UUU mcn 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 a man, and eternity will require of you some account of how you have exercised your stewardship. 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 honesty and industry and ambition. It is a wonderful thing, this great body of teachers. 6 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 dis tributed as advertising, but distributed as what it is--instruction in preventive medicine. It is for you to multiply the number of Group cases. Why? To bring into human relationship employer and employee. That is your job. Every one of you has some sort of manufacturing or other establishments employing labour. What is the condition now as be tween employer and employee? W hat can you do to teach this better ing 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 e.Yery t`me You go into the factories and visit them, and every tim you distribute literature, and every time you send trained nurses--you are doing your part. You are doing your part to end this class warfare of Capital and Labour. 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 as you work day by day, "I am my Mother's son; I am brother to every policyholder" ! (Great applause and cheers.) INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Idress Before the Chamber of Commerce, Cleveland, Ohio, April 20, 1926 H aley F iske, President of the M e t r ^ oiitattL ife Insurance Company relations of employer and employee are the subject of most ng and perhaps the most important problems at present under ation m Industry. Just now matters are in a quiescent state, s are very high and unemployment is at a minimum and the men are saving money. But legislation is pending 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 con volving strikes, riots and serious disagreements between emnd employee. They have a historical basis. The story of the dred and fifty years is one of exploitation on the part of capital wmg 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 ill-used. But the joes 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 were paid Is. 3d. Any higher wages were said to be too high for the station in labourers and 8s. to 10s. a week were the proper wage, s show that in a family with five children the wages of the imily amounted to 8s. 6d. a week, and budgets are published that the cost of maintenance was 11s. 7y2d. per week. There o ways by which the deficit could be covered--one was Poor :lief and the other was the imposed necessity of the work of d children in other employments. The Elizabethan Statutes scale of proper wages. If any employer paid more he was ' and sentenced to ten day's in jail. Any labourer who received in 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 ft*?':-.: ? ^ & `5 z . sg tz z s ? ,fr r * * * - day from six to six in the summer ^ t0i make a tweIve ll0ur sunrise to sunset. M e a n w h i l e f e a , ? and " fhe winter from by enclosure, which extended to tli V nm nglts Were cut off crops was forbidden. The daily fare nfCf? T ?nS' and ^caning after for animals. The family was L used in n Was ne fit only X 'S x z z z iz r r " - t e r is recorded came into vogue, but p u b b f ^ manufacturing England awarded to agricultura and ,, recognition was in factoring was done by what is c a lle d ^ pursuits- Manu- work was given out by merchants and nS?*1"5 Uf system> where labouring classes to do at home ' lqJ w ? ty ma"ufacturers to the considered proper methods for aidino- m fges and poor relief were competitors. Most m a n ^ a c t u r e ^ *? outbid foreign all ages were seen everywhere walking fTM S^ at " ca tb' Women of tmg. Agricultural workers who rnul I "1 ^ aCC to p*ace busily knit- expected to eke out an existence h i . ) Carn a subsistcnce were dustnal employment. They were dm p.inmnf ?r otIier forms of in- S r " 1'cca"se ", c y ^ N ? 5 ? ^ V further b e l o ^ i h e l i t l t a i r i e v T ^ O n T f u f Were,frced further and f on was that no persons be allowed a n i reli f ^ ^ general adop` above six years of age who should n n /u C n accunt of any child of any child above nine who should not h / Vl t? <ni-' n r on accunt wool. It is actually a fact that th e S n r.J , bIent0 Spm either linen or of the Poor looked with s a tis fa c tio ^ u n fV 0^ I?ettenng the Condition tages, half naked and indifferently fedPhe bnng!?g up children in cot- better labourers. Uy fed, because they made hardier and mailers: Z Z ,, 1 Z ,Z T Z SZ Z ^ claim for it being that a child of three or fourvea m3f 1Ine' the chlef as much as a child of seven or eight years old r l \ age miht do was that the family income of farm labourers s h o u l d ? )f ?I>Ioycrs stern economic necessity of the labour of S i r 1" 1 be based 011 the fories were built conditions f ir f f i S c r a d d J t TM' When Re housing in towns were in hovels not much h e r ^ T 6' a,nd their labourers had had. A writer of the times about 17 than tbe farm arts and manufacturers can exhibit as mournful ^ Wr te fthat "the and lame, enfeebled, decrepit asthmatic r 6 of blinded mg for breath and crawling half alive upon t h e T ^ Wrf ches> pant- i z z s z d ba a - a movement among them combine for b e t t e r " "L g S n Address uy Ha u y F iske .S3 3 was then 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 S mith wrote that the workmen sometimes formed combinations and in order to bring matters to a decision, resort to the loudest clamour and sometimes commit the most shocking violations and outrage. The masters were then just as clamourous on their side and called aloud for the assistance of the civil magistrate and the rigor ous execution of those laws against the combination 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 workmen 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 insur ance against sickness and other misfortune. The meetings were gen erally 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 provid ing for the authorization of Friendly Societies and a Committee of In vestigation in 1824 reported on the widespread utilization of Friendly Societies for Trade Union purposes. It was in this year that the Com bination Acts of 1799-1800 were repealed. These Combination Acts indicated that the previous power of landlords and tenants was ex tended 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 Kngland, 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 being weekly and collected at the homes of the insured. The Prudential Company has become a mighty organization which has on its books perhaps onethird of the population of Great Britain. The system was introduced 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 1 of 1879, and its system was founded upon that of the Prudential of j London. The evolution of the Metropolitan has, however, gone far! beyond the work of the London Prudential. It has in force 3 5 ^ mil-\ lions of policies, of which over 31 millions are Industrial policies. Of the nearly 4 x/ 2 millions of Ordinary policies in force, a very large proportion are upon the lives of working people. We estimate that we * c CM TO insured--nearly onc-fifu, oI l Company confines its bus"? ? TMd Canada- to which msnred in ,his 0,,e ih 7 " isT ,,;W ! V m S ," Cr ,,on...t . neave insur"a'ntche' i.n^ n-pe-airhrrnKer,r s - ' J l L"sTmd rthee"ur1ban"'p3o0mi"li' r f i o i ^ T P^cs,<lcn, wllcre 1W ^ T ^ Z ' S n " ^ SK fc M a U p ,,;; of dollars and !"dnstrian" : TM L r " rracii o n f e ' o S r y "''" ? g S S J s l ^ V ^ i g i . Resp0nstbtlliy and opportunity o n t - " " ^ <? eotll n c Cf" ^ I have in ihe ,, orki, cent of the claim?. V h a d X 5 " 1* " "tsi* of the m ir e s'? < l"n e"d t ^ V e T e 'S ' ^ ^ & . lh e Nursing Service numberot"* si- A ddress by Haley F iske 535 nurses visit the sick, direct the family to employ a physician if neces sary 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. Health Instruction Our agents pay about 600 millions of visits a year to the homes of wage-earners. This affords us an opjtortunity 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 gencraLhcalth pamphlets, such as the Care of Children, the Health of the*W orker,M ilk, Health Alphabet for young children, Cook Book, with instructions for diets, Hovv 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 ing by giving you our improvement in mortality, which between 1911 and 1925 has s'*own a reduction of 32.3 per cent., and the extension of the lives of our policyholders on the average of nine years. During the same period the extension of life of the general population was between four and five years. We estimate we have saved 200,000 lives over and above what would have been saved by the general improvement in mortality. Reduction in Different Diseases Tuberculosis, against which we have made a special drive, 56 per cent. Typhoid reduced 80 per cent. Measles reduced 78 per cent. Diphtheria reduced 63 per cent. Scarlet Fever reduced 74 per cent. Total, all diseases, reduced 32.3 per cent. Meanwhile we have been assisting public authorities in health work, have made health surveys for various cities, have furnished literature to public authorities for distribution, have paid attention especially to public schools, teachers and children--as to teachers giving prizes to those who showed the best results in health teaching. We are in close contact with the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, a national institution having branches all over the country, whose work is to combine the interests of the teachers and parents in the health of chil dren, in having them examined, vaccinated, immunized against small pox and diphtheria, with the care of the ears, teeth, etc. These asso ciations distribute our literature and cooperate with our agents. There 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- I 536 Industrial, R elations advisory, with oilers ,,f L U ,^ s ayi '0 ddesCc'erVipetnivme,ilIwianrSn-ingThaeSnCd yTM iV r n ^ ^ J S S X ! ,T m r - ,,K d,5" ss" L for insurance. They are verv widely iU' n',M"CSS and 110 appeals hundreds of thousands liv^-.dm 7 C d and the resPonses run into Notable Experiments in Improving Health mo, 'L '; T c K i ' S a S T ^ In r r ? * the o ' mirscs Ihc a n u( public nl,rsIn,, T lu'oiicb 'ivbf T / : atli"1c graduate linaneing a survey of I n d n s i ugn McGill University we are mitted a plai^to\helhu-sii'r\t' nf ' T*t"1'! ^ have sul,: n7 *$ 7 ***?} sr tile health aclmn^oiTrfcTcdcrV rn' " mngBHtion iCcaonin Pn ui ihs sl ii r c , lmlpi- mS ue i S a f i r` L^ln Can,aSdha. wWe' are f,iWna*ncfing th"e "A*mcr*- nims ` h m ghou ' th "on a for H- it h DepaS- prominent J'due- n7 j, 7` We haVe an AdviS0lT Group of 19 We a ^ i L i i m ^ c i V , r heal t h for children, ing iiinis IhrotiU lH T in^-- M 2^ WQmcns clubs- We are show- and one for S * T l ^ J ^ f ^ ^ k r o a e of diphtheria t seT yfhc 2 tt S I 'S 'p i r TM S S, S T U k ' "" "' F especially e f f i e n w f p,rovinS *he general mortality of the town, T6HSw ^SSioiS!S,1Lfcirfs*T? CStaf'ishcd "r TM Sana I - rvlucb I mean that lhc patients are fa c t b, 'S 'r l t e t k ' ; Relieving the Housing Shortage -i try. We have 'lenf1343'm 11^ 0^ 0^ 1? ? housi"g throughout the coun- ` $4; ;,,;r*v*utft4TM A ddress by Haley Eiske 537 have been loaned for this purpose in the State of Ohio, of which nearly 5/2 millions have been in Cleveland and over millions in Akron. In order to show what can be done for working people, we accepted an invitation from the State of New York embodied in a special law, to build tenement houses. We 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 over 9 per cent., all over 6 per cent, of which goes to amortization, this exampie has been followed by Mr. Rockefeller in Manhattan and Bayonne to the extent of millions of dollars. All of which perhaps ed to a message of Governor Sm ith, of New York, followed by legis lation which gives power of condemnation of slums and seeks to en courage model tenements. The Legislature was greatly encouraged to pass the bill by the offer of the Metropolitan to lend on mortgage on such tenements unlimited money at 5 per cent. Meanwhile we have not been unmindful of the needs of agriculture and have loaned nearly 230 millions of dollars on farms, at an average rate of interest of 5y2 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 we get practically no applications, our loans being made mostly in the Middle West and the South. ' Group Insurance-- Relations of Capital and Labour In the matter of the relations of capital and labour 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 naming 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, but 95 per cent, of our Group business is now on the contributory system, by which the em ployer and employee contribute 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 Group Insurance is largely life insurance, but there is a great deal of it that covers sickness and accident, acci dental death and dismemberment. The amount of the life insurance is sometimes in even amounts and in some cases in varying amounts 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. Metropolitan has 21 railroad companies insured, with a total mileagcTof 52,341, covering 174.500Tives7 with life insur ance of 2 9 2 ^ millions, and accidental death and dismemberment in surance of nearly 93 millions, and weekly benefits in health and acci dent insurance of nearly a million. To show the practical necessity 538 Industrial R elations and advantage of this insurance, vve last year paid claims on one out of every eleven of our certificate holders and the average period of sickness covered was about eight weeks. Policyholders Service Bureau I he extent of the service to these working people is by no means limited to insurance. Lhey all are 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 E mployers. This has six Divisions: Industrial Hygicnej Publicity and Insurance Education; Business Management HabcTTurnover; Production Engineering; Safety Engineering; Economic and Business Research. The Bureau of Industrials Hygiene put out lastyear 5 millions of pieces of health literature, and the nurses paid over 5,000 visits. Last year the correspondence with employers num bered over 4,300 letters; 64 reports werejnade on Physical Examina tions, Hazards, Sanitation, Night Work, Vaccination, Dietaries, Op tical Work, Sick Benefit bunds, Advice to Medical Departments. Fre quent Bulletins are 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 by 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 in New York, some carrying Group Insurance and others not, who listened to our explanation of what Group Insurance and some of whom gave testimony in striking speeches to the value of Group Insur ance in binding together employer and employee. A Health Laboratory Our relations with our own employees, numbering some thirty thousand, are most harmonious. We have a system of Group Insur ance, partly free, partly contributory; Accident and Health Group Insurance; free 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 sub jects, and any number of social organizations which the Company helps, and of course free nursing. ' A ddress dy Haley P iske 539 to prefer,*Retiremen^Annuitv Alio S" r 35 ? C persons concerned seem nations are m a d e T n t h e T e n e r a has 0TM the front. Va- employers as to classes of c m p lo y e e s T n ^ i^ f^ P.artlcular desires of sions, respective contributions of mmln f ,rvice' amount of pen- ages to retirement, interim disabilifST r ? e'Vp,0yce' different known as the Insured Thrift Plan ' retUrns at death on what is v nvtHjJtvynieui insurance peoS^M T " V ^ CcL%'utI7,,:,rSS l^cs,,tl,l ft `g the working with a tolerably larre f-imihr u m- tbc Posltlon of a labouring man put y o u r se 'ltU S it i,, 7 td t u ? .7 n k T r l,a,dly " " 7 s i,S ""`8. sees when he peers into the future T h e / a moment what this man and sickness, dependent old ae-p m l iese spectres are death, accident death by life insurance t - ' em ploym ent. We have covered health and accident insurance h a v e * ^ S1C,kn,ess a"d accident by ah6o^these fc d o ^ t for the fact that the ^ n t f y tro S i * The Way to Industrial Peace a n d "h o u r, i T d ' w S l ' E S . f S ' . ? 'f ', P" ` 'P ' TM f " P ^ can we do in the Metropolitan H fp f llt" le relations. But what lions? Every i u ^ bettenn of these condi- of his own business. But what w e r a n ^ l i a r e d o S i ^ He !imita| ions ; r ,, T o r ,, , s al,A S 7 TM , i i r t s eat,f J ' 30,000 contented people by faring for them^andPayees, and we have care for them. O ur`heart7 is with d l r w h i c h of S f T a ^ 0^ WC employers. What can wn dn fr.r ,,.i , n ot llse,t 's a lesson to We have thought enough of our own to'seTan cTM m riir enjp,0yCes? by the institution of Group Insurance. Some years' nun we"' preC?pl large factory n Massachusetts and tbe Z 7 g0 vvc lnsurcd a gather in three hall.,. k e 7 s c L 7 o l , ,, t l f d 'V" 'C dent went personally to each hall and handed *1T ' and .the PresiGroup Insurance free. These people had nn ^ out t.Ile certificates of do yo,, think watt the t M i n K n f f i L t ^ Wl" * to instil in the mind of employees the ^ a c f that" hetter. relatlons >s heart-that he doesn't regard them as piece o n ^ - Cmp,0ytT has a and thrown in the scrap heap and thaf bp dTM . acl,inery to he used Ployee has a soul just a^ p S o S i nthe s gM of^ ^ em~ you can get that in the mindc a i ot ^ 0D as his own. If solved the trouble in the relations betwMn p ita U n d ffbo Wi" TTM* member years ago at one of our meeHnn-c P 11 , labour- I re President one of the ioca, F ^ T ^ h TM " ^ e s X , - 540 Industrial R elations 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 Metropolitan does, then 1rades Unionism will die. Now I have no desire, and I do not want to be misunderstood, to bring up anything against Trades Unions--I behcve they are good for the men and good for the employer and I 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- i 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 i from the pocket of the corporation, to a common fund which protects t against death, sickness, accident and dependent old age. That way that ? way leads to Industrial peace! ' i