Part 9 (1/2)
CHAPTER VII.
ECONOMY IN LIFE a.s.sURANCE.
”Do not, for one repulse, forego the purpose That you resolved to effect.”--_Shakespeare_.
”We are helpers, fellow-creatures, Of the right against the wrong.”--_E. Barrett_.
”Life was not given us to be all used up in the pursuit of what we must leave behind us when we die.”--_Joseph May_.
”Le bonheur ou le malheur de la vielillesse n'est souvent que l'extrait de notre vie pa.s.see.” (The blessedness or misery of old age is often but the extract of our past life.) _De Maistre_.
Two other methods of co-operative saving remain to be mentioned. The first is by Life a.s.surance, which enables widows and children to be provided for at the death of the a.s.sured; and the second is by Friendly Societies, which enable working men to provide themselves with relief in sickness, and their widows and orphans with a small sum at their death.
The first method is practised by the middle and upper cla.s.ses; and the second by the working cla.s.ses.
It might possibly take a long time to save enough money to provide for those who are dependent upon us; and there is always the temptation to encroach upon the funds set apart for death, which--as most people suppose--may be a far-distant event. So that saving bit by bit, from week to week, cannot always be relied upon.
The person who joins an a.s.surance society is in a different position.
His annual or quarterly saving becomes at once a portion of a general fund, sufficient to realize the intention of the a.s.sured. At the moment that he makes his first payment, his object is attained. Though he die on the day after his premium has been paid, his widow and children will receive the entire amount of his a.s.surance.
This system, while it secures a provision to his survivors, at the same time incites a man to the moral obligation of exorcising foresight and prudence, since through its means these virtues may be practised, and their ultimate reward secured. Not the least of the advantages attending life a.s.surance is the serenity of mind which attends the provident man when lying on a bed of sickness, or when he is in prospect of death,--so unlike that painful anxiety for the future welfare of a family, which adds poignancy to bodily suffering, and r.e.t.a.r.ds or defeats the power of medicine. The poet Burns, in writing to a friend a few days before his death, said that he was ”still the victim of affliction. Alas! Clark, I begin to fear the worst. Burns' poor widow, and half a dozen of his dear little ones helpless orphans;--there, I am weak as a woman's tear.
Enough of this,--_'tis half my disease_!”
Life a.s.surance may be described as a joint-stock plan for securing widows, and children from want. It is an arrangement by means of which a large number of persons agree to lay by certain small sums called ”premiums,” yearly, to acc.u.mulate at interest, as in a savings bank, against the contingency of the a.s.surer's death,--when the amount of the sum subscribed for is forthwith handed over to his survivors. By this means, persons possessed of but little capital, though enjoying regular wages or salaries, however small, may at once form a fund for the benefit of their family at death.
We often hear of men who have been diligent and useful members of society, dying and leaving their wives and families in absolute poverty.
They have lived in respectable style, paid high rents for their houses, dressed well, kept up good visiting acquaintance, were seen at most places of amus.e.m.e.nt, and brought up their children with certain ideas of social position and respectability; but death has stricken them down, and what is the situation of their families? Has the father provided for their future? From twenty to twenty-five pounds a year, paid into an a.s.surance Society, would have secured their widows and orphans against absolute want. Have they performed this duty? No--they have done nothing of the kind; it turns out that the family have been living up to their means, if not beyond them, and the issue is, that they are thrown suddenly bankrupt upon the world.
Conduct such as this is not only thoughtless and improvident, but heartless and cruel in the last degree. To bring a family into the world, give them refined tastes, and accustom them to comforts, the loss of which is misery, and then to leave the family to the workhouse, the prison, or the street--to the alms of relatives, or to the charity of the public,--is nothing short of a crime done against society, as well as against the unfortunate individuals who are the immediate sufferers.
It will be admitted, that the number of men who can lay by a sufficient store of capital for the benefit of their families, is, in these times of intense compet.i.tion, comparatively small. Perhaps the claims of an increasing family absorb nearly all their gains, and they find that the sum which they can put away in the bank is so small, that it is not put away at all. They become reckless of ever attaining so apparently hopeless an object as that of an acc.u.mulation of savings, for the benefit of their families at death.
Take the case of a married man with a family. He has begun business, and thinks that if his life were spared, he might in course of years be able to lay by sufficient savings to provide for his wife and family at his death. But life is most uncertain, and he knows that at any moment he may be taken away,--leaving those he holds most dear comparatively dest.i.tute. At thirty he determines to join a sound life office. He insures for five hundred pounds, payable to his survivors at his death, and pays from twelve to thirteen pounds yearly. From the moment on which he pays that amount, the five hundred pounds are secured for his family, although he died the very next day.
Now, if he had deposited this twelve or thirteen pounds yearly in a bank, or employed it at interest, it would have taken about twenty years before his savings would have amounted to five hundred pounds. But by the simple and beautiful expedient of life a.s.surance, these twenty-six years of the best part of his life are, on this account at least, secured against anxiety and care. The antic.i.p.ation of future evil no longer robs him of present enjoyment. By means of his annual fixed payment--which decreases according to the profits of the society--he is secure of leaving a fixed sum at his death for the benefit of his family.
In this way, life a.s.surance may be regarded in the light of a contract, by which the inequalities of life are to a certain extent averaged and compensated, so that those who die soon--or rather their families--become sharers in the good fortune of those who live beyond the average term of life. And even should the a.s.surer himself live beyond the period at which his savings would have acc.u.mulated to more than the sum insured, he will not be disposed to repine, if he takes into account his exemption from corroding solicitude during so many years of his life.
The reasons which induce a man to insure his house and stock of goods against the accident of fire, ought to be still more imperative in inducing him to insure his life against the accident of disease and the contingency of sudden death. What is worldly prudence in the one case, is something more in the other; it has superadded to it the duty of providing for the future maintenance of a possibly widowed wife, and orphaned children; and no man can justly stand excused who neglects so great and binding an obligation. Is it an obligation on the part of a husband and father to provide daily bread for his wife and children during his life? Then it is equally an obligation on his part to provide means for their adequate support in event of his death. The duty is so obvious, the means of performing it are so simple, and are now so easily placed within the reach of all men,--the arrangement is so eminently practical, rational, benevolent, and just,--it is, moreover, so calculated to increase every wise and prudent man's sense of self-respect, and to encourage him in the performance of all proper social duties,--that we cannot conceive of any possible objection that can be urged against it; and it is only to be regretted that the practice is not far more general and customary than it is, amongst all cla.s.ses of the community.[1]
[Footnote 1: It may be mentioned that the total amount a.s.sured in existing British offices, mostly by the middle cla.s.ses, is about three hundred and fifty millions sterling; and that the annual premiums payable amount to not less than eleven millions sterling. And yet no more than one person in twenty of the persons belonging to the cla.s.ses to whom Life a.s.surance is especially applicable, have yet availed themselves of its benefits.]
The Friendly or Benefit Societies of the working cla.s.ses are also Co-operative Societies under another form. They cultivate the habit of prudent self-reliance amongst the people, and are consequently worthy of every encouragement. It is certainly a striking fact that some four millions of working men should have organized themselves into voluntary a.s.sociations for the purpose of mutual support in time of sickness and distress. These societies are the outgrowth in a great measure of the English love of self-government and social independence,--in ill.u.s.tration of which it maybe stated, that whereas in France only one person in seventy-six is found belonging to a benefit society, and in Belgium one in sixty-four, the proportion in England is found to be one in nine. The English societies are said to have in hand funds amounting to more than eleven millions sterling; and they distribute relief amongst their members, provided by voluntary contributions out of their weekly earnings, amounting to above two millions yearly.
Although the working cla.s.ses of France and Belgium do not belong to benefit societies to anything like the same extent, it must be stated, in their justification, that they are amongst the most thrifty and prudent people in the world. They invest their savings princ.i.p.ally in land and in the public funds. The French and Belgians have a positive hunger for land. They save everything that they can for the purpose of acquiring more. And with respect to their investments in the public funds, it may be mentioned, as a well-known fact, that it was the French peasantry who, by investing their savings in the National Defence Loan, liberated French soil from the tread of their German conquerors.[1]