Providing against infirmity: propitiating fate

Media

Part of The American Chamber of Commerce Journal

Title
Providing against infirmity: propitiating fate
Creator
Calkins, Earnest Elmo
Language
English
Year
1928
Rights
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Fulltext
14 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL February, 1928 Providing Against Infirmity: Propitiating Fate Earnest Elmo Calkins The whole world has * * * been thrilled in contemplating the feat of a gallant young American who flew alone in one continuous flight from New York to Paris. It was one of those happenings which make us proud of the human race. Each of us went about our task with a little more enthusiasm. The world where such things could happen was a pretty good place after all. Suppose it had been possible for Lindbergh to take off without publicity. Sup­ pose for some unimaginable reason the news­ papers did not consider the event news. Re­ member, the Wright brothers’ first flight was not considered news. And so there would have been gathered together down there on Curtiss Field a little group of well-wishers, backers, and airmen. All that night, instead of hanging breathlessly on scraps of news while Lindbergh winged his way through night and silence, the civilized world would have gone about its ap­ pointed business, not knowing that a great event was in the making. When Lindbergh reached Le Bourget what happened would have been something like what Lindbergh, with his innate modesty, imagined would happen. He would have landed in an empty field, watched by airmen and others who happened to be on the spot; he would have told them what he had done, and they would have been slow to believe him. He would have parked his plane, hunted up a mechanic, got a cab, and set off to Paris to present his letters of introduction and convince another thrilled group that he had really flown across the Atlantic. What a loss that would have been to the known world! The feat would be just as fine, just as brave and skillful and wholly admirable, but no one would know it. We should lose all the thrill, the inspiration, the enhanced faith in humanity that the knowledge of it gave us—the take-off, the long night of anxious waiting, the safe arrival, the spontaneous reception; two whole hemispheres warmed and stirred and drawn together, not by what young Lindbergh did, but by the high privilege of knowing what he did, and sharing it. Most of the benefit of that flight would have been lost without publicity. It is not unknown good, but known good, that benefits the world. And so with insurance. The life companies have written $11,000,000,000 new insurance in the last twelve months, and not one of us a whit wiser or better or more uplifted because of that fact. It all happened off stage. Yet the stories behind that vast gain would move and stir us, did we know them, as did Lindbergh’s flight or the Mississippi flood. If insurance were being presented constantly to all who can read, in terms of living, in terms of man’s daily interests and dreams and ambi­ tions and affections,—as one of the basic things of life, like getting on in the world, or marriage, or health, or recreation,—and especially if all the picturesque and entertaining stories which grow up around the practice of insurance were used, the sight of the word “insurance” in print would be the signal for such interesting and agreeable mental pictures as accompany the words “raise in salary,” “home run,” or “tax reduction.” Of things that ai’e basic in us, resting on natural and primitive instincts, self-preservation and self-perpetuation have always been consideied two great ones. Self-preservation includes every thing from a pay envelope to dodging an auto­ mobile. Self-perpetuation includes not only the great function of bearing and raising chil­ dren, but also every yearning for posthumous fame. The man who gives one hundred thousand dollars to found a public library is moved by practically the same motive as the man who brings up a fine family, though probably it is easier for many men to earn a hundred thousand dollars than to raise a fine family. I have been reading an interesting book called This Believing World. It is a history of reli­ gion. It shows that fear is the origin of all religion. Primitive man found himself at the mercy of forces which he did not understand. Rain, hail, lightning, flood, and fire snatched away his humble store of food, his flimsy hut, or his family. There seemed to be no reason for these happenings. He believed that they were caused by malignant spirits which were hostile to him. He tried to find some way to propitiate them. By charms, fetishes, totems, sacrifices, and rituals he endeavored to appease the enemies he believed lived in the forces of nature, and out of this fear of the unknown grew the first primitve religion. As man became more civilized and intelligent, and learned more about the world around him, his religion kept pace. He did not lose fear, but he became wiser about it; and when he was intelligent enough to know that religion had nothing to do with the forces of nature at work in the world, he invented in­ surance, the modern and scientific method of micigating the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. Indeed, much of the world’s folklore, Greek and older myths and legends, and many a fairy tale are based on an instinctive but blundering groping for insurance. Achilles’ mother bathed him in the Styx to make him immune. How many legends rest on the idea of propitiation of some impending evil, or providing some armor or charm or rite to wfird off the dangers surround­ ing the adventure of life! And what is insurance, all insurance, but preparation to mitigate the accidents of fate, to soften the blow, to render one’s stlf, family, income, possessions, as safe as possible from what may happen? Another human instinct out of which insurance grows is cooperation. Cooperation is the finest flower of civilization. When hundreds of thou­ sands of people are washed out of their homes by the overflowing Mississippi the nation passes the hat and responds with millions to care for the refugees. This is spontaneous cooperation. But if every one of the dwellers in the lowlands bordering the Mississippi had been for years paying a small sum annually to insurance com­ panies to provide against losses by flood, that would have been organized cooperation. In­ surance is organized cooperation. It is a form of public utility. The need of insurance is a basic need—primal, intuitive, fundamental. Self-preservation, yearn­ The West Coast Life Insurance Company offers A full line of modern life insurance contracts designed to meet every need of business or personal protection. For particulars and quotations consult the Philippine Branch Office West Coast Life Insurance Co. Kneedler Building Manila, P. I. Telephone 664 ing for immortality, love of family, ambition­ thrift, fear, the sad aftermath of war, the sustain, ing solidarity of cooperation, all demand and are to a great extent met and satisfied by some form of insurance. Insurance runs up and down the whole gamut of human emotions, interwoven with all our hopes and fears, a human service if there, ever UNIVER­ SAL SATIS­ FACTION of discriminat­ ing men has been the boon of our tailor­ ing depart­ ment for more than 28 years. Largest selection of good suitings. NEW YORK-PARIS-MANILA 12 Escolta Phone 706 IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL February, 1928 THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL 15 UFE INSURANCE eftailtyMan-J^E^D lund-is an asset to any To^idow-MAINT£ contort and provWw cation foe the children What Is i to You The Insular Life Assurance Co., Ltd. MANILA, P. I. Low rates iberal conditions ocai investments oans on real estates repayable monthly instalments, at ow interest If a mindful man with a fixed salary dies, he will only leave a small saving to his family For about F31.00 annually our company guarantees the payment of Pl,000 to your wife or sons in case of death, or to the insured himself if he survives the policy. Call or write for particulars to: The Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. E. E. ELSER, General Agent 405 Kneedler Building, Manila P. O. Box 598 Phone 2-24-29 HOME OFFICE 4th Floor, Filipinas Bldg. Plaza Moraga, Manila, P. I. P. O. Box 128 C. S. SALMON 3rd Floor, Gaches Bldg. Escolta cor. T. Pinpin 115 P. O. Box 734, Manila V. SINGSON ENCARNACION, President J. McMICKING, Manager was one. I am, I believe, what almost any life company would consider a good customer. Last year I paid to the largest company in the world premiums aggregating something over $23,000. The form of insurance of which I buy most is what is known as annuity. It is less popular in this country than in England, and there was little demand for it. But it fitted my peculiar needs, and the story of how I came to that con­ clusion is pertinent to this discussion. I am engaged in a race with deafness. I have been deaf all my life and am growing deafer as I grow older, facing the menace of diminished earning power. I desired to establish an income which would provide for me as long as I lived, and which would be outside of my control. If deafness interfered with contacts by which I earned my living, it would equally interfere with the intelligent investment of my own funds. Men learn about good investments from each other, often in casual conversation. A deaf man is dependent solely on himself. It seemed a great privilege that I could hire a competent organization to invest a certain portion of my savings and pay me a greater return on it than I could receive from other investments, however fortunate, at the risk of leaving in the company’s hands all that I had not used before I died. I have bqught freedom from worry about ways and means for the rest of my natural life. An organization, safeguarded by restraining laws, is bound by contract to pay me a certain stipulated amount as long as I shall need it. The other day I drew a check for $16,012 and sent it to that company. It was quite an event in my economic life. It was the final payment on the largest of my annuities. I had been hard put to it at times to get together the money to meet the payments, but I had at last achieved this one ambition and had as far as was humanly possible propitiated one of the enemies of man­ kind. But while it was a red-letter day for me. it was just Tuesday at the insurance company’s office. Promptly I received the standard receipt —a green slip, filled out by an adding machine. No human hand had touched it. No red and gold ink marked it as the special and final pay­ ment, the goal, the capstone, the magna charta of my new liberty, the privilege of living free from at least one form of worry as long as life should last. I wrote for information. This was the final payment, was it not? And was my understanding of the policy the correct one? In two weeks came the reply. My understanding was correct. The payments would begin on such a date. Next! Just like that. It was as hospitable as lunching at an automat. The story of my unusual annuities came to the attention of one of those exceptional in­ surance agents who are building up their busi­ ness along lines of human relations. He asked me if I would write him a letter telling him the story I have told here, and allow him to use it as a means of interesting others in old-age insurance. I would and did. He tells me that my letter has been a great help to him; that through it he has sold a great deal of such in­ surance. —Atlantic Monthly. Mayor Tomas Earnshaw is reported to be sufferinig from eye trouble, making it difficult for him to attend to his duties; yet he goes ahead Telephone China Bank Bldg. 2-21-86 Manila, P. I. A. A. U. FIRE-MARINE-LIFE-AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE CENTRAL AGENTS AND ATTORNEYS: United States Fire Insurance Company of New York Agricultural Insurance Company of Watertown, N. Y. Hudson Insurance Company of New York North River Insurance Company National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburg, Pa. National Union Indemnity Company of Pittsburg, Pa. Asia Life Insurance Company of Wilmington, Delaware AMERICAN ASIATIC UNDERWRITERS, INC. with his theater plans, and tries in every way to put his announced program into effect. M. H. O’Malley, president of the Philippine Trust Company, is quite ill, suffering from ar­ thritis. The bank had an excellent year 1927. The report of the auditors, Clarke and Larkin, published in condensed form shows assets of 1’13,298,253, with deposits alone of P6,216,781. The Bank of the Philippine Islands shared the general prosperity of 1927. A dividend of four per cent has been declared, with the con­ sequence that the stock is again in demand and mounting toward par value. No dividends had been declared since 1923, but this bank has earned large profits for its shareholders since its organization under royal charter in 1851 as the first chartered bank in the Orient. The charter granted under the United States having been renewed by the Philippine legislature, the bank is preparing to publish an illustrated volume this year, covering its long history in the eastern financial world. IN RESPONDING TO ADVERTISEMENTS PLEASE MENTION THE AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE JOURNAL