INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE.

NZ Truth, Issue 474, 18 July 1914, Page 3

INDUSTRIAL INSURANCE.

WELCHING THE WORKERS. QUEER AND QUESTIONABLE CONDUCT OF CANVASSERS. Crying Need for Restrictive legislation.

Ever since "the Adam eat the apple" business, man has been at the game. of trying to secure something for nothing. This mad struggle for filthy lucre has filled our gaols, taken men to the gallows, and, incidentally, has led to the institution of a business morality which enables its professors to live just outside prison walls. In this country there are men who, whilst pretending to follow the meek; and lowly Nazarene, Have to contort the last remnant of a decadent conscience with the object of conducting some of the nefarious businesses carried on m this "God's Own," but "Devil lent," country. In this connec.tion, "Truth" has no hesitation m asserting that m the REGION OF IMMORAL JOBBERY, pious fraud and economic injustice, the system known as "industrial insurance" takes the 'cake. Few people who have been engaged m carrying on this pestilential system have emerged from it without a feeling of supreme disgust and a knowledge that their manhood and womanhood have suffered from contact with the parasite. "Truth's" object m this article is to give the public an insight into the ravages committed by this finance filching fraud. In the -Old Dart, where the ■ grip of poverty is permanently felt by the proletariat, it is absolutely essential that some provision should be made for sickness or death. _ Should this not be done, it is a case of "Rattle his bones over the stones" and a pauper's grave for a permanent resting place. Hence the establishment of a host of 'industrial insurance companies. In New Zealand kindred societies' were not slow to cotton on to the idea, and by the extension of- the penny-a-week system, have been enabled, to secure A LARGER SHARE OF THE BOODLE. The methods adopted enable the companies to employ a large body of men and women who, whilst collecting weekly payments, act as ferrets for "nosing" out ordinary insurance risks,' and. for catching the £100 and. -higher man. This reduces the edst of catching the big biz., but this paper v is m possession .of information which shows that the process is nothing but legalised robbery. To show the extent to which industrial insurance helps the companies adopting it to rob the poor, there Is no J>etter example extant than that of the "great Prudential Assurance Company m the . Old Dart. This exploiting company started with thirteen , shareholders and a miserable £2500 of paidup capital. Nine 'of these shareholders were Reverends, one was the Chief RalSbi, Dr. Adler, and, of the four other shareholders, three were officials, and one the wife of a clergyman-Tqultc ,a holy company! The. capital --of this company is now thirty millions, made up chiefly out of the profits — thafis, money paid m by poor people, for which they RECEIVED NO RETURN WHATSOMEVER. As we have said, the original share capital was £2500. Lrv fifty years it had been increased tp £900,000. <At the end of that year 'another £ 100,000 was added to the sharo capital from the profits. £ 365,270 was, distributed as dividends and bonuses to. shareholders—an average of £1000 a. day! That is 40 per cent, on the enlarged capital of £900,000, or 14,610 per cent, for the year on the original capital of £ 2500. By this timo the shares had been spread among ICO shareholders, who, tho following year, received m dividends £43 lls per week. Did we not say it was a holy company! The foregoing surely should be a warning to our New Zealand statesmen not to allow such fleecing concerns to operate any longer than they .can' possibly help m this country. An "'examination of the share lists, of the paid-up shares and of the yearly profits, together with the manner of dlsposiug of these same should convince the most sceptical that it Is not for tho benefit of the nation that they operate, and that the creation of such gigantic exploiting agencies, with no other aim than to make money, must sooner or later tend to the hurt of tho commonweal, if it be not already doing so. The other day It interviewed a man who answered an advertisement which reid as follows: —"WANTED, energetic collector and Canvasser: Write— j3 OX _ ...,?• His experience Is best told m. his own words. "In answer to my letter I was advised to call ut a certain room and meet the. Superintendent of the Society. Arrived there, he Hrst asked for my references. These proving satisfactory. He said that he would employ me ut a salary of .JJI per week, with 20 per cent, of all moneys I collected, and a further commission us follows:— Should I succeed m securing n customer who would ugree to pay 1/per week und make a month's payment m advance. I would receive 15/- for my trouble, loiter on, if the business held, I would got a further 5/-. This, of pourwe, meant that I «ot £1 FOR ONK SHILLING'S WORTH OF BUSINESS. 1 launched out and took m, at tho end of the tlrst week, the names of four pals together with 16/- In hard cash, all of which 1 found myself, aw 1 could not get uny satisfactory business. Air. Super, said that I had done very well and thut ho would inspect the risks as soon as possible. Hence my first week's curnlnKH amounted to £-1, but I was not allowed to draw more than £3. The balance was placed to -my credit. Now, tho superintendent was a professing Christian of the devoted brand, and he 'minutely explained to me the very large bonuses that would fall to tho lot of my fortunate Insurers. Ho earnestly enjoined on mo tho necessity of, when I called at any house, petting my foot m the doorway, talking very lovingly to the children, and bolns very amiable TO THE LADY OF THE HOUSE. I soon discovered that "things were not what they seemed." A canvasser hud to suffer tor the nitis of other*. Thus: If I happened to be collecting at ti hoiiHO where the business had bech obtained by n predecessor, nnd the In-, fcured ccM«td paying, I km. no cornmlKft|«m In the n<»xt eaMc I Introduced. Consequently, you can imagine the lull .W -■:-.. . . „~ -■, 4 *;■": t'\ ■•■'-: /-,' V,'

yarns that were pitched, and the glowing promises made to .keep people in — m short, the system leads to prolific lying, at which the superintendent was,. himself, an adept. For a month or two I worried would-be insurers, took m some genuine business with a fair sprinkling of "stiff stuff* and told more lies during 1 the- period than I told m the whole course of my existence. Finally, I got sick of the game and told the superintendent that 1 would "throw m the; towel." Promptly, I was billed for an amount representing commissions unpaid through business lapsing— this siinr the company has MIGHTY LITTLE CHANCE OP GETTING. " . I can safely say that mine is the experience of nine- tenths of the agents wjio take up industrial business." . , "Truth" would like to know how these concerns can hope to pay a bonus, when 20 per cent, of all money is given to the collector, plus an initial commission and a fair amount disappears m office expenses? This query, of course, opens up the insidious nature of the system of child m- j surance m this country.! The advent of number one m a family Is usually a great event, and the wily agent watches, with the greatest care, the birth notices as they appear day by day. He makes an early call and, m a very large number of cases, insures baby for a bob a week. Mother does the business and the unthinking happy father seldom troubles to interfere. Should the baby die, money paid m premiums is refunded proportionately to the turn over to which payments have extended. -To call such a system "insurance" is simply a fraud. Then ■ suppose number two comes along. Mother tries to place both children on the same -footing* and, so, aided by the agent's thirst for commission, the second is placed on the bob-a-week mark. After paying m, say, for five years, if , : THE BREAD-WINNER SHOULD ■ .■■■.■; .■ ■ ' DIE » ■ f : . - ■ the mother is left with a tax of two shillings a week, which she, often, is unable to contribute. She then has the mortification of knowing that, what she r has struggled along to pay for live, years,. might as well have been thrown into the sea, as the insurance company will not return one 'cent. Had this money been spent m Raying a premium on the husband's life' m some decent society, the result would have been far different. "Truth" would like to point out that this canvassing for money on the lives of children is a gross injustice to; the average working man, and it advocates the passage of some legislation, whereby these blood-sucking institutions will be compelled to disgorge their 111-gotten gains. Tho business is usually got under' falso pretences, after much importunity and, 'when unemployment, sickness or death I comes along, it is a shock to find that all payments are forfeited to the company. Some of these concerns arc generous (?) m allowing v- fair period m which to again pick up the broken financial thread, but this grace is seldom availed of. During tho late strike HUNDREDS OF POLICIES LAPSED. • Further*, ."Truth's" informant states thut m most of these insurance offices there Is a steady procession of changing agentH, whose characters would' not stand investigation. As an example, one man m tho South Island, to earn his commission, wrote the names from tomb-stonos In a Certain cemetery and entered >as. living In houses to let. In fact, any moral degenerate who likes can get on to tho staff of some insurance soclotleK. Armed with their canvassing papers', they are at liberty to roam round everybody's back doors. The result is that any wenk-mlnded female Is quickly spotted, and an attempt made to do something more than insure lives. Many women have allowed agents ■ i TO PAY UP THEIR HACK PREMIUMS and thus Intimacies have been encouraged which have proved hard to shuffle off. There are very few insurance companies that have not received complaints along those lines. , In conclusion, ''Truth" warns its readers to be very wary with tho man who talks glibly of surrender valued and paid-up bonuses, and td\put a boot into the industrial agent who talks of bonuses m any shape. It will be seen that the methods of industrial Insurance lire of the nature j of v large swindle. Kvory thing Is done, sub rosu, to encourago agents to "lapse" policies. It Is thus, In fact, the great bulk of the profits is piled up year by yc4r. A policy holder guy., of ten years' stand ing, through unemployment or misfortune, fulls hopelessly In arrears. It Is put to him tlmt It will bo better for him to re-insuro than to pay up the arrears on the old policy. Ho is started afresh at inereused rates, which his age necessitates, and all that he has formerly paid boos to swell tho loot of the shareholders. Wero It not for such lapses. "Truth" believes, there Is not a single assurance company exploiting Now Zealand to-day that would not be In A HOI'KLKSS STATB OV HANKRUPTCY. > There have been Commissions of Inquiry, we believe. Into Industrial insurance before, and the time I* ripe for another The Labor Members ought to master this subject, and keep buttering mul banßlnp at tho Government until such Is appointed. If Mututcy and hl« minions won't appoint such a Commission, then Sir Joseph Ward must promise to do so, If ho 1h returned to power at tho next election. These over-gorged monsters- cannot .bo permitted to go on for cvor wallowing tip the pence of the poor and becoming by i their wealth a ♦menace to the welfare j lof the workers they have robbed. To j 8ora« complete system of national or j I municipal Insurance we are bound to J \ come soon or lute, but. meanwhile, j i tho public should be careful übout ; countenancing concerns which sweat j their agents, connive at cheating their policy -holders, and which arc In no sense carried on pro bono nublleo. The projtent State oJllee Is not perfect, but If "Truth's" ftdvlce In takeo, ami a Commission of Inquiry set 5p tut to