| OCR Text |
Show -t ; Government Insurance, j ! The Biggest War Baby. ; 1 ! Ey Frederic J. II.'.SKin. WASHINGTON. I C M;iv It. WJU.e ot!:T kik'.i;:s acairj f. r war run are av!i:iU!!:i: or K-:n aliUuv . 110 Vll:ronu or risk insurance has j;rcn to be ti.e Iciest 01 all ennu.nt Uc-I Uc-I uruiier.t.s aud. li.e lur.s: eaUutTise i.f Us kind in tl.e world. It lias wwutiy !::ovcl iiuo m v aud roruu. ucut u'.uiiu.vs um-.iuYd :or um'.uiuIuu 5 iiksI hotel. T:.:s coverr.uleu.t war batiy Is With us to stav !' t a li.ni time. 1" fa'-l. H I permanent nai t of (he government, lor iis obligations will not be .tisehaive I mi-l:l mi-l:l the last dependent of an American suidicr kii!t-d in the war has died, and si'iiiu ef those dependents Law just bct-n bo: n. They will g.vu liie war risk bureau a mission " in !ilo for en;;. -: ive -t eleiuv' years. If we do not ka e anol.iei-war anol.iei-war "during tiiat time, the hurt a u wiil posib; e 01: : of o teiiee. Tae bis; business of the bureau foi a genera t ion :s i;o:ng to be ha ml 1 i r -" the permanent Insurance policies i-r men who have been in the service, which have now been authorized by congress. This nu-aris siumly that any man who t 'olv out insurance in-surance as a soldier or sailor may o'n-tuiue o'n-tuiue that insurance with the government govern-ment as a civilian bv converting Ids policy pol-icy into one of a different tvpe. The insurance in-surance will be less expensive than that issued by private firms, because the government gov-ernment will bear the administrative expense. ex-pense. Thorp is every indication that a lare proportion of ttie men who were in the service will take this oyrnrtunitv to obtain ob-tain cheap life and endowment insurance. Some observers believe that this will lead to the extension of government insurance in-surance to civilians generally. With possibly pos-sibly several million Americans enjoying enjoy-ing ' government insurance at low lutes, they say, a demand will spring up among American citizens generally for the same benefits. GUI age insurance for government govern-ment employees " is being urtred in connection con-nection with the proposed reform of the civil service. Govern ment health insurance insur-ance is also being widely discussed, and several state legislatures are considering such measures. State or government health insurance means that by paying a certain amount a year to the govern-, ment vou would be assured of medical attention, hospital service, and snppurt while incapacitated. The advocates of such a measure point out that medical and hospital service would then be standardized stand-ardized by the government, and that proper medical attention would be within reach of many who are too poor to afford af-ford it now. Such measures are opposed by many persons, who argue that our great insurance companies are all discharging dis-charging such functions with great efficiency, ef-ficiency, and that it would take the government gov-ernment a long time to learn how to do as well. This ia probablv true, but the government govern-ment is now getting some fine practice in running an insurance business. The amount of insurance which the war risk bureau has issued is greater than, the total amount of insurance in force for all American insurance companies. The statistics about their business which they quote vou at the war risk bureau are impressive. Thcv are now doing business with thirty million Americans, including over four million fighting men and over twentv-five million dependents. To these dependents has been paid more than tour time, but not later than five .years after the declaration of peace as proclaimed by the president. If the soldier does not wish to convert the full amount of his term insurance, he may convert part of it and continue the rest on the term plan until he is ready to convert within that period. Tho policies are incontestable from date and are issued free from all restrictions as to travel, residence, occupation, military mili-tary or naval service, are not assignable nor subject to the claims of creditors of the instned or creditors of any beneficiary to whom the proceeds may be awarded, and are exempt from all taxation. The forms of converted insurance are officially known as United States gov-ernment gov-ernment life insurance, and It should not be forgotten that the strength . of the, United Sta tes Is the security for these ! policies and that the premiums are lower than t hose charged by any company for participating insurance with similar benefits. hundred million dollars. In order to maie all this real to you. some genius has figured fig-ured out that if the amount of insurance Issued by the bureau was represented in dollar hills joined end to end tho strip of greenbacks would extend to tho moon and back" seven times. This little computation com-putation shows you what wonderful mathematicians they have down there. The same lightning calculator has. doped it out that if the women employees of the bureau alone were stood in a row. the row would be thirteen miles long- And he claims that the war risk bureau has the prettiest women employed in Washington. Wash-ington. The job supports thirteen thousand thou-sand employees in alb This is probably the greatest check -writing institution in the world. It writes more than a million checks a month. If all this had to be done by hand, the entire army could be given jobs looking after its own dependents; but all of this work is done bv machinery. Every person who deals with the bureau is represented by an individual file, and an address plate is printed for each one. It keeps a hundred hun-dred operators busy making plates. One machine and two girls can now turn out about twenty thousand cheeks a day. This used to require about four hundred employees. All checks are signed by a, deputv disbursing clerk with a mechanical device which signs twenty checks at one time, all signatures being actual pen signatures. sig-natures. Checks from the bureau of war risk insurance go to every corner of the world. More than 30.000 checks are mailed monthly to foreign countries. Cheeks are sent to Africa, Australia, Belgium,-China, laitl, India, Japan, Gibraltar, Spam, Syria. Korea, New Zealand, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and o'her foreign lands, each check representing a man from one of these foreign countries serving serv-ing in the military or naval forces of the United States. More than 2500 foreign checks arc being held by the bureau because be-cause of suspended mail service. Among the cheeks held are three which are destined for Germany. Over 1000 checks are being held for persons in Russia and 272 are held for persons in Poland. More than a ton of mail comes in each dav, and the organization built up to distribute dis-tribute mall within the bureau is larger than any private postal or mail system in the United States. Eighty thousand pieces of incoming mail each day are the average and more than oO.OOO of these are letters. There are about SO. 000 outgoing out-going letters each day, exclusive of checks. Reading the mail of the bureau of war risk insurance is a task which requires an intimate knowledge of the various divisions di-visions of the bureau and the work that each division handles. Highly trained women, wo-men, most of them college graduates, are employed as mail renders. Eadi reader must decide from the text of the letter where it should be referred, and there are thirty-six different seotmns to which these readers may refer a letter. Many of the readers are eanable of reading read-ing 150 letters a day each. One hundred hun-dred and thirty people are employed to handle the mail of the'bureau of war risk insurance. Questions are one of the problems of the bureau of war risk insurance. Tho war risk insurance act is intricate and complex and the, vast majority of the public d'es not understand it. For this reason, the number of inquires which comes to the bureau is ext remely large. More than 500 persons come to the war risk insurance building each day so-'-kinir ! information, and hundreds of others make ! telephone inquiries. The bureau answers questions cheerfully. With the signing of a peace trcatv, the work of the bureau of war risk insurance in-surance wad not decrease as a whole. Allotments and allowances will gradually cense, but compensation for disabled, men will increase, and lhe insurance of those men who were in the service will continue, con-tinue, and probably grow. For the present, the new permanent government bfe insurance f r rnon who have been in the service will be issued . in six kinds of policies nrdinarv life, t weiuy-pavment life, tub i- ,i vmmir lift;, t won i y-year endowment, t hi : ty-ycir endowment, en-dowment, and endowment at the age of '.2. These po ioies provide for the pa v-m.-nt of the insurance at dent!: or on" the total permanent disability of tho h:s.'ircd. irrespective of the age when that dis-a dis-a bili ty mav occur, provided the policy is in ' full force. The premiums for these policies are tee net premiums, wit lira it an v ad ing whatsoever, and are nased upon the A'eerican experience table of mmtaKtv with per cent Inh-rest. Thov are monthly premiums, but the premiums may be paid quarterly, semiannually or a n nua' 1 In oi il'T to convrt insurance, a mr n must have eonTinuM b.s war Irrni insurance in-surance in force. Xo medital examination examina-tion will he i cq uired a i time of conversion. conver-sion. The only requirement is thit the in s.i red bats kept ti ids term ins;; ranee premium oaynients. , The com ers:on may take"Iacc at any |
