JOURNAL OF INSURANCE. NEW ENGLAND MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY. We have received the Twelfth Annual Report of the Directors of this company. It is an able and interesting document, and, as will be seen, exhibits the affairs of the company in a truly prosperous condition : REPORT OF DIRECTORS TO MEMBERS AT THE ANNUAL MEETING, DEC. 10, 1855. The annexed annual statement, compared with the preceding one, will show that the success and prosperity of the company have continued during the year just passed. The number of members still continues to increase, as well as the aggregate amount insured, and the proportional number of policies for the whole life. About one million of dollars has been added to the aggregate of our insurance, which is now $7,164,962 62. Many policies, previously issued for a term of years, have been converted into those for the whole life, and a larger proportion of the new ones than formerly are of the latter class, which shows an increasing confidence of members, as well as the public generally, in the company. During the two years since onr last distribution of surplus funds, (November, 1853,) the net accumulated fund has been increased from $502,464 87 to $768,984 50, or $266,519 63, and of this amount somewhat more than $70,000 is estimated to belong to our surplus fund towards the next distribution, to be made three years hence, which will be increased or diminished, according to the amount of losses and other contingencies. The present favorable condition of the company results, in a material degree, from our having kept the previous distributions strictly within our resources. Our number of losses during the past year has been 22, being 9 less than in the preceding year, but owing to the policies on which they have happened being larger than the average, the whole amount of losses, namely, $71,000, has been greater by $12,000 than that of the preceding year. Yet, it is estimated that our receipts would have afforded for losses of the year, at least some $34,000 more than the amount which actually occurred. It has been our object, in administering the affairs of the company, to economize in expenditures, so far as this can be done without prejudice to its material interests. It appears from the annexed accounts that the gross expenditure, including commissions to agents, is something under 8 per cent on the receipts for premiums and interest, and this rate includes the expense in procuring calculations for enlarging our tables of premiums. In the new edition of the pamphlet distributed to members, and to be had at the company's office or of any of its agents, containing the rates of premium, regulations, and by-laws of the company, will be found some examples of rates of premium for insurance otherwise than by a uniform annual premium to secure payment of a certain amount at decease in the ordinary mode of insurance. It has been deemed desirable to provide for cases where it is convenient to vary the payment of premium or the amount insured, and for cases of conditional, contingent interests in lives. A calculation of the premium has been procured for the following cases : 1. Uniform annual premium for ten years or until prior decease, for a sum to be paid at decease, whenever it may happen. 2. Uniform annual premium payable until arrival at a certain age, for an amount payable at decease. 3. Uniform annual premium for the first ten years, if life continue; one-half as much the second ten years, if life continue; and each subsequent annual premium during life, one-quarter as much, to secure a certain amount payable at decease. 4. Increasing annual premium changing at the same periods. 5. Increasing annual premiums changing at the same periods, premiums to cease at a certain age. 6. Decreasing annual premiums for payment of an amount at decease, the amount to decrease to one-half and one-fifth at the same successive periods, if life continue. 7. Premium for an amount payable to the survivor of two lives, on the decease of the other. 8. Premium for an amount payable on the decease of the survivor of two lives. 9. Premium for an amount payable on the decease of a specified one of two parties named, if he shall die before the other. 10. Premium for an amount payable on the decease of a specified one of two parties named, if he shall die before or within five years after another. 11. Premium for an amount payable on the decease of a specified one of two parties named, if he shall survive the other. 12. Premium for an amount payable on the decease of a specified one of two parties named, if he shall survive the other at least five years. 13. Premium for an amount payable on the decease of the one first dying of three persons specified. 14. Premium for an amount payable on the decease of the one first dying of two lives, if a third shall be then surviving. The following is a statement of the business of the company for the year ending November 30, 1855 : 2,512 Policies outstanding November 30, 1854.. $6,400,662 62 1,717,550 00 $8,118,212 62 953,250 00 $7,164,962 62 Twenty-two policies have terminated during the year by death of the insured— of which number, 17, amounting to $17,000, were for the benefit of surviving families, and the five remaining, amounting to $24,000, were for the benefit of creditors. THE DISEASES OF WHICH THEY DIED WERE AS FOLLOWS: THE CLASSES OF NEW MEMBERS ARE AS FOLLOWS: Merchants, traders, and brokers... Mechanics. Clerks... 221 Clergymen. 21 Physicians 53 Master mariners. Bank and insurance officers Manufacturers Lawyers Farmers Students Females Agents and superintendents... 15 12 12 THE RESIDENCES OF NEW MEMBERS ARE AS FOLLOWS:— EXHIBIT OF THE BUSINESS AND PROPERTY OF THE COMPANY, NOVEMBER 30, 1855 :— Premiums received on 516 new policies on old .... Received for additional premium Add amount received for interest, including charges for policies Deduct amount of premium returned on surrender or by stipulation.. $43.359 86 153,011 90 1,792 05 $198,163 81 40,760 55 $238,924 36 10,179 13 $228,745 23 $65,500 00 $71.000 00 6,400 00 12,188 35 $89,588 35 $139,156 88 Rent and salaries Commission to agents, advertising, printing, postage, doctor's fees, stationery, and all other incidental expenses. Net accumulation for the year ending November 30, 1855... THE FOLLOWING GENTLEMEN COMPOSE THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS :—— WILLARD PHILLIPS, Charles P. CURTIS, MARSHALL P. WILDER, THOMAS A. DEXTER, SEWELL TAPPAN, CHARLES HUBBARD, WILLIAM B. REYNOLDs, A. W. THAXTER, JR., GEO. H. FOLGER. INSURANCE ON THE SHIP GREAT REPUBLIC. In the case of the Union Mutual Insurance Company of New York City vs. the Commercial Mutual Marine Insurance Company, an action to enforce an agree ment to insure $10,000 upon the ship Great Republic, on trial before Judge Curtis, in the United States Circuit Court at Boston, a decision has been given for the plaintiff. According to a statement made of the case, the plaintiffs, on the 24th December, 1853, by telegraph, and through their broker in Boston, effected an insurance of $10,000 on the ship Great Republic with the defendants, upon the terms and conditions named by the latter; the contract was perfected in the usual manner. On the evening of the 26th December, 1853, (as will be well remembered by our readers,) the Great Republic was destroyed by fire, and upon a demand being made by the plaintiffs for the policy, it was refused, on the ground that the contract of insurance was not complete, having been made on Christmas day. The defendants formally declined to issue a policy in the plaintiffs, or to pay the loss accruing under it, and the above suit was instituted to recover. Judge Curtis, in delivering his opinion, held that the acceptance of a proposal for insurance is binding, even although not signed by either party, and that a parole agreement to insure is binding, the proposal being in writing. The agreement was therefore enforced. JOURNAL OF MINING AND MANUFACTURES. THE LACE MANUFACTURE. Of all the products of skill and manual labor, few, if any, excel in elaborateness and cost that of lace. In the judgment of Mr. Cummings, the discriminating editor of the Philadelphia Bulletin, its manufacture causes infinitely more suffering and wretchedness than is entailed on so large a class of operatives in any other work, and beyond all comparison more than is endured by any Southern slave. The entire making of a black lace dress for Queen Victoria, from the first step to the last, once caused a total loss of eye-sight to some two dozen girls. One variety of the finest lace is only made in very damp cellars, so that the thread may be kept in a slightly moist condition, such as will prevent its breaking. Any one who will, however, take the pains to investigate this subject will find that directly or indirectly the manufacture of lace by hand involves, in the state in which it at present exists on the continent of Europe, a degree of labor and suffering which is mournful to contemplate, and which, if generally known, might possibly cause some ladies not to regret the possession of, but to prize more highly their capes and veils, when they learn that the precious trifles have cost not only more than their weight in gold, but also suffering, misery, and death. It is some relief to hear that any branch of manufactures has been rendered less irksome to a majority of operatives, and has shifted its burden partly to the steamengine and partly to labor of a less painful nature. From a recent letter from the Paris Exhibition to the London Times, we learn that the most remarkable progress has been recently made in manufacturing lace by machinery. One manufacturer, named Duncliffe, has, we are told, machine-made Valenciennes edging, which cannot be distinguished by the most experienced eye from that made on the pillow, while the wonderful advance in machine laces, as exhibited in the productions of Heymann & Alexander and Ball, gives us ground to hope that in a very few years lace made by hand will be in no respect superior to that more artificially produced. That it will long continue to bear a far higher price is possible, and we can well suppose that vast quantities of the sham will be sold for the real, particularly in our own country, where the ability to judge of such articles is not invariably in proportion to the wealth which pays for them. The original labor will, however, be relieved, and it is certain that if the manufacture pays, and if machinery can accomplish it, in a few years America will do as well as the best. An excellent work might be written on the subject of articles manufactured abroad, which might quite as well be manufactured at home-and which would probably be, were the circumstances of different manufactures, their profits and risks, more fully known to our people. In Fleischman's "Branches of Industry in the United States," we have a most satisfactory account of what we have already effected-but he would be truly a benefactor who would point out to us what we might yet do. Of this we have an instance in the lace of which we have spoken. So long as an article is peculiar to a country and dependent on individual skill for its production, that is an unsound principle which would advocate its transport to another region. But machinery is common to all the world, and wherever steam can go there we have a full right to expect anything which steam can make. Whatever can be as well made in America as in another country, should therefore be made here-a principle which cannot be too earnestly insisted on at a time when our only national sufferings, our commercial crises and our mercantile panics, are occasioned solely by its disregard. MODEL FURNACE FOR MAKING IRON. An Eastern correspondent of the Chicago Tribune furnishes that journal with some account of Alger's Iron Works at Hudson, from which we condense the present sketch. This establishment has the deserved reputation of being the best constructed furnace for the manufacture of iron out of native ore in the United States, both as respects economy in fuel, and labor, and perfection of machinery, and arrangement. It has two "stacks," which are the huge receptacles for mingled coal and ore. The blower, which corresponds to a leviathan bellows, to keep up the fires, is worked by the largest stationary steam-engine in America-one of 500 horse-power. Its average working is 350. In this engine fifty tons are constantly in motion, with a quietness, ease, and power, which partakes of the sublime. The engine, together with appurtenances and "receiver," cost about $40,000. The steam is generated entirely by the escape heat from the stacks, so that it is worked without expense except the tending. The entire works cost $150,000. They were erected by a stout company, organized under the general manufacturing law as the "Hudson Iron Company." A. C. Mitchell, president. The capital paid in is $300,000. The works were built under the immediate superintendence of Charles C. Alger, who has the responsible care of the whole, and is a heavy stockholder. Mr. Alger has probably done more than any one man to develop and economize the manufacture of American iron, and the important inventions and devices for the economy of fuel and labor in this establishment are his. He is a man of nerve, of creative genius, and of remarkable capacity for business, both in wide comprehension and in detail. |