Not a Philanthropic Institution.

Nor should a life office claim to be a philanthropic institution, founded to promote the growth of provident habits among the people. This may very probably, let us hope, be one result of the operations of the life offices, but it is not their object, and it would page 14 be unwise to base their claims for public support on a ground of this kind. I will now consider some other points on which the success of a life office depends. In order to treat this subject exhaustively, it would, of course, be necessary to define precisely what is to be understood by the success of a life office; but this would be too wide a subject for me to enter upon to-night, and I will, therefore, content myself with saying that no life office can be considered to be successful unless the annual waste of the membership by deaths and secessions is fully supplied by the new business.