Government Hearings - 1910s
- 1913 0909 - GOV (House) - Changes in the Banking and Currency System of the United States - [PDF-177p-GooglePlay]
- Mr. Glass, from the Committee on Banking and Currency, submitted the following Report.
- Together With Views of the Minority and Minority Views.
- (p159) - Charles August Lindbergh - (R-MN) - The procedure of the insurance companies, which in part is enforced by law, is of special interest.
- The companies collect above $600,000,000 annually from policyholders, and from this loan largely on long-time notes.
- They act simply as money brokers, but with this effect, that with the rapid depreciation of the currency in the last 15 years, they are now returning to their policyholders, on death claims or matured policies, relatively far less than the average amount of money which the policyholders have paid in.
- Roughly speaking, the policyholder has been paying in $1 bills; he will get back 66-cent pieces.
- Theoretically, the compounding of the interest on premiums ought to pay the companies' expenses and yield the policy holders a profit on the average payment.
- In point of fact, with the extravagance of the companies and the decline in the purchasing power of the dollar, there is a serious loss.
- This is not as it should be.
- A remedy might lie in a radical change of investment.
- A larger part of the insurance money is loaned directly or indirectly on land.
- Actual ownership of the land ought to be as safe as loans, and, if gold inflation is to continue, more profitable.
- It is something to think about.