In 1769 a similar corporation was chartered by the Proprietories of the Province of Pennsylvania for the relief of the widows and children of clergymen in the communion of the Church of England in America; the same persons being incorporated also, by the Provinces. of New Jersey and New York.

Up to 1792 the Presbyterian Corporation had paid over $48,000 to annuitants. When 116 years old, that is, in 1875, having obtained an amendment to its charter with a change of name, it began to transact a general business of life assurance confined to clergymen of the Presbyterian Church, under the title of the Presbyterian Annuity and Life Insurance Company; and this, the oldest life company in the United States, and one of the oldest in the world, is still in existence.

Among other early companies were the Pennsylvania Company for Insurance on Lives, etc., incorporated in 1812, and still in existence, though now only as a trust company; and the Girard Life Insurance, Annuity, and Trust Company, chartered in 1836, now also confining itself to a trust business. Until 1843, the principal life companies of the United States were in Pennsylvania, with their headquarters in Philadelphia, and their business was transacted on the stock principle.

In that year, however, two companies, destined to introduce a great reform into the methods of life assurance, and to bring the business into greater prominence, were organized in other States of the Union.

In February, 1843, the Mutual, of New York, began business with its principal office in the city of New York; and in December, of the same year, the New England Mutual opened its head office in Boston. Both of these companies were organized under the Mutual plan, all the profits to go to the assured; and this feature recommends them strongly to public favor. An unsuccessful attempt was made the next year to organize a Mutual company in Pennsylvania under the name of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of Philadelphia; but not until 1847 did Mutual Life Assurance have a permanent Pennsylvania representative company. In that year an act was approved providing for the organization of the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, now the most prosperous of the Pennsylvania companies. Meantime the following companies, each destined to play a great part in the development of the life assurance business in the United States, were organized in other States, viz., The New York Life, which had been incorporated under the name of The Nautilus, in 1841, began to transact business with its headquarters in the city of New York in 1845; and in the same year the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company opened its head office in Newark, N. J.; and

in December, 1846, the Connecticut Mutual, with its head office at Hartford, Connecticut, began to transact business. The last-named company was destined to contest the supremacy, for a time successfully, with the Mutual of New York.

It was the custom of many of the life companies at this period to take only a part of the premium in cash and to accept the note of the assured for the rest. As the number of companies multiplied, and competition began to grow sharper, they became more critical of each other's methods, and the advocates of the part premium and all cash systems engaged in public controversy. The part premium note system was, of course, at first popular, because it enabled the policy-holder to carry a given amount of assurance with less actual expenditure; but as it usually led to ultimate disappointment, a considerable part of the assurance being finally paid by the return of the notes, it has gradually fallen into disuse; the most successful companies having been those which adhered to the all-cash system. One of the witty sarcasms of the opponents of the premium note system was, that "Mutual life insurance, on the premium note system, was only a mutual attempt among a number of partially empty bags to stand up as if they were full."

At the end of 1848, the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York had taken the lead among the life companies of the United States in respect of its accumulated fund of $742,000. In the item of outstanding assurance, which more properly measures the magnitude of the business of a life company, it is difficult to get the data for a satisfactory comparison at this early date; but five years later, at the close of 1852, we find the Connecticut Mutual decidedly in the lead. The centre of activity had passed from Pennsylvania to the North. Fowler tells us that nine Pennsylvania Companies had at the beginning of 1852 an aggregate outstanding assurance of only about $12,000,000. At the end of the same year each of the three largest companies, belonging respectively to the States of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, had a greater amount in force than this, as is shown by the following figures taken from advertisements which appeared in the papers of that day:

ASSURANCE IN FORCE AT CLOSE OF 1852.

The centre of greatest activity was, however, not in Connecticut, but

in New York, as the fourth company in size was the New York Life, whose assurance in force was at this time probably about nine millions of dollars, and the combined assurance of the Mutual and the New York Life, therefore, aggregated a greater amount than that of the Connecticut Mutual.

It is worthy of note that all four of the largest companies were already mutual companies; and that the two largest were champions of the two systems of transacting business then in sharpest competition; the Connecticut Mutual being a part-note premium company, while the Mutual of New York was an all-cash premium company.

This is especially interesting, because, only two years later, in 1854, we find the positions of the two leading companies almost reversed, the Mutual of New York having taken the lead with assurance in force stated as $22,182,633, while that of the Connecticut Mutual had declined to $18,948,225. The Mutual Benefit followed with $15,794,297, and the New York Life was still fourth with $10,290,662. Next after these came the New England Mutual with $6,400,663 in force.

During the next six years, that is, until 1860, there was a steady growth in the amount of business in force. The five largest companies maintained their relative order, but the Mutual of New York grew much the most rapidly, making a gain of nearly $18,000,000 in the six years. The Mutual Benefit almost caught up with the Connecticut company, and the New England Mutual gained fast on the New York Life.

But during this interval two companies began to transact business which were destined to play so important a part in the history of Life Assurance in the United States that special mention should be made of them.

t On the 25th of November, 1858, the Northwestern Mutual began to transact business, with its head office in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Excepting only the three giant companies of New York City, the Northwestern is now the largest company in the world.

Eight months later, July 28th, 1859, the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States began to transact business in modest offices in New York City.

At the close of 1860 the controversy between North and South was brought to a crisis by the election of Abraham Lincoln to the presidency of the United States.

At this time the amount of assurance in force in the principal companies was reported as follows:

The increase during the year for these companies had been :

The secession of the Southern States and the dark cloud of civil war had much less effect on the business than would have been expected.

The following are the amounts reported in force in 1861, together with the gains or losses for the year.

A gain of $15,440,837 for these six companies in 1860 was changed into a loss of $2,138,222 in 1861; or a total loss of $17,579,059, as compared with the gains shown in 1860. This seems a very decided check; but the remarkable fact is that it was only for a single year. Notwithstanding the fact that the war continued, with no immediate prospect of termination, the lost ground, and even the rate of gair. of 1860, were more than recovered in 1862; the amount in force in the six companies having risen to $149,922,316, a net gain of

$16,059,607 for the year. And this was the beginning of a period of very rapid gain in the business of life assurance, which far surpassed anything that had ever been known before, and which lasted through the war and for years after its close.

During this period the Equitable began to show clearly the combined exergy and wisdom of management which have since given it so remarkable a place in the history of life assurance. In 1865 it passed the Manhattan, in 1866 it passed the New England Mutual, in 1867 it passed the New York Life, and by the close of 1869, when it was little more than ten years old, it had become the third company in magnitude in the United States, and probably in the world. Ætna, of Hartford, Conn., which began to transact business in 1850, also came into marked prominence during this period, taking, at the end of 1867, the fourth place in the magnitude of its assurance in force. At the end of 1868, or at the latest of 1869, however, the rapid gains which most of the companies had been making since the close of 1861 were checked. The Connecticut Mutual, the Mutual Benefit, the Ætna, the New England Mutual, and the Northwestern, whose progress for the last seven or eight years had been very great, came nearly to a stand-still, or even began to decline. The three great New York companies, the Mutual, the Equitable, and the New York, however, continued to make very heavy gains, until the great commercial panic of 1873. The severe and well-nigh universal financial stringency which followed that panic, told heavily upon the business of all the companies, though the good companies continued, notwithstanding a diminution in the amount of assurance in force, to prosper financially.

But the prosperity of the business previous to this period, and the laxity of the earlier laws in regard to the incorporation of companies, had led to the organization of a number of companies without sufficient safeguards, and whose methods of business were venturesome or dishonest. The State Insurance Departments had not then been made as efficient as they now are, and therefore reckless and unsound business methods were not held so much under control. Many of these companies were, therefore, too weak to stand the strain when it came upon them, and this period was characterized by a number of failures among the weaker companies. The ultimate effect of this was, however, good. The dross was purged away and the pure gold remained. The companies whose sound methods and financial strength had been successfully tested, stood higher than ever in the public estimation, and were ready to share in the return of general