REBATING AND OTHER SCHEMES 209

tion have been also used in life insurance, and in fire insurance the allowance of a rebate to the insured is almost universal. * * * The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York has always opposed the payment of large commissions to agents, and if it has not hitherto made use of its financial strength to offer any inducements to the insurant it has not been because there was any moral or prudential objection, but because the appreciation of the public sufficed without it."

In consequence of the outcry the company desisted, but, instead of thus lowering the first premium, it proceeded to reduce both first and renewal premiums, hoping thus to divert the purchasers of life insurance from high premium policies, with a high expense rate and great expectations as to deferred dividends, to low premiums, with low expenses and reasonable re-turns. The experiment was not wholly successful, possibly because not persisted in long enough.

As, by reason of the returns being much lower than had been estimated, the popularity of deferred dividend policies with harsh forfeiture conditions began to wane, and as the race for new business became more strenuous, commissions were forced up and up, until rebating of quite another sort became common.

It was—and sometimes yet is—of the follow-

it