230 BLTSINESS OF LIFE INSURANCE

,to the fair premium for life insurance, including its expense provision, a pure endowment premium to mature the policy in a fixed number of years and will increase that extra premium paid for investment only by an expense charge equal to or exceeding 25 per cent.

It seems reasonable, upon careful examination, to load a life insurance premium with a sufficient provision for expenses to enable it to be sold and the premiums to be collected, as well as for expenses of management. Life insurance is needed by thousands who would never avail themselves of it, were it not for the agents who urge its sale. It is as justifiable to use 10 per cent. or 15 per cent. of the premiums, or even more if there are weekly collections, to defray the cost of finding patrons for life insurance, as to add to the real cost of coal the expense of selling and delivering it, whether by the ton or the basket. That is, because the benefit must be paid for. The price may be high, but the thing is worth it and cannot be furnished for less.

An investment stands upon a different footing. If handicapped in this manner, it ceases to be an investment at all, and so can be sold only by false representations of its real character. For that can hardly be called an investment which returns less than is paid or which, after years elapse, barely returns what has been paid. Stated in this bald fashion, such a proposal