January 27, 1923. WOMEN IN LIFE INSURANCE EDITION; INSURANCE ADVOCATE 17
in the world came because no provision had been made for protection against sickness or the death of bread winners of the family. As a result, I have adopted the following creed: I believe that if every one with dependents carried a life insurance policy, with a total disability clause, a large percentage of the sorrowing and suffering in the world would be eliminated.
Having been selling this protection for a little less than a year my record is4not phenomenal. It is growing consistently, my policies ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. My largest two policies were written recently, one for $20,000, 20 pay-life and the other .an endownment with an annual premium of $1,400 (including disability).
What success I have had I attribute first and foremost to the advice and training of a very able general agent, then to a large acquaintance and a de-sire to give good service.
LIFE INSURANCE—AN INTER-
ESTING PROFESSION
By Ella J. Hasbrouck, Agent New
York Life at Wisconsin Rapids,
Wisc.
Life insurance is an intensely interesting profession. Others may say, "I am so tired of my work," but not the life insurance agent. Each prospect is a peculiar problem, presenting new phases which must be death with.
ELLA J. HASBROUCK
You get to know all varieties of men and women and you become more or less acquainted with every kind of business, profession and occupation.
Again, life insurance is a profession you can be proud of. You can be perfectly sure you are benefitting a man ,or woman when you present the subject to him. One of my clients said, "Insurance is something everybody
ought to have and something every-body wants, but they don't think about it unless it is brought to them." Life insurance is the one thing for which there is no substitute. There is nothing "just as good." It is the most democratic business in the world. The rich and the poor are treated alike. The return on a $1,000 policy is just the same proportionally, as on a $100,000 policy for the same age and form of contract.
Life insurance was not exactly new to me, when I took it up as a life profession. For a number of years, I had worked in a general insurance office, and on a part time basis, had written some policies for the New York Life.
But I was not satisfied. I wanted something larger, more constructive. [ wanted work in which initiative, energy, hard work and perseverance would bring appropriate returns.
By chance, I was in Milwaukee, considering a very flattering offer, when Mr. Buckner, Inspector of Agencies for the New York Life, and Mr. Schofield, Agency Organizer, suggested that I should become a whole time agent of the New York Life, with territory centering around my own home city. I gave the matter very serious consideration, and decided to follow their advice, and I have been thankful every day since January 1, 1919, that I did so.
The success that I have had is due in the first instance to the splendid co-operation of our branch office. Al-though there are thrills in the work, there are also discouragements, and the branch office is always ready with the right word of encouragement and advice that sets me face about and determined to succeed. Then, too, my training in general insurance, with the contacts afforded with different kinds of business, has stood me in good stead.
For the rest, system, hard work, perseverance and conviction make up my formula of success.
The first three need no explanation. By conviction, I mean that I am perfectly sold on the insurance proposition. Time and again I have been told, "You certainly believe in this yourself." And I do. I know that a man is better off in every way when he is adequately insured. One of the finest things about my work is to have people tell me months after I wrote their policies, how glad they are that they decided to take the step. Because of this fact, I have no hesitancy in urging people to insure.
Life Insurance offers peculiar opportunities to women. They have equal advantages and priviledges with men. Perhaps, better than men, they understand the protection it offers the family, and so can urge its claims with more appreciation. In addition to the remuneration, it affords that sense of service rendered which gives one pleasure and satisfaction.
LIFE INSURANCE AS A PRO-
FESSION
The Story of E. K. Fitzgerald, Secur-
ity Mutual Life, Knoxville, Tenn.
This is the story of a woman who had a vision and has made a success
of her chosen calling.
Some days ago it was my privilege to have a very interesting talk with one of the most successful business women I have met in a long time. I had been won to her by her strong and pleasing personality, and always enjoyed the moments spent in conversation with her, but not until this recent talk on the subject of her profession, did I have the opportunity to look into the depth of this
E. KATHRYN FITZGERALD
interesting and influential character, whose work is not only a profession that pays her well financially, but a privilege and a joy, that brings her returns in the uplift and the helping of human souls.
Mrs. E. Kathryn Fitzgerald, General Manager at Knoxville, for the Security Mutual Life Insurance Company, in her conversation with me, went back some years in her life, in order to explain to me, just what influenced her to enter the Life Insurance Profession. In a few words she told of a misfortune that came into her life that made it necessary for her to support herself and small child and provide for their future welfare.
Her first effort was a position as stenographer, and the overseeing of the work of several others, paying her a fair salary, but when she thought of her daughter's future, and how she was to provide the means with which to educate her, she realized that she would have to find means beyond that of her present salary.
About this time she was taken very ill and found it necessary to give up her position. During this illness she had plenty of time to think and turn over every proposition that had
