amounts insured, double those, respectively, in the old or regular
companies.

Assessment companies do not, strictly speaking, grant insurance. They
are rather agencies, or trust companies, and their functions or
covenants are to make assessments upon survivors when deaths occur, and
to pay over the proceeds of such assessments to the beneficiaries of the
deceased members. There is no definite promise to pay in full, and no
obligation to pay more than the assessments yield. There is no capital,
no risk, no _insurance!_ It is a voluntary association of
individuals. There is usually but little if any penalty for
discontinuance of membership, and the permanence of such institutions
depends mainly upon the volition of their members. They spring into
existence suddenly by the voluntary association of a few individuals
without capital or personal risk, and as suddenly they may go out of
existence by the voluntary act or withdrawal of their members. A breath
may create, a breath destroy.

It must be evident then to the merest tyro, that the permanence and
success of assessment companies depend upon the most rigid observance of
those principles which science and sound business experience have
demonstrated to be fundamental. Among these principles may be mentioned
the following.

1. Rates of assessments or payments adjusted to the cost of insurance at
the actual age of each person. These rates must inevitably and
inexorably increase with the age of the individual.

2. The creation of a guaranty, or emergency fund, available not only to
meet extra mortality, but as a cement to secure cohesion among the