members, and prevent the exodus of the sound lives.

3. An assessment in advance at issue of certificate, otherwise some
persons will be insured for nothing and the cost will fall on the
persistent members.

As was well said by a contributor in your last number, assessment
insurance has its defects, and these are well known to the managers of
these institutions, and that great improvements have been made by the
National Convention of assessment companies, which is composed of
representatives from the best companies organized in almost every state.
They recognize existing defects, they point out the remedies, and yet,
but few seem to have the courage of their convictions. It is a fact
beyond dispute, that with perhaps a half-dozen exceptions, the rates of
assessment in every assessment company in the country remain constant as
at the age of entry. That is to say, a man entering at the age of forty,
pays the rate at forty only, as long as he remains a member. This is a
direct violation of the inexorable law of nature which says, that as a
man grows older the risk of dying, or in other words the cost of
insurance, increases. It is all nonsense to urge that the _average_
age and the average cost will be kept down by the influx of new members.
The contract is made with the individual, and unless each person pays
enough to compensate the company for the indemnity or insurance
furnished to him, it follows of necessity, that others will be
overcharged in order to meet the deficiency so occasioned. And this evil
is intensified each year as the company grows older. When younger and
fresher men find that they are overcharged in order to meet deficiencies
arising from the act that older and inferior risks pay less than cost,
they will either not enter, or, if members, will speedily desert and
join an institution which is on a sounder and more equitable basis. No