Revival: The Business of Insurance (1904)

This little book is in no sense intended to be of use to insurance experts. It is written by an outsider mainly for the ignorant, for the multitude who either wish to insure their lives, or to whom the insurance agent is for ever coming with his proposals, his promises and blandishments. My doctrine is that every man ought to insure his life the moment he arrives at a period or position when his responsibility extends over the lives of others. If this duty were regarded as an imperative one by the community at large, there would be little or no necessity for the elaborate machinery required by our life offices to induce people to invest in life or other insurance policies; but as long as apathy prevails, such agencies must be maintained and a ceaseless activity displayed by the offices in tempting investors to enter into policy contracts.