aalt Official Organ Of the Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State 0 Texas. Founded 1897. BENEVOLENCE VOLUME 56 — NO. 17
HUMANITY
BROTHERHOOD
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 with Undeliverable Copies to SUPREME LODGE SPJST, POB 100, TEMPLE, TEX. 76501
APRIL 24,1963
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK Business Guidelines. If we may be allowed to speak, we desire to state that we hold these truths to be selfevident: that the greatest asset of a man or a business is the reputation for fair dealing; that the good will of the employed is just as desirable as the good will of the trade; that all the advertising in the world will not create a permanent demand for an inferior product; that success in business is more often won by men who are steady, conscientious pluggers than by the brilliant on-again-off-again boys; that common sense is the rarest commodity on the market; that all of us know more than any one of us; therefore, let us not fight each other, but rather cooperate; that the prizes in this world go to those who are orderly, industrious, fair and temperate. • Permanent Life Insurance. How does the level premium of a permanent life insurance policy work? The premium is based on the average Mortality risk in life-long insurance coverage for a large number of people, all starting at the same age. This means the average premium for lifelong protection must be higher than is
needed to cover the mortality risk in the early years, but is lower than would otherwise •be required in later years. Part of each, premium payment during the early years is used to build reserves that offset the higher mortality in later years. This reserve fund brings about the savings or investment-like features of permanent life insurance. Until the money is needed to meet the life insurance company's obligations to you and your family, it is put to work through sound investments, generally in high-quality bonds or mortgage loans. Earnings from the investments help to make policy reserves grow. (The Institute of Life Insurance estimates that, if it were not for investment earnings, the cost of a typical straight life insurance policy would run about 60 per cent higher). The reserve is reflected in the increasing cash value of your policy, which is regulated by law and guaranteed in the policy. Besides the portion of each premium that is added to the cash value, and amount is also added each year from the company's investment earnings. The yearly increases are calculated like compound interest on a savings account. The cash value is an integral part of your life insurance protection and
cannot be withdrawn or separated from it if your policy is to remain in force. For this reason, the yearly additions to cash value as a result of investment earnings are not subject to income tax unless you should cash in your policy — and then only if you get back more than you paid in. This can be a significant factor in building an estate or accumulating a retirement fund. When Does Life Begin? In its clay, one of the best sellers among nonfiction books was "Life Begins at Forty" by Walter Pitkin. The eagerness of the public to own this book indicates that the majority of people in their 40s are perplexed about their future. I don't think Pitkin proved that life begins at 40 any more than at 20 or 50. Life begins every day, and the future of any individual is fairly definitely indicated long before he reaches 40. In my opinion, life may be said to begin at 40 in a sense not suggested by Pitkin. By the time a man is 40, he should have built up a philosophy of life that should be his most priceless possession. Without such a philosophy, riches, if he has them, will be a mockery, and poverty will be unsupportable. But if he has come to understand that strain and not stability is the