Official Organ Of The Sla verg e Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas. Founded 1897. BENEVOLENCE
VOLUME 54 — NO. 28
HUMANITY
BROTHERHOOD
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 with Undeliverable Copies to: SUPREME LODGE, SPJST, P. 0. Box 100, TEMPLE, TEXAS
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK THIS, THAT, AND THE OTHER
THINK IT OVER . .
The American people, in their drive for economic security, are now putting an annual sum equivalent to an eighth of the entire national income into a stadily expanding "cushion" of personal protection and welfare programs.
"If citizens are free to choose which laws they will obey and which they will ignore, courthouses and legislative halls may as well be demolished." "If this is a battle for the minds of men, it is high time proponents of respect for the law met the challenge. If the lines are forming, let us choose sides and line up!" —Robert W. Calvert, Chief Justice, Texas Supreme Court
The latest complete figures show that a total exceeding $64 billion went into public and private plans in 1964 to help the individual and the family meet the financial impact of death, retirement, accident and illness, disability, and unemployment. Based on the average annual growth rate of more than $4 billion a year since the turn of the present decade, the total approached the $70 billion level in 1965 and will go decisively above it this year with the assist of expanded tax payments for Social Security and Medicare. Annual additions to personal savings and investments are not included. What emerges from these figures and their trend is a clear indication that personal protection has become one of the necessities of life, as basic in its way as the other essentials to help the individual cope with the pressures and problems of an increasingly complex world and meet his responsibilities to his dependents. And in dollar magnitudes, the annual flow of funds into the personal security "cushion" has outstripped all the categories
Fvery time you graduate from the school of experience, somebody thinks up a new course. but food and shelter in the spectrum of personal consumption expenditures as complied by the U.S. Department of Commerce. e In offering and explaining our SPJST protection plans to prospective members, we must be careful 1) not to undersell the various features and benefits of the plans offered, and 2) not to oversell the various and fraternal "fringe" benefits that our Society has to offer. For example, the prospect should not be told that he and his entire family will be entitled to free food and dance privileges at the lodge hall, just because they are members. This is
definitely "overselling" and should be avoided. It creates nothing but ill will and misunderstanding. Tell the prospect the straight facts, without embellishment or exaggeration. There are enough favorable features of our insurance plans, plus benefits of our fraternal system, so that exaggeration and overselling are not necessary. Our product is the best. Present it that way — nothing more, nothing less. • In the year 1583, when Elizabeth I was on the throne of England and William Shakespeare still a stage-struck youth of 19, a citizen of London named William Gybbons purchased a one•year insurance policy on his life. Mr. Gybbons, who salted meat and fish for a living, .died before the stated 12-month .period ended. He had paid the sum of L32 for the protection, and his beneficiaries duly collected L400. 'So far as experts can determine, this was the first life insurance policy ever written. Other forms of insurance can be traced back to antiquity. For example, you will remember the Biblical story of the seven years of plenty in ancient Egypt, to be followed by seven years when famine gripped the land. Joseph advised Pharaoh how to cope with the future crisis: store the grain from the seven abundant years, he said, so that