The policies were originally issued on the yearly renewable term plan. After the war, holders were invited to convert them into policies on a level premium, legal reserve basis such as is employed by America's large life insur ance companies.

But, unfortunately, many policies were allowed to lapse. And now the offi cials at Washington, grate fully remembering the way the Government was sup ported in time of need, offer veterans a final chance to restore protection to their families with life insurance at rates below actual cost. All Service men and women who lapsed their term policies may have their insurance reinstated by the payment of one month's back premium when accompanied by a certificate of good health which any physician may give. Or they may now take out smaller policies at the same special rates. But-the nec essary formalities must be carried through before July 2, 1927.

FAILS

One of the most common misconceptions in the public mind regarding life insurance is that lapsed policies are a source of profit to insur ance companies and therefore are desired by them. As a matter of fact, lapsed policies mean loss to both policyholders and companies. Worst of all they often spell domestic tragedy. Because of temporary financial pressure, men sometimes stop paying premiums hoping that a little later they may take out new policieseven though they realize that at an older age they will have to pay higher rates, if, by good fortune, they are able to pass again the neces sary physical examinations.

Life insurance policies are not merely sound investments; in the majority of cases they pro vide the surest form of protection for American

HALEY FISKE, President.

(Financial Situation, continued from page 706) struction had seemed to be reasonable indication of "overbuilding," but contracts placed in the country as a whole during March footed up the largest recorded monthly value, passing for the first time the figure of August, 1925, a date which had long been accepted as the culminating point of post-war construction activity in the United States.

What, in this longer retrospect, is to be said of this singular reversal of form, which for the second time has completely upset theories of progressive reaction, and has done so at the very moment when such theories seemed to be in the way of fulfilment, and which so completely upset the seemingly reasonable predictions of 1919 and 1921? One or two explanations were obvious. First, there had evidently been no abatement in actual consumption of goods in the United States, if measured by a period of months. Next, the adjustment of production to consumption had been so close that the new orders placed after a temporary pause could not be filled by drawing on accumulated stocks of goods and therefore had to be met by speeding-up of new production. But, back of these considerations, the widely diffused prosperity and well-being of the American people as a whole had suffered no diminution; their continuing income was large enough to support the larger scale of expenditure. Both buying capacity and disposition to buy were sustained at the remarkably high level reached in the two preceding years. Such brief and temporary relaxation in the demand for goods as occurred at the end of 1926 and at intervals in the preceding twelvemonth would therefore invariably be followed by an inrush of orders on a scale of exceptional magnitude, whereby merchants'

supplies could be kept in touch with the sustained absorption by consumers.

BUT this did not explain why none of the predicted consequences of post-war readjustment, of the depleted purchasing power of the outside world, or of our own agricultural distress, had presented any visible obstacle to the rapid growth of American prosperity. If the continued increase of industrial activity and profits, without Europe the occasional violent setbacks which Studies used to be expected, has puzzled many Our Americans who had looked for repe- Situation tition of the old-time vicissitudes of

trade, it has been a source of outright wonderment to other nations. They have discussed the phenomenon of American prosperity in different ways. In some communities of the European Continent, the extraordinary contrast between the course of events in Europe and the course of events in America has been frankly ascribed to the war; whose results, in their opinion, placed the outside world, particularly Europe, in the position of states paying tribute to America.

British industrialists, in line with their practical tradition, approached the problem in a different way. Recognizing that England and the United States had changed places since 1914 in more ways than in performing the duties of world money-centre, that American industry was thriving in an unprecedented degree at the moment when British industry was sunk in profound and prolonged depression, inquiry was addressed to the causes for this contrast. If all industrial nations, including the United States, were struggling simultaneously with the disastrous eco(Financial Situation, continued on page 57)