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Their efforts to blunt the attacks, if any,consisted largely of philanthropy.When the entrepreneurial capitalists re-tired or died, they were replaced by a new generation of professional man-agers who recognized the social and economic impact of their corpora-tions.They adopted public relations, a term first used for that purpose in1916, to improve their corporate images among the public, politicians,and community leaders.Corporations employed individual public relationsexperts early in the century and some experts formed public relations agen-cies in the 1920s.9Public relations was used most extensively by the American Telephoneand Telegraph Company, a government regulated monopoly.Theodore Vail,who became president in 1907, created an information department to con-vince the public that a government regulated private monopoly was supe-rior to either government ownership or open competition.The depart-ment published advertisements in newspapers and magazines, providedmotion pictures free to theaters and organizations, maintained a speakersbureau, and distributed editorial materials for newspapers and magazinesthat could be reprinted without attribution.It was widely credited withimproving service to customers and informing the company about cus-tomers opinions.At the same time, AT&T withheld advertising from un-cooperative newspapers and kept secret its successful efforts to harass andundermine other telephone companies.10By the 1920s advertising and public relations had become so perva-sive that many thought that they had reached the point of saturation.11 Anycorporation that sought a distinctive place in the crowded advertising mar- 150 Health Education for Healthy Lifestylesketplace needed a novel approach.The health and welfare programs of theMetropolitan Life Insurance Company were probably the most innovativeand successful advertising and public relations campaigns of all time.The Health Programs of The Metropolitan Life InsuranceCompanyAt the turn of the twentieth century, the life insurance industry was underunrelenting attack.The most damaging disclosures occurred at the nation-ally publicized hearings on industry practices of the Armstrong commis-sion in New York State in 1905 7.The commission uncovered so manyunethical and illegal practices that nationwide life insurance sales droppedbelow the 1905 level for the next five years.The investigations in New Yorkand elsewhere produced a number of state statutes, including a 1911 Wis-consin law that created a public life insurance company.To regain publicconfidence, some life insurance companies advertised that they were regu-lated by the stringent New York State statutes that resulted from theArmstrong hearings.Industrial life insurance companies were particularlyvulnerable because government life insurance programs using tax revenues,which existed in Europe, could provide similar death benefits at much lowercost than private insurance companies.Government programs eliminatedthe expenses of selling and underwriting policies, collecting premiums, in-vesting income, and maintaining reserves.12The three largest industrial life insurance companies Metropolitan,Prudential, and John Hancock made concerted efforts to show urbanworking-class Americans an honorable side of the industry.They domi-nated industrial life insurance, selling 95% of the industrial life insurancepolicies that were purchased by more than one-fifth of all Americans in1909.They provided badly needed burial insurance to millions of urbantenement dwellers for a few cents a week and paid death benefits promptlyand unhesitatingly, unlike some ordinary life insurance companies.Theywere financially secure, as opposed to the many banks that took the family smoney and failed to return it when they went bankrupt during the nextdepression.They employed thousands of immigrants and their children asagents, managers, and clerical staff, which not only demonstrated the com-panies commitment to the immigrant communities, but also providedupward mobility for immigrants and enabled them to influence the prac-tices of the companies.Although early policy provisions were disadvanta-geous and high agent turnover provided poor service, the companies steadily The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Health Education Programs 151improved the quality of their products, services, and agents and made indus-trial life insurance a superior investment for many lower-income Americans.13The Metropolitan and some other leading life insurance companiesalso engaged in a form of industry self-policing.Between 1893 and 1918,the Metropolitan assumed responsibility for some or all of the policies ofthirty-one life insurance companies that failed or were otherwise unable tomeet their obligations.The companies included twenty-two industrial lifeinsurance companies with 770,000 policyholders.14From 1909 until well after mid-century, the Metropolitan was thelargest life insurance company in America.Its assets of $1.6 billion in 1925were $500 million greater than those of any other company.In 1927 theMetropolitan had $13.5 billion of individual policies in force, compared to$10 billion for the Prudential Insurance Company and less than $6 billionfor every other company.The Metropolitan also led the industry in grouplife insurance beginning in the 1920s.In 1934 the company insured 20.6million industrial policyholders, 5.3 million ordinary policyholders, and1.4 million group policyholders, covering about 20% of the population ofthe United States and Canada.In 1935, a typical year, 20% of all indi-vidual life insurance policies sold in the United States were sold by theMetropolitan Life Insurance Company.15The Metropolitan had become one of America s greatest and mostpowerful corporations, but such prominence had its dangers.The manycritics of the life insurance industry could easily direct their attacks at thelargest and most recognizable company.The Sherman Anti-trust Act of1890 had led to the divestiture of great corporations like the AmericanTobacco Company and Standard Oil in 1911 and the Metropolitan mightexperience a similar fate.The muckrakers incessant and widely publicizedattacks on great corporations would sooner or later produce an attempt tosully the Metropolitan s reputation.According to Haley Fiske, then Metro-politan vice president, in 1909 one New York State Senator denounced industrial insurance as back-door insurance and servant-girl insurance,and there was a strong intimation that the business was one which robbedthe poor
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