A Tribute to the Metropolitan Agents

In September of 1931 the Board of Directors designated Dr. Armstrong and Dr. Dublin, both of whom had been intimately associated with Dr. Frankel for many years, to carry on the health activities of the company. Working together, they continued the tradition of Dr. Frankel in the conduct of the welfare program and in stimulating and supporting a wide range of outside health organizations.

The work Dr. Frankel envisioned was richly fulfilled, and the company continued increasingly to be a force in the life conservation activities of the country. When talking of the contributions to public health made by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, one cannot forget the work of the company's agents. They were of the greatest service in bringing sick policyholders under nursing care and in carrying popular health education into the home.

However, their efforts were not been limited to propaganda alone. In the early stages of the company's fight against diphtheria, it was the Metropolitan agents who often set the example in the community by first having their own children inoculated. They carried through many nationwide educational campaigns against specific diseases and accidents. Working side by side with civic and health agencies, Metropolitan agents helped in vital research, such as the company's unemployment and sickness surveys.

They gave generously of their time and interest and labored fruitfully. It is not surprising, therefore, that their welfare work was a rewarding experience. Many agents could tell of lives that were saved and communities that were made healthier and happier places in which to live as the result of their efforts. Since the organization of the welfare division, in 1909, the policyholders on their debits were enabled to share in the gifts conferred by the discoveries of science and by the operation of public health measures.

Close to 25,000,000 people in the United States and Canada became eligible to receive skilled nursing care during illness. The welfare work of the company was definitely worthwhile in terms of lives saved and deaths postponed, and in the consequent lowering of the cost of insurance. In that third of a century since the founding of the welfare division, the nurses made more than 92,000,000 home visits to approximately 20,000,000 policyholders.

Considerably more than 1,200,000,000 copies of Metropolitan health pamphlets were distributed in this country and Canada. Its motion pictures have been seen since 1924 by nearly 127,000,000 persons at theaters, schools, and other centers. Certainly no one agency working alone could have reached out to change the health attitudes and practices of so many millions of individuals at that point in history. In the movement which through the years achieved longer and more abundant life for the American people, the Metro­politan was proud to have played its part.

Close to 25,000,000 people in the United States and Canada became eligible to receive skilled nursing care during illness. The welfare work of the company was definitely worthwhile in terms of lives saved and deaths postponed...