Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1920 [PAGE 234]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

230

BOARD OF T R U S T E E S

[March, 11

Additional copies of this Handbook can be furnished and forms of application. The Actuary of the Association will be glad to give any additional information or to advise as to the choice of the form of life insurance policy. I shall be glad to have this matter brought to the attention of teachers and of the governing board of the institution. Every institution of higher learning will find it necessary to maintain in the future some form of old age pension. The contracts here offered present the most secure method by which this can be accomplished. For men under forty a moderate annual payment will provide at sixty-five a fair annuity. The great advantage of beginning at an early age is shown in the accompanying table. I shall be glad to know if the Handbook is received. Any further information desired will be gladly given by the officers of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association. Very truly yours,

HENRY S. PRITCHETT

N E W YORK, January 27,1919 President Edmund J. James, University of Illinois

DEAR PRESIDENT JAMES:

Let me acknowledge your kind note of January 23rd. I am having sent you by express two hundred and fifty copies of the Handbook of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and as many copies of the Memorandum. If these are not enough we can send more. I should like these especially to reach the younger men. In all our past history the chance to institute a sound and enduring pension system for the coming generation has been sacrificed, generally in vain, in order to meet the accrued liabilities of the older men. Any institution dealing with the question to-day ought to separate these two questions. For men below forty, the insurance and annuity contracts offered in this Association represent the most secure and the least expensive way to provide such protection. Of course, as I explained in Chicago, the Insurance and Annuity Association will deal with the individual teacher if he so desires; and, as I also explained, the question of entering into relations with this Association, either individually or as a group, has nothing to do with association with the Carnegie Foundation. There are certain large privileges still attached to this relationship, for example, the disability pension after five years of service. I have always been regretful that the University of Illinois was not among the group of institutions admitted to the Foundation when Michigan, Wisconsin, and California entered. You remember, however, the difficulties at that time. Among all the great state institutions, Illinois was the only one which maintained a large preparatory school in the middle of its university. You will, I think, agree with me that we have tried to be generous toward your older men. I think we have retired all of them whom you recommended. The question now is on an entirely different basis. To most institutions two problems are presented.