Digest Service

Last week The Literary Digest went into the insurance business. For $1 a year it offered an accident policy which would pay amounts varying from $10,000 for death in railroad or steamship wreck to $500 for being fatally hit by a truck or by lightning. Normally this policy would cost about $5 per year, depending upon precise details. To get the Digest rate it was also necessary to subscribe to the magazine for one year at $4.

An old story in Great Britain, this was introduced in the U. S. by the St. Louis Star in 1919. Ever since the late great Lord Northcliffe began to pile up massive circulations, British newsreaders have been able to get accident insurance practically free. Sometimes no contract was necessary : Lord Northcliffe once agreed to pay -L-1,000 to the heirs of anyone killed in a railroad train who had a copy of the Daily Mail on his person; other British papers made similar offers. Two years ago. under Lord Rothermere (Northcliffe's successor-brother) the Daily Mail paid out -L-50,000 when half a dozen of its insurees were killed in a wreck. Whether the stunt will now become a feature of U. S. Life is problematical.

In any case, the Digest views it not as a Northcliffian stunt but as public service. Said the Digest in a long letter to prospects :

"This is just another notable example of the public service which The Literary Digest strives to bestow. . . . But The Literary Digest does not confine its service to these more striking devotions to public welfare. Every issue of the magazine is designed to help better mentally, socially, and civically, every one who reads it."

Regarded by many as its most notable public service was the Digest Prohibition Poll last spring, which brought it some 700,000 $1 subscriptions. But total Digest circulation was less in the middle of the year than on Jan. 1.

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