The company, along with nearly all U.S. life insurers, faced a crisis with the coming of the Great Depression in 1929; like many of them, it survived largely by offering its clients policy loans against the plans' cash values. With World War II came another crisis due to the manpower shortage brought about by conscription; in some areas, premium collections, at least on a weekly basis, had to be curtailed (gasoline rationing played a factor here as well) and many clients who were used to having their premiums collected in person by an agent found themselves having to take the initiative to mail in their premiums or lose their coverage.