The Daily Worker Newspaper, May 19, 1927, Page 2

THE DAILY WORKER, NEW YORK, THU! DEMAND THAT GOVERNOR SMITH ACT ON EXPOSURE OF INSURANCE GRAFT PREVIOUS EVENTS OF INSURANCE EXPOSE. The DAILY WORKER herewith continues its expose of the fraudulent methods employed by the “Big Four,’ who are the Metropolitan, Prudential, John Hancock and the Colonial Life Insurance Companies. In this series it is charged that these companies who monop- olize the weekly payment life insurance business are guilty of | fraud, misuse of “mutual” funds, manipulation of policyholders’ money and subornation, to perjury. On April 27th Governor Smith ordered Superintendent of | Insurance James A. Beha to make inquiries into the charges con-| tained in the Harrison articles. So far the official apologist for the insurance companies has not submitted his report. The expose has caused something re-| sembling panic in insurance circles. It affects wpwards of | 40,000,000 American policyholders. | By CHARLES YALE HARRISON. GOVERNOR ALFRED E. SMITH, { prey aia Albany, N. Y. Exploitation of “Big Four” Agehts to Be Exposed In New Series May 23 It is now nearly three weeks since | you havo instructed Superintendent of Insurance James A. Beha to make inquiries into the charges embodied in The DAILY WORKER industrial insurance exposure. During this time Daniel F. Gordon, Beha’s as: nt has written to the} Worker pointing out that one of its A series of ten articles exposing the swindling of industrial insur- ance agents by the “Big Four” will commence in the DAILY WORK- charges are correct but was due to|} ER, Monday May 23rd and daily an “error” in printing. Mr. Beha] thereafter. himself has’ not deemed it worth The series will be by Charles Yale Harrison and will deal with the exploitation of agents. The ar- ticles are being published, at the request of thousands of agents who have written to the DAILY WORKER asking that the paper espouse their cause also. Be sure and see that your own insurance agent gets the first ar- ticle! of his attenion to reply to the serious | charges of fraud and misuse of “mu-| tual” funds on the part of the so- called “Big Four”. | What About Misrepresentation” As you are aware, among the many charges adduced in this series of ar-/| ticles, is one that the directorates of | this enormous combine do not repre- sent the interests of the 40 million? policyholders who are members of the companies involved. aud directors ofthe “Bip Fone* We refer specifically to the fact) tack, By this silence he stands self. that Frederick H. Ecker, vice presi-| eonvicted of being partial to and un dent of the Metropolitan Life Insur-| ger the influence of the companie: cause of his associafion with the| under attack. the Chase National Bank in which | Appoint \ Corsmittee. over 20 million dollars of Metropoli-| wae urge you, in the face of the tan funds are always on deposit. seriousness of the ose to order| Law Broken. the creation of a legisiative tnvesti- | Mr. Ecker is also the director of aj gating conimittee into the charges| chain of railroads in whose securities | made in The DATi.Y WORKER. We} tens of millions of Metropolitan|ask that such 2 conimittee conduct | funds are invested. This is in viola-| its investigation through public ¢ tion of the Insurance Laws of 1909,| sions wehre policyholders We therefore ask that you instruct | heard and the publication of its find. to} | Superintendent of Insurance James|ings at the*earliest possible momert.| only to see them overtopped, under-| fore the nation, when the need is| na to remove Ecker forthwith} We are sure that the findings cf | position with the Metropoli-| such a committee will substantiate | | to make such inquiries as|the charges made in this. series and} Whole towns have all but disappeared beneath the unprecedented flood tide of the Mississippi river and its lower tibutaries in what has been termed “America’s greatest disaster.” Here is an airplane view of Rolling Fork, Miss., the river here having become a virtual sea, with nothing but tree tops and house tops and an occasional hill to indicate where once was dry land. A strip of dry levee also remains. MILLIONS OF DOLLARS SPENT WHILE INHABITANTS PERISH IN RAGING TORRENTS \hirelings: the army engineers, | More Graft in Sight. (Continued from Page One) an amendment to its appropriation | bill a measure sponsored by Senator Francis .G. Newlands, of Nevada, | With it, to resume levee building, only providing $250,000 for an investiga-| this time on a vaster and more am- tion of the issue of flood control |bitious scale. Of course its going to methods by an independent com-}¢ost.tens of millions, but then as mission, A year later he died and| Mr. Hoover says this is a national investigation by repealing the re public stands ready to vision in their new handout bill. |be mulefed for more “pork.” He has Since that time there have been| already announced, and President two great floods, one greater than | Coolidge has échoed with enthusiasm, the previous, and still the stolid army | that a flood control program will be engineers under the careful manage-| Prepared for the next Congress call- ment and guidance of crooked poli-|ing for greater and nobler levees. ticians, big and little, have gone on| To call a session of Congress now, to building higher and higher levees, | deal with the problem while it is be- vast, is a program Mr. Coolidge will |not lend himself to. Refuses Special Session. mined at each succeeding flood; or where they did hold to have been compelled to blow them up so as to} They propose, if they can get away | ‘urther removats among will result in much needed corrective | provide outlets for the raging waters. “It’s politics,” he declares. Not . MAY 19, 1927 | Gigantic Graft in Mississippi Flood Control DEEP BENEATH THE WATERS LIES THIS ONCE HAPPY TOWN > ere GREAT FORTUNES “BUILT IN MONTH -— BY BANKING BILL ‘McFadden Act Bringing Millions Profit Bankers, reaping a rich harvest of | millions in the financial jugglery at- \tending mergers and consolidations, | celebrated the McFadden banking law | yesterday with announcements of two mergers and one extension. The Central Mercantile and the Chelsea Exchange are to be consoli- | dated in a $75,000,000 bank. The In- terstate Trust, of which former Gov- ernor Silzer of New Jersey is the sponsor, gobbles up the Franklin Na- tional. The Manufacturers Trust has | taken over the First National Bank of Hempstead, L. I. Bank stocks soared gaily on the ‘merger wave with first National stock selling at $3,000 a share. Stocks of several banks have swelled in value from 50 to 100 per cent in the last 80 days. | «The provisions of the new McFad- den act, permitting mergers, in- creased\earnings and enlarged opera- tions are held responsible. The Me- | Fadden act was pushed through the jlast congress by Vice President | Dawes and other agents of the bank- ‘ing ring as a companion measure to |the famous Mc-Nary-Haugen farm “relief” bill, | Farmers Lose On Deal. USSR Protests Arcos | | Raids In Note (Continued from Page One) | | to the Soviet interests connected with | | the activities of Areos by compromis- | ing the latter and creating around it an atmosphere of want of confidence and hostility. From this viewpoint the | | Soviet Government feels it has the! right to protest against the raid. | “If the British can sustain their for- |the gang promptly put an end to the | calamity and the great generous | maj rights with regard to Arcos, there | cannot exist the least doubt that the, violent irruption of police into the) premises of the Trade Delegation and the acts they committed there were a flagrant violation of the 1921 agree- | ment, | “According to the fifth article of that agreement the Soviet Republic is | granted the right to use cipher corre- |spondence. It follows that such cor- |respondence, as well as the ciphers | themselves, may by no means be ex- | amined by the agents of other States, | lor any outside persons without the Rhein ft The congressmen from the farm Suspended Ballplayer Suicide districts saved their constituents / ST. PAUL, Minn., May 18.—Eddie| with the excuse that they could not Meade, member of the pitching staff/ have passed the farm relief bill with- of the St. Paul American Association | out approving a‘trade with the bank Club, who recently was suspended for| bill supporters. President Coolidge not being-in condition, was found dead|the famous McNary-Haugen farm in his room here today, a suicide, ac-| bill and signed the bank act. cording to authorities. As a result holders of bank stocks, Meade was found by a maid lying| including the very core of America’s across the bed fully dressed with a imperiaJists, have seen their fortunes revolver in his hand and a bullet! inflated from 10 to 100 per cent in wound through his heart. “the short space of three months. Foil the Bloodhounds of ls as the facts may war- | that he gbjects,to politics, but it is | @ | We ask that you order Beha to re- move Charles M. Schwab from the aivectorate of the Metropolitan be-; cause of this association with the Chase National Bank which is’ also in violation of the Insurance Laws | Here’s Another. | We ask you to order your appointee | Reha to instruct the officers of the| Metropolitan Life that the presezice | c? Henry Ollesheimer, president of| the Chase National Bank, on the | Metropolitan directorate, is iMlegal) and contrary to the intrests of the 26 million Metropolitan policyholders, and that he should. therefore be re- moved immediately. We have charged that the whole institution of weekly payment life in- surance is alive with overcharging, cynical rulings. ‘arsh policy condi- tions and fraudulent elections of di- rectors. We have adduced evidence to support our charges. We have quoted Beha’s document to substan- tiate our charges. The five thousand industrial agents in the city of New York will testify that there are tens of thousands of policyholders of the “Big Four” who are clamoring for a legislative in- vestigation into the evils of this gigantic swindle. Agent’s Wage Slavery. Due to the merciless system of wages under which these agents work this expose has caused them loss of remuneration. They are an- xious to have you look into their working conditions and render their lot less unendurable. | We have submitted facts and fig-| ures to Mr. Beha, quoting his report to the New York Sate Legislature, proving that more than 75% of alli weekly payment life insurance poli- * Ges lapse before they have accumu- lated a cash vadlue. Under the pre- sent law the “Big Four” (with the exception of the John Hancock) are permitted to forfeit all deposits on policies until they have been paid on for ten full years. | Insured For Three Years, In view of the fact that the aver- age life of a weekly payment life insurance policy is less than three | years the “Big Four” makes tens of | millions of dollars annually in this respect. We ask that you instruct Mr. Beha to submit statistical data showing why the John Hancock a Massachusetts company can allow a five year surrender clause while the New York and New Jersey companies insist on a ten year clause. In spite of the widespread inter- est which this series of articles has provoked and in spite of the popular demand for a legislative investigation your superintendent has remained legislation. c 1 The “Big Four” in the face of this | attack have remained silent. Thou- sands of their policyholders have re-| fused to have further dealings with! them and have withdrawn their mem- | bership. ~ These companies calculate | that it will be much to their ad-| vantage to sulk in silence until the| wave of public indignation dlows | over. We urge that you drive the Four” out ini, the open. 172 Families Periled By Collapse of Wall The lower end of the High Bridge! section of the Bronx was thrown into a panic yesterday by a roar, taken as the approach of an earthquake, when | a retaining wall 150 feet wide and) 150 feet high collapsed in the rear of a five-story apartment house, which runs from 1038 to 1052 on Anderson avenue. The 172 families residing in the} apartment house awoke to find the} walls of their rooms cracked, doors| warped, and in many cases the floor| sunken a few inches due to the sud- den slipping away of the retaining) wall. | “Big | Republican Woman’s , Boss on Job Again| Mrs. Medill McCormick, most likely | woman candidate for the Republican | presidential nomination, who fainted | } in the middle of a speech before the} Westchester Republican women’s or-| ganization, had recovered sufficiently | I yesterday to issue a statement. | The widow of the late reactionary | senator from Illinois is the daughter | of the notorious Republican boss, Mark| Hanna, who operated the Spanish-| American war for the benefit of| American profiteers and bankers, Polish Reactionaries Plot Bomb Outrages on Each Other; Jail Many LONDON, May 18.—Numerous arrests have been made today fol- lowing the disclosure of a plot to depose, and possibly assassinate, President Pilsudski, according to a Central News dispatch from War- saw. Premises of the very’ conserva- tive “National Democratic Organi- zation” of Poland were raided by police, the dispatch states. Labora- tories for the manufacture of bombs were discovered, silent. In the interi to him and th serious eff . between your letter day he has made no to call the officers Police accuse General Haller and other leaders of being implicated, it is stated. lunto the skies and deriding and de- | plans, including the independent com- | of tributaries, has risen and crumbled Hoover Backs Gang. When the subject is gone into, the investigator doubts his own observa- tions. The facts seem so palpably impossible. And yet, not only are they actually realities, but the Holy Bull of Business, Herbert Hoover. Secretary of Commerce, alleged en- gineering authority, has issued a ukase lauding the “levees only” idea} nouncing as “visionary” all other | mission investigation proposal. The reason, polities. And this time, national polities. Mr. Hoover kno better, but the political fate of his} good friend and chief, Mr. Coolidge may be involved and the Republican politicians are taking no chances on further scandals—they have had enough. The first federal appropriation for levees in the Mississippi River Vailey eame in 1789 following the then record-breaking flood. Since that time the United States government has laid cut $86,000,000, local com- munities $15,000,000 in cash and right of ways, and states and coun- ties along ‘the river over $100,000,- 000. All this money has gone into building a Jong line of levées from Cairo, Illinois to the Gulf of Mexico. And every few years or so, the mighty Mississippi, gorged by spring rains and ‘snows from its hundreds these walls, In places where they held, the implacable river has gone over them. | For, as a matter of fact, the higher the levees go the higher the bed of the stream rises. The Mississippi is an alluvial river. ts water carries billions of tons of sediment. It is a sluggish stream. It takes weeks for the rest of a flood to reach a given point. So that if the stream is confined within two walls, then these walls have to be raised continually. The stream does not bore a channel, it drops its load of mud and rises on it. Don't Want to Learn And yet this simple, obvious fact seems to have been totally disre- garded by the all-wise engineers and the mighty Mr, Hoover who have ad- vocated the “levees only” system and are now so excitedlyy defending it. The “levees only” or as it is designa- ted by engineers, the “confinement” system as a matter of fact seems to fly in the face of all reason. It calls for a damning up all auxiliary mouths of the river, confining it to a long line of levees, all on the theory that the stream will enlargen and deepen its channel sufficiently to carry the urden of a flood. The fact that as| long as man knows it has not done | so, and that despite the most scien- tifie levee building in the past 47 years and the expenditure of hun- dreds of millions of dollats the river has not been persuaded to do so, has had no effect on Mr. Hoover or his! not the kind he approves of and so he proposes waiting until he can have things somewhat under his control. He dare not, at this time, face the damning facts of wholesale graft in the Jevee building program while thousands are made destitute and hundreds perish before the onrush of the raging torrents of the Missis- sippi. Britain Lines Up With Chiang Kai-shek (Continued from Page One) General charging that on April 22, a British soldier forcibly entered a Chi-| nese residence in Shanghai and raped a maid-servant. The protest states the name of the woman, the name_of her employer, and the address of the house. It also. asserts: “A foreign constable was called but he deliber- ately let the soldier go.” The protest further states that the police subsequently caused the woman to be given medical treatment at a hospital where they were informed by the hospital staff that the woman had been raped and otherwise injured. The note demands that the soldier be court-martialed, with a representative from the office of the Commission or of Foreign Affairs present as an ob- server. * * * No Honor Among Thieves SHANGHAI, May 18.—There is anything but harmony in the camp of the northern war lords. Native pa- pers report that Chang Tsung Chang, Shantunge war lord, has seized mil- lions of dollars’ worth of military equipment destined for Sun Chuang- fang. quarrel with Yang Yu-ting has left for Peking. Germans Carry on Trade (By National News Agency) . SHANGHAI,“May 18.—Erich Von Salzmann, veteran Chi correspond- lent of the Vossichezeitung, who has returned in this city from a visit to Hankow, im, a newspaper interview today said::“There is not a German in Hankow who is worried or scared. The German population in Hankow, including women and children, is just as large today as it was a year ago. * * 4 Butler Plans War PEKING, May 18.—-General Smed- ley Butler, U. S. M. C. commander, arrived today and is conferring with American Minister MacMurray re- garding the defense of Americans in North China. The British Minister in’ Shanghai is holding similar conferences with the British military authorities and it is understood that the British intend to increase the Peking and Tientsin gar- risons by ten battalions. ., pars ERE SAL: Read The Daily Worker Every ,Day Chang Hsue-liang, after a) special consent of the chief of the Trade Delegation. Jeopardize Relations | be 4 the same article grants an 6ffi- cial agent\the right to receive, on the {strength of diplomatic immunity, |through special couriers, sealed pack- ets, it is self-evident that the con- | tents of these packets are immune. | “Two officials, M, Miller and M. Hudiakoff, who protested against the \itlegal demands of the police, were! | subjected to violence, even beaten,| | while the wife of the interim Chargé| d’Affaires of the U. S. S. R., who was | ‘on the premises and has a diplomatic | passport, was violently detained and) | searched, | Raid Uncalled-For | “The absolutely uncalled-for raid on |a Government institution of another! | State, apart from the question of trea- \ty rights belonging to it, is a most! | serious and hostile act, without doubt | | jeopardizing the further preservation | }of relations between the interested | | States, with all the ensuing conse- | quences, “The fact that the Trade Delegation | by its activity gave no justification for such a raid can be proved by the circumstance, that the British Gov- ernment has not made a single repre- sentation or complaint about this ac-| tivity.” be * Laborites Demand Explanation LONDON, May 18—There were several tense scenes in the House of | Commons this afternoon, owing to the insistence of Laborites in demanding to know why Sir Austen Chamberlain, Foreigh Minister, had refused to re- ceive the Soviet Chargé, M. Rosen-| | goltz, on the night the police raided | | the Soviet Trade Delegations. | The speaker finally restored order, asking the Laborites to save their questions until Sir William Johnson-_ | HiekS, Home Minister, makes his statement tomorrow on the raid, Building Wages Level, WASHINGTON, (FP).—Wages in the building industry remain virtually at the level of the past three years, | while prices of building materials also | tend to stability, according to the (chart issued byythe Associated Gen- era! Contractors of America from their Washington headquarters. There | was no perceptible change in building wages in February, March or April, on the average of reports from all regions of the country. This three- month level is slightly higher than the average of building wages in any month in the past three years except in May, 1926, | Grew 0. I with Kemal CONSTANTINOPLE, May 18.—The Turkish government has notified the United States that the appointment of Joseph Grew as U. S. Ambassador to Turkey will be acceptable. | Capitalism A ruling class in danger of extinction is compelled to employ its trained bloodhounds to ferret out and destroy the chief sources of discontent and rebellion against oppression. In some. cases this service is done by police agents. In the case of The DAILY WORK- #&R, the initiative has been taken by certain professional patriots. The prize is a big one. The DAILY WORKER has already made itself felt as a sharp thorn in the side of the American cap- italist class. Its frank exposures of the loath- some conditions under which eapitalism ex- ploits its slaves has won for The DAILY WORKER the undying hatred of the cap- italist class and the ceaseless espionage of its ruthless bloodhounds. The DAILY WORKER has lifted the veil upon capitalist corruption. It is mobilizing the workers, it is helping to organize them, to abolish the present hateful system. If the capitalist class succeeds in destroying this powerful weapon of the working class, The DAILY WORKER, . it will be a momentous victory for them and a-costly defeat for the workers. | , There is only one way to fight this attack. That is through the solidified support of the workers throughout the country, Wolves and similar beasts of prey are loath to attac large groups. The blood- ie cee enn hounds of capitalism | i Sect cringe in fear before — New York, N. Y. the might of the-masses,, | _ Inclosed is my contrihution of Now is the time to ({------ dollars .... cents to the demonstrate our mass? | Ruthenbets, "Sustaining | Fund aoe tere een tribat | ens pot wl a tion means another re- the same amount regularly PVOTY ce sereneeeeeereraeeeone cruit to the great army (game .ocieeeue cece defending The DAILY | addiess i.....-.ccseseenees WORKER. You must oosity oe join the ranks. You Lig Be he oe must do it now. Attach check or money order.