Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, February 28, 1901, Page 7

FIFTY.FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT, ~OF THE—~ GONNECTICUT MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE GOMPANY. A RESUME OF INTERESTING HISTORY AND A REVIEW OF RESULT- ING CONDITIONS, To the Members: The experience of the year 1900, while favorable, was in no way especlally re- markable in the business or progress of the Company. Its chief incidents may be very briefly summarized: There was a fair In- crease in the premium income and in the @&mount of josurance in force; as for many years past, the s of fnterest on A sirable securities showed a general tend- ency downward; the foreclosure of mort- , which for several years following the panic of 1893 was for considerable amounts, showed a change for the better, With an increase in the sales of foreclosed operty; the expense ratio has been kept &t is usual low limit, save in the expenses ncurred upon foreclosed real estate, which ave been considerable in order to put and keep the properties in good condition pend- ing sale, and which will disappear as sales take place; the mortality of the r, while ewhat heavier than that of 1899, was ®0o far tnside the losses provided for by our tables that the saving amounted to $413,- 862; the market values of securities, which ruled lower for several years following the panic of 1893, were In great measure Fecovered; for two or three years we have been able to earn less-.surplus than for many previous years, during whioh we had been slowly accumulating small items of surplus in excess of our usual dividend, which, in Just such times as have been experienced since 1893-4, become avallable to malitain for the present the same high dividend scale as for many years past, ®nd until the interest rate and other con- ditions which affect the surplus earning ability .of all mpanies shall be more defi- nitely gettled and the necessities of the future can be better judged. Steadin in Divide It is our desire to go as far as perfect safety will permit in maintaining a steady Scale of annually decreasing cash cost. ‘The greatest and most uncertain factor op- erating against us is the continued tend- ency to & fall in interest, foreseoing which, Wwe, nineteen years ago, changed our calcu- Iations from the basis of 4 percent annual interest to that of only 3 per cent. The only measurably controllable factors af- fecting our ability to earn or save surplus are the death rate and the expense ac- count. In respect of the the care in the selection of risks and the prudence and economy traditional with The Connecticut Mutusl are steadily maintained. d the New. With this very brief review of the gen- eral features of the year's experlence, and calling attention to the statement else- where of the detalls of our financial oper- ations and condition, we beg to ask your careful consideration of certain matters re- lating to our own past history,and to the existing conditions of the lite Insurance business, which seem especially pertinent and interesting as we stand at the begin- ning of & new century, with a history be- hind us of ffty-five most eventful years. For in that time there have been wrought on a scale of unparalleled magnitude, and by many companies, certain great practical denials of the fundgmental principles of correct practice and of business morality, upon thelr departure from which The Con- necticut Mutual has stood and stands at 1ssue. The Tras Ques What, in that tfme, have we done; how ef- ficlently have we accomplished the one serv- ice which life insurance afone can render; how do we today stand addressed to the beat rendering of that service In the future; how far are our bases, plans, and methods Tesponsive to that speclal need which life insurance sets Itself to serve, and loyal to those facts and principles which them- ®elves unchanging, must always remain the basis and test of legitimate plan and legitimate method; how, in respect of these - things, does our history and present posi- tion contrast with those of many othe: and do we stand condemned by those things In which some have succeeded, or Justifi by those In which they have fafled, but In which we have succeeded; have we been, Are we today, dolng right or wrong; bave we done, are we doing, the best that tan be done for widows and orphans, and for those who must pay its cost? Financial Summary of Fifty-five Years, The monetary part of the story Is soon told: In the fifty-five years we have re- celved fom our members of ordipary, ex- tr d annuity premiums, $211,642,069. we have returned to them for death losses, endowments, annulties, surrendered poli- cles, and dividends, $207,798,111.81, or 98.22 per cent. For interest, rents, and profit and loss we have had $96,820,645.69; total Income of $308,462,615.45. Of this sum, $207,798,111,81 has been returned to policy- holders as just stated; $27,006,306.69—only 9 per cent—has gone for expenses; $10,- 418.176.66 has gone for taxes, and the bal- ance, $62,840,022.29, forms part of our gross wssote—$84,065,176.15—covering present lla- bllitles and surplus. The payments to policy-holders and the gross assets aggre- $272,763,287.96, or 128.88 per cent of the receipts from policy-holders. These results of more than half a century have been equsled by no other American company. No other company has returned to its poliey-holders as large a proportion of ther payments; no other holds as large & proportion of its Interest income In re- rve; mo other has dome its business at #0 small a rate of expeuse. It has done more for its policy-holders, and at less cost to them, than any dther company. Life Insurance Past Presen But' that is not all that is of profoundest interest 4s we stand at the beginning of a mew era. To see clearly where we stand today, and what the propriety of our atti- tude,” past and present, it is necessary to review the main features of the develop- ment of the business of life insurance dur- Ing the fifty-five years of our corporate existence, which cover practically the whole history of the busin in the United States. Fifty-five years ago there was no local business exp.clence to be guided by. companies orgi ed about that time took as a gulde the experience of the English companies as being that most likely to be repeated here, They assumed the mortality shown by the actual experience of 17 E lish companies, 4 per cent annual interes and a considerable margin or “loading’ for exponses. Their plans were very few and simple. They realized that the right business of & life Insurance company Wwas to insure lives and to make that insurance cost the premium payer as little as posst- ble. Commissions and all expenses were pitched on a low scale. R of tnterest were fairly high. No provision was made for suy return on lapsing polictes. If a permium was not paid all former pay- ments were forfeited to the company, no reserve or surplus from them. ‘This ‘was & very large source of profit, but & great cause of complaint on the part of these who had to give up their polictes, especlally after they began to learn that @0t only had their permiums paid the cost of their policles up to the time of lapse, but had also provided a reserve fund which was for the future protection of their policles wnd was therefore not meeded by the com. pany’ when these policies Inpsed and ceased te be & Nabllity. THE OMAHA DAILY BEE 2 i Dividend Periods. In view of the lack of experience and the small amount of business, and following again English precedent, dividends were made only at the end of five-year periods, or were mot begun on any pollcy until it had run five years. The profits from for- feitures, the high rates of interest, and the savings from the low expense rate, all contributed, in the carefully managed com- anies, to make the dividends unexpectedly large. It was not many years before an- nual dividends became the general prac- tice. Non-Fortelture. Presently, the inequity of keeping a man's contribution to the reserve on a policy which had lapsed and ccased to be a lia- bility, and the current cost of which while it was in force he had fully paid, began to be more clearly seen and more generally understood. “Non-forfelture’” become one of the strongest competitive attractions. Companies vied with each other In doing “equity” to a lapsing policy-holder Changes in P and Premiums, As an alternative to annual premium payments during life, rates were made for the payment of all premiums in a limited period of years, as ten, fitteen, etc., while the poliey covered the whole term of life. Life endowment policies were introduced, to cover a certain term of years as an in- surance, and payable at their face at the end of the term if the Insured survived it. Where the policy term was long enough to cover the period of life when one has others dependent on him. and the policy- holder was so young at the outset as to make the endowment part of his premium comparatively small, and so long as the companies kept their expenses down, this kind of policies served a fairly good pur- pose, although the endowment feature costs much more in a life Insurance company than in a savings bank, because of the much higher rate of general expense. Along these general lines, which, within Judicious limits, were mostly lines of dis tnet improvement, the ‘development went on without any striking divergence from certain indisputable universally accepted principles governing sound and equitable practice, until about 1870, New Departuares. The previous decade had been the forma- tion of a multitude of new companies which copled the plans of the older ones and promised to repeat their success. But, in order to attract agents and get business they found or felt themselves compelled to pay such commissions to agents and to Incur such other expenses, as to absorb, not only all their surplus, but so much of thelr reserves as to send the most of them Into bankruptcy. In the late '60's the cry had been that no properly organized life insurance company could fail. The early '60's showed that conduct was quite as vital nization, and that the expense ac- count could bleed to death the most correct- Iy organized concerns; and they dled by the dozen. Motive for New Schemes. Consplewous among the competitors of that time were certain companies which were trylng to fight their way to the front by such high commissions and other con- sidorations to agents as should draw them away from the more comservative com- panies, and 80 bulld up agency forces that should dominate the field. But thelr high expenses made such low dividends where those equaling the boetter companies Had been promised, that no agency force could hold their policy-holders, and their business began to decline with alarming rapidity. The high expenses could not be gotten rd of without losing the agents. There was for them no other attraction. There- fore, the only escape from the fate of so many others lay in some scheme to get the dividend question out of the way for at least a long time; such a scheme was soan found. Scheme Based on Forfeltures, ‘The basis of the scheme devised was the very forfeltures which the companies had vied with each dther in getting rid of in the name of ‘“equity.” ‘“Inequity” was re- vived for the sake of Its profits, put up as a prize for somebody to win. They tabulated and exhibited the lap of their own dis~ satisfled policy-holders, showed how large an amount of money thelr contributions to reserve would amount to, what a great sum these would aggregate at the end of a long period of years, and how few would be left at the end of the pertod, and how great a dividend each one of those few would get if it were then divided among them. 1 lustration For a typleal example: Taking 1,000 per- sons, insuring at age 37, they calculated that in 20 years, 544 would at one time or another lapse, and 103 would dle, leaving only 363 still Insured at the end of the time. 8o it was proposed that persons insuring should agree that for, say 20 years, they should . have no dividends; that whoever lapsed his policy during this period should forfeft to the company all his contributions to reserve and all the surplus which had accrued from his premiums, and that in case of those who dled only the face of the policy should be paid, and whatever surplus had accrued should be forfeited to the company; that these forfeited reserves and surpluses should be put in a fund apart until the end of the 20 years, and then di- vided among those then alive and still In- sured. They calculated that with 1,000 persons, aged 37, insured for $1,000. each, on an an- nual premium of $28.17, the forfeited re- serv d surpluses of the 44 lapsing pol- ley-holders and the forfeited surpluses of the 103 who died would, at the end of 20 years, amount with Interest to $400,775.77, to be divided among the 353 supposed to be then allve and still insured, giving each one $1,135.34; just about double what each had paid for premiums during the 20 years, not counting interest. And they got eminent actuaries to endorse the The Attra . It\was a bold scheme. The public had Just been thoroughly educated to believe that such forfeitures werk a gross injustice and hardship to the policy-holder, whose payments were thus confiscated, and to his family, which needed the protection of the paid-up insurance which his forfeitures would otherwise have purchased. The in- Justice was palpable, and perfectly unneces- sary in any bealthy company. The, hard- #hip was often notorious and severe: and none had been noisler prophets of “‘equity™ than these very companies which now in- vited men to take their two chances out of three of losing all, for the one chance in three of ting so great a slice of the ftuits of the inequity which they had loudly condemned as immoral and cruel. The scheme was offered In the bellef that, with | very many, the immorality and cruelty would be lost sight of it a suffic¢iently bril- lant speculation in their profits was pre- wented, Its Popularity. ' The foreca correct. People could ot at once turn back upon all thelr con- victions and sense of justice. But ihe glit- timates won their way, and men put their own payments and the protection of their families at the bazard of the game for ten (o twenty years, with the dlstinct agreement—still in use—that no account- his are, and without question, whateyer llotted bim. Agents no longer presented life insur- ance foy the protection of familles, but estimates of ‘'lnvestments” for the policy- holder himself. The larger the estimate the more eagerly it was taken. Success made the companies promoting the scheme aggressive. Instead of a struggle for ce for size. Host: work of selling a speculation based on seemingly sclentific figures. The scheme took so widely that for a time it threat- ened to completely supplant and drive out true life insurance administered to its own proper ends. So easily was It worked that gradually, one after another, most of the companies followed more or less completely in the wake of the originators of the scheme, until “investment” insurance, de- pending for the “investment” on the for- feitures to be made during the period of “‘postponement” of dividends, is the domi- nant feature with most companies. Their ts are no longer termed ‘‘policies bonds,” “gold bonds,” ‘‘contracts of sale,”” “debentures,” etc., etc. At bot- tom they are all one thing. The dividend Is postponed on the inducement that by the forfeitures of the unlucky many in the meantime, the returns to the lucky few may be correspondingly large. Estim and Why. But the wisdom of estimates has not been altogether justified of her children. The rivalry of the speculating companies in their struggle for pre-eminence has led fhem to an unheard-of expense. They have writ- ten an enormous amount of business; thou- sands of millions of insurance have been lapsed as expected; hundreds of millions of reserves and accrued surplus have been forfelted as was hoped. But 50 much has been absorbed by high commissions to agents, by rebates and the many expenses incident to an abnormgl rivalry, that the expected results have not appeared; to this the decline In interest has contributed something, but comparatively little, intimntes and Results Compared. The details of their fallure are extremely interesting. As we have seen, the calculations in 1871, in the example taken, promised a dividend in 1801 of $1,135.34. But the 1891 result was only $433.70. In 1873 they somewhat moderated their estimate, and put it at $531.70; but they paid only $379.70 at the end of the 20 years in 1893. They continued to make this same’ esti- mate until 1878, when they again reduced 0; they used the same estimate n 1881, and are paylng in 1901 only 0. The differences belween estimates and actual dividends in the 10 and 156 year postponements are still more striking. New Stimulants Needed. Obviously, such wide discrepancies be- tween estimates and result, between bril- Hant prospect and comparative failure, pointed toward the ultimate break-down of the speculative attraction, and other novel- ties of plan and practice began to appear by which to incite agents and draw the publie. Concenlment of Forefeltures. Much criticlsm of the forfeiture invest- ment schemes, as a gross injustice alike to policy-holder and beneficiary, has led the companies to adopt forms of contract as remote as possible from life insurance pol- icles in forw, and called by every sort of name suggesting ‘“‘investment” Instead of insurance. Commissions and Rebates. Agents have been attracted and stimu- lated by commissions and allowances from two to five times what they were thirty years ago, and have, in their turn, used these to stimulate the public by giving away in “rebates” to new blood, whatever was necessary to secure it, until, in many of the companies, & new insurer can get— if he standp out for it—a rebate of from 50 to 100 per cent of his premium, drop his policy at the end of the year, 8o to an- other rival and repeat the process each year, 80 Jong as he is willing to take the risk of being able to pe & new examina- tiom. This makes business easy to get but hard to keep, as the lapses of such companies show. vICompetition by Liberality. Another means of stimulating business has been the rivalry in “liberality.” It began in dropping more or less of the de- fenses against fraud. Fraud may be com- mitted in two ways: The applicant may de- celve the company by false statements as to his family or personal history, habits of lite, present condition, etc., so that it Issues its contract when it would not have done so had it known the truth, or lssues it at a different rate from what it would have charged had the real risk been disclosed; or, he may willfully destroy his own life, causing lose when there should have been none. All these things, If successful, cost; and the cost Is borne by the policy-holders who do not decelve and do not willfully destroy themselve: It is therefore the duty of a company's managers to protect honest policy-holders against such frauds and losses. When one is asked to make a contract based on the statements of the other party to it, he has a right to know the truth of them, and to be absolved from his promise if they prove to be false. That is the simplest equity and morality. That is the rule in eyery other kind of contract. Incontestability. The first “liberality” proposed was, that it a man could conceal his deception for year or two, or three, his policy should be “Incontestable,” no matter how gross the fraud. Rivalry has caused such liberality that now some companles call thelr policl incentestable from the very outset; If the deception once passes muster Its later dis- covery will be disregarded. Wil Courts Permit Fraund ¢ There is, however, such a thing as “pub- lic morals' and a “public policy’ in re- gard thereto; and the courts are in the habit of regarding fraud and contracts per- mitting fraud as offenses gainst public morals, and forbidden by public policy, and of dealing with cases of fraud accordingly; and it is not probable that, in the end, fraud in lite insurance will be found,.to be less fraudulent, more laudable, or more conducive to commercial and public moral- ity than fraud in any other matter. If the courts permit it in life insurance, they must permit it o all transactions. They can permit it in any case only it there is no difference between right and wrong, and it the truth and a lie are of equal moral and commercial value, and of equal safety for the public. Permission to any fraud Is an invitation to all fraud. Liberality as to Sel(-Destruction, Another lability Is permission to destroy one's sell In any manner and make the rest pay for it. No company would, in these days at least, contest a clalm growing out of a sulcide which was, under any fair pre- sumption, the legitimate outcome of dis- ease. But the cowardly suicide of a sane man—and there are many of them—is a distinct fraud against men who have the courage to live, and the honor to fight the battle of life fairly, and stay by thelr fam- ilies. Aunual Cash Value Another liberality is the “annual cash value,” by which one may, any year, de- mand back from the company his contribu- tion to the reserve, thus at will changing the transaction from Insurance to a savin bank deposit. ‘The whole theory of life insurance and all its calculations are based on the dura- tion of Its insurance contracts to natural maturity, Only so can It ful its special purpose, secure that average experlence which glves security to its undertaking protect Itself nst those fluctuations of mortality and in general financtal condi- tions which might otherwise be destructive of a company’s existence; and only so can the business be handled In a manner to give thy lowest cost. The apnual cash value makes It possible to wreck or erip- ple a company in a year, Its policy-holders may all withdraw, or so many of its health- lest lives may withdraw, taking its quick and best assets, leaving only impaired lives to cause an abnormal death loss to be met duced income and poorer assets, | of agents were employed to do the easy l to leave it unable to continue business with fety. That s no true liberality to those whom Iife Insurance un- dertakes to protect, for whom it was cre- ated and for whom it should be admin- ered. Life insurance companies ¢annot serve as savings banks without danger of destruction or of serlous impairment in efficiency for their own special purpose. However willing they may be to take up their policies for cash when the conditions make it convenient and safe to do so, an agreement to do it at any time and under any conditions, adds a distinct element of danger to the future. Loans on Policten. Another and kindred liberality fs “loans" on policies, by which the policy-holder has the privilege to borrow his contribution to the reserve, pledging his policy as collat- eral, paying or not paying his debt as pleases; and he rarely pleases to pay. This was adopted to meet the stock argu- ment of the assessment companies: that & man should pay each year only the mor- tality cost for that year, and keep the re- serve in his own pocket. This again is a seeming liberality to the policy-holder, but not to the family out of whose policy the loan must finally be paid. No one who has seen the hardships and the disappointments to families caused by such settlements can covet the task of having to make them; no man who stops to realize what it means to his famlly can willingly leave such a shadow on his mem- ory. Lite insurance is a sacrifice of one's self for the Imperattve and unavoidable duty he owes his family. Loans and cash values are the tacrifice of his family for himself. The liberality to the policy-holder him- self fs less than it is made to seem. Under the usual forms of policles the reserve In- creases so slowly that no considerable sum could be borrowed untll after many yeéars. For Instance: A man insured at 25 for $10,000, with an annual premium of about $215, would pay for 40 years before he could borrow $5,000. His policy would then be virtually cut in two, but he would still pay his $215, and 5 per cent Interest in advance, $250 more, in order to get his reserve back into his own pocket; and when, as Is ofteh the case, tiring of this, he gives up altogether, there is little or nothing left to give bis family paid up insurance which, but for the loan, would probably have amounted to $7,000 to $8,000. Present Status of Competition, Out of all this, the situation as respects the life Insurance business—that which is offered the public in its name, and the methods by which business is promoted, by the great majority of companies—has devel- oped into this: There Is practically no at- tempt to sell life insurance as such and at annual cost; It is not oftered unless men inslst on having it, and the agent gets but a very small commission for selling it; the companies push and pay the high commis- slons for some sort of “Investment” bond or contract; the essential feature of the n- vestment s the forfeitures which can be worked Into it. This takes time; so divi- dends are deferred for five, ten or twenty years—the longer deferred the higher the commission—In order to secure as many forfeitures as possible. All contract safe- guards against even wholesale frauds, are practically abolished, and the protection of honest policy-holders 1s left to what the various courts may regard as expedient for public morality. The companies are, by the annual cash value, putting their corpo- rate integrity, and the valldity of their in- surance contracts, completely at the mercy of those who for personal convenience, or in a panic, may wish to withdraw, taking with them the good lives which give a safe average mortality, and the funds which alone make the insurance éontracts secure. By “loans on policies, ‘Whi¢h are rarely paid by the borrower, thg¥ pfter him every facllity to sacrifice to, his, personal cdWs venlence as large a part ef’ his family's protection as he can borrow; and, to crown all, the fight between the companies which do all these things fs made mainly by *'re- of premiums, carrfed to such-a de- that devices are mow being adopted enable a company to dispense with any legal reserve lability for the first year, leaving almost the entire first year's premium available for expenses; a device which can be extended to any number of subsequent premiums when ‘the exigencles of competition which have caused its use to the extent of one premium, shall have 80 grown by what they have fed upon to require the absorption of more. Where the Connecticut Matual Stands During all the long struggle out of which this situation has developed, and amid the many schemes devised to attract public attention and favor to something else than life insurance, the attitude and position of the Connecticut Mutual has never been doubtful. 1t has held to the cardinal facts: Life insurance is for the protection of those dependent on a man's lite; their dependence makes it his unavoldable duty. Those de- pendents we assume to protect by our con- tract, at his personal cost; certainly as possible; our duty to him is to make is cost to him as small as possible. 3 These things are axiomatic; and certaln definite and indisputable propositions grow out of them. Our policies should be framed In every detall to givq the protection in- tended to those for whom it Is, intended. They should not set up a scheme of spec- ulation in the forfeiture of that protection by those dependent on it, nor of his pay- ments by the man who has pald for fit. The inducement to a policy should be the protection It offers; the motive In taking Iv should be the faithful performance of his unavoldable duty by him who has made others dependent on his life. Busines should be gotten by educating men to this standard of duty and of its performance, and not by changing the business into something else, and something which ap- peals to selfish interest first and leaves duty to take its slender chance in & § to 20 year lotter, A 1 Dividends, aud Why, The cost of the protection to the ma paying for it the difference between the premium charged on the face of his policy and the surplus returned to him. In this adjustment he pays his actual share of the mortality and expen: nd is credited with his share of any surplus interest earnings. The savings from mortality, expenses, and interest are determined each year. Each year the company knows just what his risk has cost them to carry; therefore, each year the man should pay that cost and ne more. In other words, as the cost of each policy Is annually determined, the surplus, If there any safely divisible, should be annually returned, so that only the actual annual cost is annually paid. The only proper reason for deferring div- idends is either that there is nothing to divide, that there is something in the condition of the company or its busine: which renders a division highly inexpe- dient. What Defe: Annual dividends put the management of a company to a constant t Deferred dividends put off that test to the end of long period of years. By annual dividends & man knows all the time Just what his in- surance is costing him. - With deferred div. idends he cannot know what Its cost Is untll the end of the period, it he lives and holds on; but if he dies before that time, it will have cost him too much by the amount of surplus forfelted, and If he lapses, it will have cost him too much by the amount ‘of surplus forfeited, and also by the amount of reserve forfeited to still erful incentive to prud The deferred dividend gives a wide long opportunity for the extravagance and THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1901. consequent high cost whick it was origl- nally invented to conceal, and which have been further enhanced by the rivalry made possible by taking some of the deferred dividend material to use in more vigorous pushing for business. Reason of Our Own Course. Holding such views, our course has not been optional. Our duty has been not.to offer something else than true life fnsur- ance on its own right lines because it could easily be made popular, but to try to make the true thing popular by telling the whole truth about It, by administering it in its true spirit, working out its own proper results in our own company and letting these stand in judgment against the re- suits of the expensive “Investment’ spec- ulations. We have appealed only to those who desire Iife insurance only for the pro- tection it gives, and not for the speculation that can be made of it. Therefore have we refused to follow any of the methods of the speculators. Such changes in policy plal and conditions as experience has shown to be desirable have been freely made. Every condition not found to be necessary to the proper protection of honest men and the soundness of the company has been elemi- nated. But we have not built with one hand and, with the other, prepared the way to tear down. The Connecticut Mutual re- mains a life insurance company. One ot the most striking incidents of the last thirty years has been that gemeral and extensive reduction of expenses in all com- mercial, manufacturing, transportation, and other enterprises, by which only have these enterprises been able to prosper in face of an unprecedented competition. Present profits are lergely, and often entirely, sav- ings by reductions from former expense Lower cost 18 the strongest factor in gen- eral business competition. So it should be In life insurance, of all things. But so It is not, The expense account of the com- panies pushing the deferred dividend inves ment schemes is from twice to three times the former standard of the most prudently managed companies. But, the dividend thereby affected being so long put off, the fact passes long unnoticed. When at last settling day comes, the striking failure of the dividend to realize the estimate is ex- plained on other grounds than high com- missions and expenses. We have refused to compete in this way. In order to maintain the low standard of cost to the great body of policy-holders we already have we have kept expenses down to the old standerd, and added only such It must not be supposed that the main- tenance of cur position in all these matters has been free from difficulty. The high commissions of those companies have tempted away many of our former agents, and made it the more difficult to get oth- ers. Our agents with fair commissions, with no margin in them for rebating, have worked up business only to see It taken from them by men whose commissions and allowances are such that they can rebate from 50 to 100 per cent of the premium, and yet have enough left to compensate their work. But, bhapplly, we have been able to get and to hold as agents the men who take their work so seriously that they will not tempt their cllent to speculate in his family’s protection, or, for higher pay, place him where his policy will cost him more than it ought. Adverse Criticiam. The position so steadfastly beld by us and the efforts we have made from year to year to set forth the simple truth and ex- pose the true character and evil effect of the demoralization whose growth we have here sketched, have, as a matter of course, brought upon us criticism and misrepresen tation without stint. Success In getting business by estimates, which have not been half fulfilled, has been cited as the com- plete justification of that method. In the heat of epcculative competition, we have been labeled with every epithet signifying want of enterprise, ultra conservatiem and lack of the modern spirit. Even the extraordinary persistency with which our policy-holders have continued on has been, ignorantly perhaps, alleged as a danger because older men die faster than younger; as If the calculations of all com- panies must not and did not amply provide for the whole mortality of its membership and not merely for the younger or middle aged part of it. It is in the great multitude of lapses and surrenders that the companies offering “In- vestments” hope for a profit; it is by the staying solidity of our membership that we can get those best results which we seek. However agents of other companies might strive against each other, they have joined to attack the Conncticut Mutual. Insiou- ation, depreciation, slander, can do In a moment and by a word that which much time and many words may fall to undo. The abundant defamatory liturature of other companies has been supplemented by the highly paid services of certain insur- ance journal Effect on Our B And all thls was not without effect. It hindered our busine: From 1874 to 1885, our amount at eclimed from $186.- 306,633 to $161,301,688 before the tide turned. “Dry rot” was alleged to have set in, and the extinction of the company to be In sight. Meantime we went on educating & cllentage to the idea of insurance for its own sake and at its lowest cost, recast our premiums and reserves for new business on @ 8 per cent Interest basis in 1882, and were laughed at for it—though all are now fol- lowing that lead—bided our time, and wait- ed for the results of long deferred dividends to appear; and they have appeared as al- ready narrated, In a ily diminishing stream. Failure of the “Investment As a device for investment the, scheme has falled; as a device for cheapening the insurance of even those who live to test the hope deferred, it has failed. For the simple anuual dividends of the Connecticut Mutual, with no speculation in them, are exceeding the outcome of the estima; and no man’s surplus and no family’s paid- up Insurance has been taken to do it with. Let an example serve: Fifteen years ago one of the deferred dividend companies is- sued & $10,000 16-year endowment policy, at age 35, at a premium of $678.50, on an estimate that the dividend would be $4,980. In its settlement, just made, the dividend was only $2.010. Was It worth while, for this forty per cent of an estimate, to run the risk for fifteen years of losing all? The same year the Conuecticut Mutual issued a policy of the same kind, amount, at same age, @t a premium of $680.00, annual divi- dends, which the insured preferred to leave with the company to accumulate until his policy should mature. His dividend, just qaid, is $3,163.80; and neither it nor his policy has been at the risk of fortelture, The Tide Tu 3 Our amount in force has slowly rise: from $151,301,688 In 1885, to $161,666,608; our from $64,383,640.95 to $64,965,- 176.15; meanwhile, we have returned §17,- 202,820.45 in dividends, and bave increased our surplus from $4,667,977.91 to $7,101,- 348.44, and notwithstanding the fact, that by reason of our few lapses and the per- sistence of our policy-holders, our business has attained an average 4§ greater than that of the deferred dividend com- panies, with their enormous lapses, our mortality has been far inside that predicted by our tables and which we were prepared to_meet. That is not the kind of “dry rot” that destroys its victim or fmpairs its vitality, It weems more a process of sound growth and frultfuloess than that of decay, It is not the size of the company, but what it does for its policy-holders, that most con- cerps them. We have not been racers for f senger agent. size; we have striven for the bighest qual- ity of performance. Those of our members who are fasured In other companies know how far we have succeeded. We are many times more than large enough for absolute stabllity and for the accomplishment of the highest results to our polfcy-holders. We shall be glad to extend our service tp such wider clientage as we can secure ‘without increasing the cost of our policles efther to the new or to the 68,000 present members, who are our first care. It is with such a history of performance and of fledlity to true standards, rewarded by unparallaled results to our members, that we offer our service and our simple best endeavor to those whose families need protection, and who themselves wish that protection to be secure, and to pay only its lowest cost. Respecttully submitted. JACOB L. GREENE, Hartford, February 9, 1901 MAY BEGIN THE WORK SOON e Dispatches from Guernsey Indicate Burlington Activity in the West. President. Dispatches from Guernsey, Wyo., indicate that the Burlington is pushing its extension of the Guernsey-Salt Lake line and that there Is a strong prospect of the work being started this year. It is id that the final survey of the line is being completed in the mountains just west of Guernsey and that as soon as this is com- pleted the contracts will be let. Many railroad builders and graders are on hand looking over the ground prepara- tory to the bidding on the work. One of these in speaking of the work said that it will require from eight months to a year to push the road through the mountains. The line, as it is understood to have been se- lected, in many places follows deep and narrow canyons, where it will be nécessary to drive many tunnels and construct sev- eral heavy bridges. The line is counted on to furnish some of the finest scenery that the pleturesque Burlington will have to offer. Two of the leading officers have been se- lected for Senmator Clark's San Pedro, Los Angeles & Salt Lake Mne, an {tem which adds additional strength to the idea that this line will be built at once. They are R. E. Wells, to be general manager, and E. W. Gillet, to be general freight and pas- Both men come from the Santa Fe, Prescott & Phoenix. GOING AFTER PRAIRIE DOGS. 9ne of Several Pesta Which Caune Trouble in the West, Prairie dcgs, cutworms and locoweed are three subjects which are receiving con- siderable attention at the hands of the offi- cers of the Unlon Pacific Land company. ‘The prairie dogs, cutworms and loco- weed, or larkspur, are three pests which are causing the farmers in the western country no end of trouble. In the offices of the Union Pacific Land company are letters reporting the progress of the work. The governmental experimental stations in Colorado, Wyoming and the natlonal head- quarters have been induced to take an in- terest in the matter and make some ex- periments. Partial reports have already been submitted from the station of the University of Kansas on two of the sub- Jects, 3 For the prairle dog no sure method has been found by which it can be exterminated, though the investigator suggests that it the dogs are shot when they are coming out of their holes, rather than when sitting on top, there Is more hope for the man look- Ing for game. Several methods of pols: ing are being developed. It has been found that grasshoppers and cutworms hibernate In the alfalfa flelds and that disking in the early spring will kill them off. The locoweed is one of tha worst pests of the western country. ftle that eat it become sick, apparently an Intoxication of the brain, but a liking for the weed fol- lows. Cattle cannot graze in flelds where this weed is found more than two. years without fatal results. No satistactory means of exterminating it has been dis- covered and the only suggestion the ex- perimenters have offered so far is that cattle be removed from localities where the weed is. Har Faith in the West. William Harder, a general agent in the treight department of the Great Northern rallway Is in the city on his way home from a three months’ trip in the east, during which time he has visited all of the principal rallway centers east of here. His headquarters are in Portland and he is an enthusiastic believer In the future of the Pacific’ coast states. Mr, Harder sald that he has found a gen- eral western movement which has extended all the way from Malne. The farms in New England are playlng out and the people are seeking the new country of the middle west, while the people there are pushing on to the western and north Pacific state Rallway Not P nals, E. H_Wood, general freight agent for the Unlon Pacific, left yesterday for Chicago on business. J. B. Durham, chief rate Oregon Short Line, with he: Balt Lake City, was here yesterd: road business. Charles 8. LaFollette, menger agent for the B, quarters in Peoria, was reports that the busin that of last year, which, by the way, was heavy traffic. The Burlington route s having prepared a handsome lot of colored pictures of Yel- lowstone park which it will soon distribute over the country. There are fift tures In the series and they are of unusual beauty, being in natural colors. The first samples of the lot arrived at the Burlington headquarters in this city yesterday, The new train which the Burlington will lace in its 8t. Louls-Denver service about ay 1, as announced several weeks ago, lz now I the process of being named. Th passenger department at the general offices n this city has sent a request to the agents along the line which the new train will traverse asking them for suggestions as to the name for the train. The competition i open to any one who has an idea on the subject, The contract which Van Court & Winn of this city have In connection with the Rock Island extension from Liberal to ¥I Paso 18 one of the heaviest pleces of work on that new line. Thelr contract calls for a cut through & mountain which is supposed to be solid, fine, red sandstone rock The cut will be about elghty-five tcet deep and a mile long. About sixty men iwve already gone down from here und when the work Is ?&cned up the Omaha firm will put about 200 men to work. ITINERARY OF THE BISHOP Held in Diocese with Bisl I Pre: clerk for the adquarters in on rail- travelin - Four, with head- ere yesterday. He of the Big Four Omaha Sea her A. M. Colaneri, chancellor of the diocese, has sent out announcements of the spring visits of Bishop Scannell to the churches of the diocese of Omaha. Con- ferences will be held in the deaner of the dlocese, at which papers on different subjects will be presented and discussed by the assembled priests. The dates for the conferences are as follows: Omaha, April 8; Columbus, April 10; Grand Island, April 11; Wi Point, April 23; O'Nelll, April 24; Jackson, April 30. Confirmation ceremonies will be ‘held follows: Columbus, May §; Duacan, May Platte mter, May Tarnov, May Humphrey, May 9; Hartington, May 1 Constance, May 20; 8t. Helena, May 21; Bow Valley, May 22; Emerson, June 3; Ponca, June 4; Newcastle, June 5; O'Neill, June « LONDON, .Feb. 27.—Richard Croker says he will return to America in good time to take part In the coming campalg 10 HELP TAX COLLECTOR Bweeping Measurs is Now Pending Before Nebraska Logislature. DRAWN BY ASSISTANT CITY ATTORNEY yment of Tages—Some of 1ts Provistons. It the bill now peading in the legislature and known as house roll 450, bocomes & law, tax fighting In Om: will be & thing The measure was drafted by Assistant City Attorney James H, Adams. It provides that the mayor and council shall have au- thority to re-levy taxes which h been declared iuvalid by the courts, either on ac- count of slight irregularity in proceed or on Jjurisdictional grounds. This Is a sweeping bill. Tt applies to all sorts of taxes, but is of particular imps tance because of the large amount of # clnl taxes which has been defeated In Omaha and will be relevied and collected in case the measure becomes & law. Grants Authority to Commell. Not only would taxes which are declared fnvalld 10 the future be affected by this law. It s retroactive and would grant the council authority to relevy and colfect all taxes which have been defeated In the p Supreme courts n ny states have held that such a law is valid and the measure now pending was fashioned after laws which are on tho statute books of seversl states. City counclls have authority to grant counclls the right to levy taxes for improvementa without any petitions from property-holders. This belng true, the courts have held that a council has author- ity to render a tax valid. In discussing the proposed law City At- torney W. J. Connell sald: “I belleve that A council can be granted the right to cor- rect slight irregularities in proceedings and relevy taxes which have been voldable be- cause of such errors. 1 doubt whether the legislature can empower a council to re- levy a tax which was defeated for jurisdic- tional reasons.’ Councllman Hascall expressed an opinlon similar to that of the city attorney, and said that a distinction must be made be tween vold and voldable taxes. 1In cases where there is some mistake in the pro- ceeding he thinks it may be within the province of a council and mayor to correct the error and relvy the ta Dut where there hae been a fallure to comply with the provisions of the charter concerning the steps in making improvements Councilman Hascall questions whether a council can be granted authority to make the tax valld. Will End Litigation, Thousands of dollars worth of taxes which have been defeated in Omaha will be rendered valld In case this bill becomes alaw. It will put an end to pending it~ gatlon, in which large sums are involved The compromise paving bill, which has been favorably acted on by legislative com- mittees, will simplify special assessments made in the future and do away with much special tax litigation. This measure re- quires petitions for both paviug and re- paving and stops property owners from questioning the validity of a petition after improvements have been made. Future paving tax will be comparatively safo from defeat after this compromise measure has been passed, and the bill prepared by Mr.'Adams 1s Intended to pro- tect the past taxes, which are belng as- salled so furiously. SETS MR. COLE A-GUESSING Pats Him on the A Fear ot G Violation. David Cole was in a quandary the other day and for several hours did not know whether he was to be made the victim of designing persons or was to be injured by a blundering friend. The event proved both of his surmises incorrect, but for twelve hours he trembled. In the morning mail he recelved a postal card from an Interlor town which sald: ‘‘We today ship you a case of poultry and game. The signature on the card was illegible and Mr. Cole, remembering the prairie chickens he was forced to incinerate some days ago, anticipated & further holoc: Then he thought that possibly a representa- tive of some of the sportsmen clubs would be present when the game arrived to prose- cute him as an example. There was no wi to stop the consignment and when it ai rived Mr. Cole did not know whether to ac- cept it or throw it into the river. He finally decided to open the box and found that it contained domestic fowls and wild ducks, which are not prohibited. He now insists that consignors specify the kind and character of game shipped. Seat Law for of the state has promised to brlnfl. some of thelr fin: animals for exhibition. One of the feature of the show will be Belgian hare drnm which are to be served all three days, Prof, elglan nstitite in this city, wi - slat'in conducting the show: b MRS, KATY _ NOOTTLEMAN Of Winona, Minnesota, Well Known in That City, Cured of Liver and Stomuch Troubles by Cascarine, The Only Treatment That Did Her Any Good After Four Years' Sickness. Winona, Minn, Feb. 27.—Mrs, Katy Noot- tlewan, a social leader, is well again after four years of suffering. Bhe was cured by Cascarine, after a few weeks treatment. 8he suffered from constipation and biljous- ness and spent hundreds of dollars with doctors to get well, but she became worse She never used y special tment be- fore, but after a talk with her physiclan be prescribed her Cascarine, the great fam- fly remedy for diseases of the stom: bowels, liver and kidneys. After using onv bottle she felt much better and after a second bottle was used she was well and cured absolutely of her billousns stomach trouble: rine is the t laxatiye tonic in existence. It is gentle in actiom, pleas- , and will not grip the most It will tone up your en- you feel like a new person. Cascarine is not a plll or tablet, It comes in bottles wrapped in blue and white wrappers. Go to your druggist and buy a bottle to- day. Price per bottle 50 cents. If your drug- gist basn't it, ask him to get it for you of his jobbe The manufacturers of Cascarine will send absolutely free a valuable book on discases liver, bowels and kidueys and Address Rea Bros. & Co., Minneapolis, Loulsville and New York. If you are suffering with Plles, buy Red Cross Plle Cure. It cures every vase. At all drug or sent direct for $1.