Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 24, 1905)
NOVEMBER 24, ,1905.. sary?' 'Wo founding ago wo could not get tho best odds without them. We believe they are in the interest of the policyholders.' 'The contri bution to the republican organization in Phila delphia?' 'I am not informed as to that; under stand, however, it was partly political and partly connected with the department of mortuary sta tistics. It is essential for a life company to know how many dead men are voting in order 10 revise certain tables.' 'In the interest of the policyholders also?' 'The policyholders? Who in the deuce are the poli ? oh I beg pardon! Why certainly. In the interest of the policy holders?' Adjourned until tomorrow." CONGRESSMAN CHARLES D. LANDIS of In diana recently attended a game of football and in a newspaper interview, denounces tho sport, saying that any game that requires the presence of a 'physician is evidence that the brutal instincts of the human family are still dominant and ought to be suppressed instead of encouraged. On this same subject, the Saturday Evening Post says: "For. ourselves, we think that Saturday's record of football encounters was one in which all who believe in the future of the Anglo-Saxon race may take pride. At Harvard, for instance, after a good game with Maine, the only casualties were the following: Squires, a broken thumb; Pierce, a broken wristbone; Guild, a broken collar bone, and Foster, a twisted muscle in his ankle. If this is not proof of the value of the game, we would remind our readers that John S. Sum mersgill of Franklin came to a noble death at Chester, Pa, in a game with the Homestead team, dying ten minutes after he was tackled. His wifo of three months had tho bad taste to faint and become seriously ill, but this is merely an un fortunate incident. Like C. E. Montgomery of Hampden-Sidney, who is paralyzed from a kick on the spine, it should be remembered that Sum mersgill is merely one of those sacrifices which the nation must be prepared to1 make if it would turn out men of blood and iron. At least, this is the view of the Rooseveltian school of rea soners. They can advance fifty reasons to show that football stimulates all the, Christian virtues, and fifty more to prove that deaths here and there are merely blessings in disguise. The three collegians who are 'in .a veritable bower of roses and carnations' in University hospital, Philadel phia, 'bemoan their fate,' not for being crippled probably for life, but for having their football playing ended 'perhaps for all time.' This is the right spirit." , , , COLLIER'S WEEKLY for October 14 printed for tho 'Mutual Life Insurance company the following advertisements: "The Mutual Life has paid policyholders. over $190,000,000 more than any other insurance company in existence. Payments to policyholders are now over $100,000 a day. Will provide you with an income and an estate. The Mutual Life will contract to pay you at the end of sixteen years a guaranteed income of $1,000 a year for life and $25,000 to your estate at your death; In this purely mutual company policyholders own and share all the profits. Rich ard A. McCurdy, president." TESTIFYING BEFORE THE insurance com mittee President McCurdy said: "There has been a mistake made about the province of life insurance companies in these later years. Peo ple have been led to believe that tho main pur pose was to make money for the policyholders. In my view that is not the purpose of such com panies. They are" eleemosynary. When a man is insured in a company he should take into con sideration the fact that he has entered a great philanthropic concern that is in duty bound to spread itself, even though this growth prevents him from realizing as much as he expected. The. purpose of the Mutual Life is not money making or declaring dividends to those who pay prem iums. It was '.organized as a great beneficent and missionary institution. Its purpose was not to Pay one cent 'during the lifetime of the assured, but at death." ' COMMENTING UPON THE McCurdy testi mony and the. McCurdy advertisement, the Chicago Tribune says-that the McCurdy left-hand column does not know what its right-hand column is doing. The Tribune adds: i "In the right-hand column an. appeal is made to the- personal cu pidity of the policyholder. He 'is not invited to The Commoner. invest his money in the hopo ot providing for his family or protecting his business. ,,Ho is prom ised a choice investment and an Immediate re turn for himself, and profits which shall accrue during his lifetime. He is not Invited' to assist a philanthropic enterprise or join In a movement for the benefit of humanity. He Is simply offored a chance to make money. The testimony in tho left-hand column was given under oath by Rich ard A. McCurdy. Tho advertisement in tho right hand column is signed by tho samo Richard A. MoCurdy. McCurdy says in Exhibit A in tho loft-hand column: 'People have been lod to be lieve that tho main purposo of life Insurance is to make money for policyholders.' Nobody has been more instrumental in leading people to this belief than McCurdy himself as he appears in Exhibit B in the right-hand column." FORMER GOVERNOR ODELL and Senator Depew appeared November 1G as witnesses btifore tho Insurance committee. Governor Odell denounced Mr. Hyde's charge that threats to have the charter of the Mercantile Trust com pany had been made. He said that his claim was a just one aud a settlement was made ac cordingly. Senator Depew said that he had brought President Roosevelt's attention to Mr. Hyde's ambitions to become ambassador to France, .and that tho president had said It was utterly impossible to make such an appointment. Senator Depew said that he knew nothing of the Equltablo's contributions to campaign funds, but he thought the contributions were made "in the interests of the assured," and yet he concluded, that the publicity given to the matter In this investigation has "changed the minds of almost everybody." Senator Depew told about his par ticipation in certain syndicates connected with the Equitable. He said that during four years these syndicates had netted him $1,219 and that he had more than $200,000 tied up most of the time, and that $100,000 is yet tied up in these syndicates. Senator Depew explained his salary of $20,000 a year as an attorney by saying that the salary was given him in compliance with one of Henry B. Hyde's dying injunctions to his son. JOHN GILCHRIST, superintendent of the secur ity department of the Equitable testified that millions of dollars in loans were made at the end of the year in the names of clerks for Kuhn, Loeb & Co., in order to comply with the law that the surplus should be invested or to keep down tho cash balances. The Equitable held no collat erals on these loans, and tho checks given for them were deposited in a bank and a certificate of deposit received. The check, however, was never cleared and on the first of the year tho cash would be taken out and the certificate sur rendered. Louis M. Bail6y, a clerk in the Equit able, told of several transactions carried on in his name, one of these being an investment of $400,000. BISHOP STEPHEN M MERRILL, of the Meth odist church, died at Keyport, N. J., Novem ber 12. Bishop Merrill preached Sunday morn ing, and Sunday night was stricken with heart disease, from which he died. The New York Tribune says: "Stephen Mason. Merrill was born at Mount Pleasant, Jefferson county, Ohio, Sep tember 16, 1825. He joined the Methodist Episco pajl church at Greenfield, Ohio, on October 31, 1842, and was licensed to preach on April 5, 1845. He was presiding elder of the Marietta district in 1868, when ho was elected to the general conference. He was also elected editor that year of the Western Christian Advocate, and he had the degree of doctor of divinity conferred upon him by the Ohio Wesleyan University. He was made a bishop in 1872, and he served as such continuously for thirty-three years. The scene when the venerable minister rose at the confer ence meeting in Los Angelear last year and asked to be retired was one of the most affecting that ever took place at a conference. One of the editors of the Christian Advocate in this city, speaking of the bishop, said that in tho twenty five years he had lived in Chicago, he had been identified with every development of the church in that region. 'He has been a frequent and vol uminous contributor to the church press and he has traveled in Mexico, India, China, Japan and many parts of Europe.' Bishop Merrill was called the lawyer and parliamentarian of the church. He was married in 1847 to M ss Ann Belmeyer, who with two sons survives him. He wroto many volumes, among thorn 'Christian Bap tism,' 'Now Testament Idea of IIoll Tho Socond Coming of Christ,' 'Aspects of Christian Exper ience' 'Digest of Methodist Law 'Mary of Naza roth and Her Family and 'Union of American Methodism " UNDER A "FRAUD ORDER" Issued by tho postofflco dopartmont, all mall addressed to E. G. Lewis Is returned to tho wrltor. Recently Louis F. Post of "Tho Public" undertook to communlcato with Mr. Lewis In order to obtain his sldo of tho controversy, but every letter ad dressed to Mr. Lewis was returned to Mr. Post, tho representatives of the poBtoflico department explaining that E. G. Lewis had been denied tho use of the malls tinder tho fraud order. Mr. Post asked the postmaster general whether this order prohibited the delivery to Mr. Lewis of all mall.- Mr. Post received a reply to the effect that It was Impossible for the postmaster to do termlne whether a letter addressed to Mr. Lewis rolated to the "fraudlont business" with which he Is charged. Mr. Post then directed tho de partment's attention to the fact that he had caused to be endorsed on one of tho envelopes to Mr. Lewis this slatemont: "This letter contains nothing of pecuniary value. Tho addressee can by no possibility use its contents to defraud. Please deliver and oblige tho writer." But even with this endorsement the postmaster refused to deliver tho letter andvit was returned to tho writer. "-" TN A RECENT NUMBER OF "The Public' Mr. 1 Post devotes considerable space to tho Lewis affair. He clearly establishes as a state of fact that discriminations between persons and busi nesses are made In the delivery of mall matter, by arbitrary decree of the postmaster general. That these decrees arc made upon no other evi dence than tho postmaster general chooses to cnslder, and with no other opportunity to tho ac cused to be heard than the postmaster general chooses to grant. That the courts have no juris diction to interfere, and that the decree of tho postmaster general Is absolute. MR. POST CONTENDS that the postal cen sorship Is Inimical to popular RtiVQvnmcnt, and that altogether too much power Is by this censorship placed in the hands of the postmaster general. The evil tendencies of such a censor ship are pointed out by Mr. Post in an Interesting way when he says: "Let us suppose a great na tional election involving the possible defeat of tho party In power, not of a political issues, say, but on an Issue affecting the pecuniary Interests of banks and great Insurance companies. And let us suppose that tho financial combines that con trol these powerful concerns, feeling, as McCall honors himself for having felt, were to embezzle banldng and insurance funds and turn them over for campaign uses to the treasurer of the national committee of the party in power. Suppose, then, that these lavish contributions enabled the party in power to win the election, and that by one of those' curiosities of politics which are not Impos sible, tho treasurer of that committee were to happen to become postmaster general. Suppose, then, that the great bankers or the great Insur ance men, feeling the competitive pressure of some new movement in the banking or the in surance business, should advise this postmaster general that this new movement was a fraudulent scheme. In those circumstances what would hap pen?" MR. POST DOES NOT UNDERTAKE to say exactly what would happen, but he says that a thing that could happen Is this: "A com plaisant postmaster general could cut off that new movement In banking or Insurance from tho use of the malls, at the same time proscribing f every one of its managers wnoso proscription might bo desired by the banking or insurance ring. This could be done if this postmaster gen eral happened to bo willing to do It, and thero would be no redress in the courts. Can any party or any country afford to leave open this gateway to oppressive corruption? Can any party or any country afford to subject persons or busi nesses to the whim or the cupidity of one official for the right to use the common malls? Can any congress of this republic longer afford to havo tho uso of the mails treated as a mero 'statutory privilege' which any postmaster gen eral may at any time withdraw from any person under any circumstances at his own good pleas ure? These are questions for congress to answer." s .&? tJJt'.n Jto. VWtu. .