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Conservative *
, T. Sterling Morton
PRECISELY sends a shaft at
RIGHT. the Buffalo and
St. Louis o x p o -
sitious by insisting that the government
should go out of the show business. If
these expositions were purely shows the
demand would receive much more general -
oral reinforcement. Great expositions ,
however , are. designed , first , for the
purpose of developing unexhausted re
sources and instructing the people on
the progress and possibilities of the
nation in various branches of pro
duction , trade , arts and sciences , and
only incidentally for recreation and
amusement. Nobody is yet ready to
call on the government to go out of the
education business except a few ex
tremists who want the government to
do nothing that con be done by private
individuals. Omaha Bee.
The Bee hits squarely and fairly. The
government ought not to do anything
"that can be done by private individu
als , " as well , or better. Expositions ap
propriated for by decadent members of
the senate and house , with the distinct
purpose of getting salaries out of the
appropriations their votes make ought
to be discontinued. Exposures of these
robberies would stop governmentally
sustained expositions.
WHAT ARE THE YOUNG MAN'S
CHANCES ?
In reply to the above question , a sym
posium , containing the views of a
number of gentlemen who have attained
prominence in their different avocations ,
appeared in the August 15th issue of
THE CONSERVATIVE , J. Sterling Mor
ton's interesting publication , which , as
announced on its editorial page , is "a
journal devoted to the discussion of po
litical , economic and sociological quest
ions. " Replies were received from
workers in the joiirnalistic , legal , edu
cational and industrial fields. Among
the contributions to the symposium was
an article from the pen of William B.
Carlile , manager at Chicago for the
Mutual Life of New York , from which
we quote , in part , as follows :
"It is not my purpose to glorify the
business of life insurance by extensive
reference to the benign humanity under
lying its conception ; this , have its
founders done , and how well , the
mighty results everywhere attained and
open for inspection , indisputably attest.
To dwell upon the accuracy , beauty and
mathematical dimensions of its struc
ture , would bo to seriously encroach
upon the domain of the erudite actuary ,
who to this business has given substance
and enduring strength. All honor to
these men whose work is never done ,
and who , from the heights of knowl
edge , peer into the widening ignorance ,
sighting from afar , the dangerous
heresies that would menace the life in
surance business. "
After briefly stating his opinion "that
the imperishability of our established
government may not find bettor and
more accurate measurement than in the
rise and fall of this one department of
our industrial activity , ' ' Mr. Carlile
characterised life insurance OB follows :
"A business demanding level-headed-
ness and hard common sense ; commer
cial instinct and practical wisdom ;
honesty , not merely of purpose , but of
acts , deeds and utterance ; honesty of
heart , of thought and of countenance ;
honesty in the things that are to give
semblance to a well-rounded career ,
all impreguably backed by an invinci
ble squareness , marking eveiy trans
action concerned in its progress ; a busi
ness that dares demand of every man
his best , and dares insist that this best
be made the better ; that would claim ,
as well , man's best of heart and soul ;
whose multiplying exactions mean a
sleepless watchfulness , an unfaltering
step , an ever cheerful , responsive alert
ness. And may the dawn of that day
never be when this creation shall wit
ness the limitation of its own improve
ment , for 'why stay we on the earth
unless to grow ? ' "
Of the immensity of opportunity that
the business of life insurance holds forth
to the young man of today , the writer
states that it was circumscribed only by
the ability of man to conceive its mag
nitude and appreciate its responsibilities.
In this connection , he said :
' 'Emphatically , no sluggards are want
ed in this calling where the current of
business activity is swift and powerful ;
no tinselled youth may expect to find in
this business the kind of gold of which
he is made ; only the unalloyed sort
may triumph here , for this young giant
of our industrial life , already entrusted
with fully one-fiftieth part of our recog
nized wealth as a people , has naught but
contempt for the vacillating idler , and
demands for the furtherance of self-
imposed gigantic tasks , the courageous
devotion of the unborn giants of energy
and of intellect , who shall spring up out
of the coming life , else , who shall guard
this honorable business , shall make as
adamant the memories , works and
deeds of them who gave to it being , if
not our worthy youths when to maii-
liood grown ? "
Having quoted short extracts from the
sayings of men who became especially
prominent in the life underwriting field ,
Mr. Carlile closed his paper with the
following tribute to the business :
"Surely , fortified by so lofty a senti
ment , the business of life insurance
should be as eagerly sought by our
worthy sous as does this important de
partment of world-wide industry im
patiently await their approach , for here
may bo found , not alone a means of ac
quiring an honorable competency , but
every opportunity leading up to a suc
cessful career an eminent name ; and
firm am I in the belief that there shall
not be found in all the history of manly
effort anything larger than the growth
of life insurance as a business of uni
versal significance , unless it shall be
found in the very characters of them
who to this business have given a life's
devotion ; that if there shall ever be any
trade , business or profession , any walk
in the commercial life of a people , af
fording greater opportunity for honora
ble accomplishment , the same must be
in relation to some department of ac
tivity not yet by man conceived , some
plan of manly action that shall have di
rectly to do with the further uplifting
of our race and our institutions. " The
Argus of Chicago , for August , 1901.
STILL BREAKING THE PENSION
RECORD.
The abstract of Commissioner of Pen
sions H. O. Evans's forthcoming annual
report shows that for the fiscal year \ (
ended June 80. 1901 , the pension roll
broke all records , with over a million
names on the roll during the year. The
number at the end of the year was
997,785 , and the total number carried on
the roll during the year was , 1,041,821.
During the year 47,792 claims of which
44,225 were original pensions , were al
lowed , and the losses to the roll for the
same period , on account of death and
other causes , were 48,586 , making a net
addition to the roll of 4,206 names , of
which 8,849 were on account of the re
cent war with Spain. The pension pay
ments for the year amounted to $188-
581,488 , and the total sum expended for
pensions since the end of the Civil War ,
June 80 , 1865 , to June 80 , 1901 , was
$2,666,904,589.
A remarkable feature of the year's
pension business is the fact that thirty-
six years after the close of the war there
seems to be actually an increase all
along the line. The losses diiring the
year by deaths alone amounted to over
88,000 , and yet there is an actual gain
of pensioners , not including the Spanish
war names. The explanation is to be
found in the fact that practically all ap
plicants are granted pensions under
the very broad disability law of 1890
as amended in 1900. There were 45,860
claimants for original pensions in 1900 ,
and 44,225 claims , or all but 1,685 were
allowed. The pensioners under the act
of 1890 and 1900 , which let down the
bars to the wildest prodigality and
opened the doors to fraud , received last
year $66,978,481 , or an increase of $1-
207,401 over last year.
That the pension rolls are permeated
with fraud , does not admit of doubt. It
is a physical impossibility that there
should be borne on the rolls thirty-six
