Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1875-08-05
ADDRESS

ADDRESS
OF the Officers and Executive Committee Of
the Yorkyille, S. C. Board of Trustees Of
the Southern Life Insurance Company.
OFFICE SOUTHERN LIFE INSURANCE Co.,
YoRKv1LLE, S. c., August 1st, 1875.
To the Citizens of YorkmNe and adjacent coun-
ties Of South Carolina:
We desire to call your attention to the fact
that recently at Yorkville, S. c., a local
Board of Trustees of the Southern Life In
surance Company has been constituted, sim'
lar in nature and purpose to other organiza.
tions, now in successful operation in the COM
mercial and industrial centres of the South.
In explaining to you the very important OBJ
jects contemplated by the formation of our
Board, we cannot do better than to adopt the
language of the address issued by the Execu-
tive Committee of the Board recently or
ganized at Rock Hill, comprising the most
substantial business men of that vicinity:
"The object of the Board is,
l. TO furnish safe insurance in a we'll es-
tablished, solvent and successful Southern
Company and,
2. To benefit and secure policy holders by
investing in each locality in which it does
business, so much of the reserve fund derived
from the business Of that locality, as shall,
upon advice with local trustees, be deemed
safe ard judcious."
And what we wish specially to call the at
tention of our citizens to, is, that the Southern
Life being, as we believe, sound and safe
company, amply sufficient to meet the wants
and necessities Of our people, we'll organized
and in Aourishing condition, with its officers
and agents of integrity and ability stationed
within our borders, together with these local
Boards of Trustees in each immediate neigh
borhood guarding the interest of its policy
holders, should be sustained by Southern peo-
pie. For by so doing you retain and keep in
our impoverished country those enormous
sums of money which are yearly paid to
Northern Companies for Insurance. What
the people of the South need now is capital I;
funds sufficient to develop the natural resour-
ces of this Southern country, and to re-estab-
lish its former prosperity; then hold on to
what you have won if it should be but a small
amount, and stop this heavy drain upon our
local finances.
Since the war, South Carolina has paid to
Northern Insurance Companies over eleven
million dollars in excess Of all amounts re-
ceived or paid back on death policies; while
the entire banking capital Of the State to-day
is not more than six or seven millions. Now
if this amount of eleven million dollars had
only have been kept at home instead OF send
ing it to the North for Insurance-the State
would now have banking facility of over
seventeen or eighteen million dollars So if
we are still subsisting with this limited supply
of banking capital, how much easier would be
our finances if we were enjoying the benefit OF
eighteen million dollars instead of seven mill
ions as it is. Any one can readily see that it
would be ruinous to our interest to continue
this line of policy. We submit the following
extract from the Augusta (Ga.) Board as
found in the Chester Reporter:
"The Southern Life Insurance Company
was organized in July, 1865, with a cash capi-
tai of S25O,OO0 1t has paid up to this time
S5OO,O00i in losses, and 100000 in dividends,
ninety per cent. of the profits going to policy
holders. Despite these heavy disbursements,
the accumulated assets of the company, Janu-
ary 1st, 1874 were S2.24S,000.26. These re-
suits have been obtained by prudent and skill
full management. The expense of conducting
operations have been kept at the low rate of
l2i per cent Of sixty-6ve American Life
Insurance Companies, reported in Goodsells
New York Reports for 1874, the Southern
Life Insurance Company excels Al as to gross
amount of assets A as to number of policies
issued AZ as to premium receipts AZ as to to-
% fco Of mopf
80 as to whole amount insured ; So as to aver
age of each policy in force; and with one ex'
ception, it excels all in increase Of business.
Ifsuccess be the criterion of merit, these
facts speak their own encomium Of the shrewd
business like management of this company,
and the high state of prosperity and security
which has naturally ensued.
Tried by the standard upon which the Off:
cial reports of all companies in the United
States are based, it's ratio Of assets to liabilities,
which is the true test of the strength and Sc
curity of life insurance companies, compares
most favorably with the oldest and most sta
BILE companies in the country.
After careful examination of the official
reports and statements submitted to US, we
find the Southern Life Insurance Company
safe, conservative and we'll managed, with d
large accumulation of assets judciously and
pro6tably invested, and we commend it to the
support of our fellow-citzens"
While we are generous to others, let us be
just and true to ourselves and to our South
ern institutions and become more independent
and self.relant. And we never will be-, go
long as we continue to have everything fur
nished US from abroad. Whenever it can be
done with safety, we should invest, and en-
courage home industry, and by this means
mutually benefit each other. Then let the
people of South Carolina patronize, encourage
and sustain our Southern Life Insurance, our
woolen and cotton factories, our manufactures
and our various enterprises which tend to in
crease our prosperity and keep our funds at
home. Begin then by entrusting your insur-
ance to Southern companies. Their agents
and officers living as they do with US, have no
dread of the great uncertainty to life on &C.
count of our wicked and rebellious spirit"
and will not take that as pretext, like some
of the Northern companies have done, to raise
insurance on this Southern people, thereby
making an unjust discrimination, and that too
in favor of the North Let US show to the
world, and especially to the emigrant who
would like to live with US, that such reflections
as these are unjust, unkind and false-that
peace reigns throughout the South that the
citizen who attends strictly to his own business
and acts the man, is safe in the enjoyments of
his life and his property, and as an evidence
of tho fact trust ond pofroD;,o Conthorp