The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1886-01-21
AFTER THEM AGAIN.
The Tontine Presidents Ask to Have the Discus
sion Stoned.

sion Stopped.
Col. Jacob L. Greene a prominent Grand
Army man, of Connecticut appears to have the
Tontine Presidents ON the hip. In his official
capacity as President of the Connecticut Mu-
tual Life Insurance Company, of Hartford, Ct,
he has addressed an open letter to Richard A.
McCurdy, esq, President Mutual Life Insur-
ance Company of New York Henry B. Hyde,
esq, President Equitable Life Assurance So
ciety, New York; William II. Beers, esq, Presi-
dent New York Life Insurance Company, New
York.
Col. Greene opens the letter by relating the
facts of an overture made to him by the Presi-
dent of the Travellers Insurance Company,
who came as the representative of two of the
IOntine Presidents, asking him not to reopen
the discussion of their respective systems in the
public prints and as bribe for SO doing they
would stop their attacks upon the Connecticut
Mutual. lie proceeds to recount how for years
these officers of rival companies have pursued
him personally; have tried to cast doubt upon
the value OF his company's assets and have re-
sorted to other means to discredit his corpora
ton with the public, and then he says:
81 have done so such thing" # + Z" / have
undertaken to discuss plan of business which
you have invented, and which you are pushing
before the public with ali the power of your
corporations as desirable and legitimate form
of life insurance. l believe that the Tontne
feature is complete perversion of that element
OF protection to the family which is the sole
merit OF life insurance and the only reason of
its being; that were its true character clearly
seen by those who have families TO protect and
desire their complete protection that did they
see 1t to be- as it is, mere speculation upon the
losses by men and their families through the
lapsing of their polices it could not find favor
for ono moment. l believe that this system
has pushed It's way to large acceptance simply
through the enormous Estimates " of profits
upon which its solicitation has been entirely
based, and upon the very energetic efforts of
skillful men whom you have been able to en-
ploy with portion OF those profits, as against
companies which have no such wages fund.
have, therefore, endeavored to give clear
analysis and just and true statement of the
precise character and effect OF Tontine life in
surance, and pure Tontine life insurance is, as /
learn, practically, if not formally, abandoned;
but in its place each of your companies is now
offering variety Of Tontine known as Semi
Tontine, Limited Tontne, and Five Years
Distribution policies, or Reserve Dividend poll
cies, IN which part Of the effect of forfeiture
is supposed to be remcdied, and the most glar-
ing vice OF the full Tontine thereby removed.
these new schemes are also pushed by
the same methods oil estimates of exagger-
ated profits.
Having become possessed of these Semi-Ton-
tine estimates and saving analysed them
and found, very closely &C least, the amount of
lapses and losses thereby which you must an
ticipate in order to make your estimates
good, and that at least 10 per cent. of the
money and paid-up insurance lost through
these lapses must be forfeited to the Semi Ton
tine pool, | have undertaken to exhibit Semi
Iontine lii its several varieties as offered by
your companies, in such a manner as trust
may make its quality and effect clearly under
Stood" If Semi Tontne be az I'M
mixed public good it will certainly stand all
the discussion it can receive, and its friends
ought to welcome rather than deprecate it.
If, in my article, which viii appear in day or
two, misstate its character, or materially err
in my analysis of your estimates" or of their
necessary effect upon individuals or in the
mass, it viii give you the opportunity to con-
found me in both fact and reasoning, and to
show that what assert to be moral crime
against families is blessing to them for to
those who arc interested i'll the matter frank
by you Of the way in which your
estimates " are made up, the lapses which you
actually expect, the loss which must fall upon
each individual and each family in order to
furnish the Tontine profits to make good those
" estimates" would have far greater interest
than any statement am able to make from an
analysis of those Estimates" Therefore, as
my part in the matter is only that of open and
fair discussion of question of immense public
Importance, vital to .hS future integrity and
success of legitimate life insurance, l cannot
accept your proposition