Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1886-01-07
THE CONNECTICUT MUTUAL LIFE
INSURANCE COMPANY.
LETTER FROM Q. c. HINK, EDITOR OF THE
INSURANCE MONITOR" THE OLDEST INsu-
RANCE JOURNAL IN THE COUNTRY.

LETTER FROM Q. c. HINE, EDITOR OF THE
INSURANCE MONITOR" THE OLDEST INsu-
RANCE JOURNAL IN THE COUNTRY.
OFFICE OF Insurance. MoSrroR,)
No. 1877 BROADWAY,
NEW YORK, Jan. 8, 1886. J
Henry c. Robinson, Esq, Director Connecticut
Aiatuat Life Insurance Company, Hartford.
Conn.,:
DEAR SIR: The correspondence between
Messrs. Greene and Patterson, published yes
terday and to-day, and the important interests
to which 1t is collateral induce me to write to
you and TO the other Directors OF the Connecti-
cut Mutual. l am advised by those who think
they know, that 1 miscalculate your power in
the premises, that Mr.. Greene holds the prox-
les, and instead of being your servant is really
the opposite; but I will take the chances of
error in that statement and say what think
ought, at venture.
have criticised the Connecticut Mutual, and
shall continue to criticse 1t, because the facts
OF It's recent history furnish evidence which ie
conclusive to my mind OF the incompetency of
its management and the falseness OF Its public
statements. will confine myself to those two
points in this communication.
Vi my own personal knowledge state that
you are carrying in your real estate schedule
properties to which you have no title-not one
or two, but multiplied examples where defective
title at the outset, misdescription, other cloud
mas uitimated In making that schedule false in
numerous and important particulars.
To much greater extent 1t Is false in the
absurd over-valuations which 1t contains.
Under the cover of "Cost Value properties are
entered at the aggregated amounts of the
original loan, plus defaulted interest and cost of
foreclosure, which are not now and never were
worth respectable fraction OF the sums they
represent. Several Of these present the appear
ance Of barefaced swindles upon the company,
never having produced single payment Of
interest; parties having apparently unloaded
undesirable property on yoE and pocketed your
money! If you choose to visit me at my office,
bringing copy OF your schedule of real estate.
l will point out chapter, verse, and line. 1
believe that schedule is a lie to the extent of
at least $4,000, o0O and believe have the
facts in my possession which will be conclusive
In that direction to any person who will care
fully examine them. I shall publish them in
due time. Further detail is unnecessary here
but ample details are available to you if YOU
choose to acquire them.
In regard to the ineff1ciency of the present
management. one needs only to examine the
statistical history Of the company as recorded
In the annual reports to ascertain that. 1t is
not very many years since the Connecticut
Mutual stood at the head not only of American
companies but of the companies of the world
1t was doing larger business and enjoying a
larger premium income and wider popularity
than the Mutual Life of New York, and was
great com pany before the Equitable was born,
and the way was clear for it to maintain that
supremacy and retain to Hartford q lead i'm lite
insurance even more notable than has been
maintained there in fire. Instead of that, more
than S3O,OOO,O0O OF risks have run Off your
books in excess of what has gone on since
MI Greene became Secretary, and four years
after that date a decadence began which has
continued ever since and throughout his entire
Presidency aUithom break, and the very year
he became Secretary your premium receipts
began to fall off, and from that day to this
there has never been year in which they
equaled the premiums of the year preceding
and they were, at the date Of the last published
report, S3,134, 1862 less than they were four
teens years before, in 1870, when he be-
came Assistant Secretary. These are merely
q couple OF broad underlying facts. need
not go into details, of which there are many, all
discreditabe to the company and condemna-
tory of the management. In my Opinion Mr.
Greene has been a blight upon the company
from the day he entered its doors. 1 regard
him as mischievous crank, who yields MIN
BILE pen and is impelled by an imperial vanity
to the commission of acts Injurious TO the COM
pany which employs him, and controlled by
an equally imperial obliquity which involves
him In the neglect of obvious duties, and my
plain exhortation to you is to sit down on him
promptly and heavily! He is Mt present
threatening to precipitate conflict which
must inevitably result injuriously to your
company, and which can serve no other pur-
pose than to afford him an opportunity to pos
ture as high moral refOrmer, while he inn
putes unclean motives and unrighteous acts to
his superiors in the business. l, therefore, as a
policy holder of twenty-five years standing
beg to call your attention to what seems to me
to be your very plain and imminent duty
1t is more than thirty years since my connec-
ton with Hartford insurance companies began
and you are at liberty to show this letter to any
of the older members Of the profession in Hart
fOrd-as we are personally strangers-and ascer-
tain their opinion as to my reliability, and
whether would be likely to utter such a letter
as this without probable ample reasons for SO
doing.
/ take the liberty of further remarking that
it may pay you to follow these matters up. 1t
is possible that am truer and more consist
ent friend OF the company than some who
stand in closer relations to it, and that may
at the present juncture be in a position to do
it genuine service. Yours respectfully,
c. c. HINE
PSI had not, at the time of debating the
above, discovered Mr.. Greene's second letter.
He appears to have already precipitatedr'
Contrary to my original design, shall give this
letter to tie public, as think his game of cut
tie fish has been played long enoush, and people
should know something of the true record of
the charlatan who is humbugging them, befog-
ging the truths of life insurance, wasting the
money that he is paid to protect, and bringing
contempt upon an honorable and useful call
ing. c. c. III.