The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-10-02

date his certificate of deposit. His
rights cannot-be impeached on ethical
grounds. But the opposite rule has
been held and is still held by many
companies to govern life insurance
transactions.
And now what is the consequence?
Why, a man is never sure he is not
entaiiing lawsuit, instead of legacy,
upon his family, and that, too, when
his tongue is silent and he is no longer
able to defend himself. Perhaps no
mans character is able to bear such
test. Nothing is more easy than to
pick flaw in the character of dead
man. Millions of dollars have been
withheld from heirs by the threat to
blacken the name of beloved father
or husband, made all the more terrible
on account of vagueness. And not
only this, but upon the finding of
some slight, wholly immaterial flaw
in his statement (which it failed to
find when he was in the hands of its
agents and Officers) in some companies
he not only forfeits the right of his
heirs to their purchased inheritance,
but the company retains his money
which he has paid besides. This is
surely dangerous contract for a man
to sign. 1t is placing a temptation
and a power in the hands of a corpo-
ration that it has never yet been in
the nature of corporations not to
abuse.
See how it works. The question is
asked: At what age did your grand
parents die? All four of them. Few
persons can correctly answer that
question. Many do not know. They
only have avague impression, founded
on mere rumOr, and so. reply, and
pay up a premium for 10 years, and
shortly after die. Now the trouble
begins One doctor says the death
was caused by consumption, an
other, blood poison or general de-
bility. The company ransack the
cradle and the grave and find some
old person who will swear that to the
best of their recollection a grandfa-
ther or grandmother had died of con-
sumption. The policy holder is dead
and the heirs are powerless to contra
dict this vague testimony. What fol-
lows? The company sends an agent
to the widow, who assures her that
there is fatal flaw in her husbands
policy, that they would like to be gen
erous in her affection and will pay a
small amount if she will sign a re-
lease. She is poor, has a number of
children to clothe and feed, and rea-
sons ''bird in the hand is worth two
in the bush" In this way millions of
money are kept from needy heirs.
Take case. In 1878 Col. Dwight
died leaving an insurance on his life
for 1855, 900. A large portion of this
he had carried for years. Fifty thou
sand in one company was promptly
paid. After few days hesitancy an
other company paid $4,000. Nineteen
companies contested the claim. Ros-
coe Conkling was on the side of the
heirs, and the contest was one of the
hardest and bitterest on record, and
finally these ghoulish companies won,
after having dug up Col. Dwight's
body several times in the effort to
prove that he was poisoned or that he
had hung himself, upon a purely tech
nical point. And that was that the
colonel did not state that he had at
one time owned hotel where liquor
was sold. Now remember that for
months they had tried to prove. that
he had been killed, then that he had
committed suicide, never claiming
that they were entitled to immunity
on the ground that he had kept a
bar a long time ago. We believe that
ninety-nine policy holders out of a
hundred could not stand such strain
on their reputation when dead. Col.
Dwight had been accepted. He had
stood the test of a medical examina-
ton. The company had received and
used his money and then refused
to settle the policy on this ghost of a
technicality.. Fraud, is it, for him
not to state he had kept a hotel for a
few months? What more natural
than not to mention it? Here is a
man who is book-keeper or grocer.
He takes out policy and never thinks
of the fact that he has a small interest
In mine more than hundred miles
away. He visits the mine, several
years after, and catches cold in it and
dies; the company sticks to the tech
nicality and his policy is not worth
the paper It is written on.
We have summarized these points
with no hostility to fife insurance