The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-08-20

When the Eastern presidents of insur-
ance companies wrote their now cele.
brated letters promising to pay policies
in 80 cent dollars if Bryan and Sewall
were elected, they doubtless thought they
had done smart thing. In their minds
eye they saw great rush of the people
to congratulate them on their position
and the downfall of all free coinage. This
was last week. Now they are beginning
to wonder if after all they did not make
n little mistake, which was likely to
prove boomerang in more ways than
one. At first they received letters of
congratulation and columns of editorial
from the Eastern goldbug press. This
was very pleasant and they enjoyed it.
But now they are beginning to hear from
the West that there are two sides to the
question. Agents are writing to their
home Office that the effect of the letters in
the West was to completely shut o III bust
ness; that the people of the West will
not even talk insurance with those COM
panies that have declared for gold. OF
course the general agents are not in IL
position to critcisc directly, but there
are large number of general hustlers,
who work on commission They find
their vocation entirely gone since the APP
pearance of the letters in question, and
whenever they approach Il man on the
question of insurance they are met with
some statement about not wanting to be
insured in 50cent dollar companies or
sarcastic utterances of that kind. until
the poor insurance rustler, always here
tofore noted for his cast-iron gall, finds
that even his nerve is not equal to the
task of talking down those gold standard
letters.
AGENTS REPUDIATED THE LET
TIERS.
The letters not only effect those COM
panies which have sent out the obnoN:
ious letters, but it has II general effect
| upon all insurance companies writing
life insurance policies. They are doing
all they can to stem the tide of public
| Indignation land resentment and at Il
| special meeting of the Denver Life I'm
derwriters Association, held yesterday,
the following resolutions were adopted:
Whereas, There has recently transpiretl
| certain correspondence in the daily press
| regarding the position OF certain life in
| surance companies upon the financial
question of party politics, therefore be it,
Resolved, That the Denver Association
of Life Underwriters places itself on
record as being unalterabley opposed to
! the single gold standard as the financial
policy of this nation; that as an associa-
| ton they are one and all earnest support
| ers of and believers in the bimettalic the
| DRY of finance as expressed in the free
| and unlimited coinage of silver and gold
| ut the ratio of IL to | without waiting for
| the concurrence of any other nation and
will do all in their power to accomplish
this result.
That they further desire to express
their firm belief that if the embargo
| placed upon silver by hostile Legislation
is removed, that it will increase in value
at parity with gold, and that all lega
| obligations under bimetalism will be
paid in full i'll lawful money of the
| United States.
We cannot better express our reasons
for believing as we do, than by quoting
the following from Mr.. St John, which
| we heartily endorse and embody as ON
views:
at is not Intended to pay debts with
| 5Ocent dollars, or to drive away gold, OF
to dehase our currency. Our purpose
simply is by increasing the coinage and
use of silver and by giving it equal priv.
leges with gold by raising its value ant
diminishing the strain on gold which
gold monometallism has caused to take
away its unjust appreciation and thus by
putting up the value of silver and putting
down the value of gold to restore the old
ratio so that siXteenSounces OF silver viii
be worth in bullion as we'll as in coin ont
| ounce of gold, and we shall have n goo(
dollar, worth 100 cents in silver and 1
silver dollar worth 100 cents in gold"
COMMISSION AGENTS WRITE.
y number of the commission hustler.
of the New York Life, who find them
selves forced to talk politics instead OF
| nOliclpS. Yesterday ha oil l.,
ter to President Mccall of that com
pany, asking for information of a politi
cal nature. They are not in position
to be fired from their POSITIONS henc,
their temerity in thus addressing tn,
president of their company. They work
on commission, and if they do no bust
ness they get no money, which is theil
present condition. The letter is as fol
lows:
Denver, Col, August s, 1896.
Hon. John A Mccall, President New
York Insurance Company, New York
City:
Dear Sir: The official agency bulletin
of the company, under date of July %
1895, in large, red letters, says: Talk
| Policies, Not Politics. This is indeed
excellent advice and could be we'll an
piled by some people other than agents
We have assidiously talked POLICY not
Politics" until a few days ago, but sine,
your circulation of your letter of polit
ical advice topolicy holders, we find oul
| vocation gone and are forced now to tall
| politics. not policy. What is right in the
president of the company cannot b.
wrong in it's representatives, so far n.
| the company's interests are concerned
| and this is our excuse for addressing
you this semi. political letter.