The Portland daily press., 1896-08-22


| Hon. M. 2. Frank:
Ny dear sir-In tho report of your West
brook speech 1 find the following SEN
tence:
Ibid you ever know slife.insurance
company that would not pay you So
cont dollar If it could, or get out of paw
ing all togetherF" daughter and ap-
plause. }"
With the other parts of your speech l
have nothing to do, but when you make
such statementsby implication as the
above it makes one wonder.
VIII you allow me to give some facts
OF which l presume you are unadvised?
0 The regular life insurance companies
doing business in the United States last
year paidsto policy holders ana their ben
eficinries, one hundred and twenty five
millions, one hundred aad thirty,six
thousand dollars. The losses and claims
resisted by fifty-seven companies
amounted to one million and twenty-six
thousand dollars, about eight-tenths of
one per cent. Even this exceedingly
small amount is made larger by single
company which furnishes three hundred
and seventeen thousand dollars, or near
ly one-third of the whole amount resisted,
and all of these claims are plainly fraud
ulent.
My own company, the Equitable of New
York, paid to policy holders and their
benefciaries nineteen millions, five hun
dred and sixty eight thousand dollars,
and had resisted claims amounting to
only fifty eight.thousaRd. seven hundred
and twenty-five dollars, about three
tenths of one per cont OF the total claims.
Furthermore, of the total death claims,
over seventy three per cent were paid on
the very day the proofs of death were
received, eighty-two per cent were paid
in three days, and nearly ninety nine
per cent were paid within sixty days,
and in nearly every instance, when there
was any delay, jt.was due to the careless
nesa or indifference OF the benefciaries
You were talking to Maine men. We're you
aware that this company has been doing
business in this state for thirty five years,
has millions of insurance IN force, and
has paid hundreds of thousands of dol
lars to widows and orphans-and that
in all the thirty five years. that it has
been here, it has never contested or COM
promised single claim in the stats, but
paid each one in full hundred cents on
the dollar?
4 Now, MIR. Frank, does that loog like
trying to ''get out of paying altogetherf"
Candidly, wasn't your question an appeal
to Ignorance ard an attempt to stir up
prejudice, and if your hearers had known
the fact would they have laughed with
you or at your
There are a class of insurance compa-
MES which are not remarkable for prompt
payment of claims. OF one of tn ese un-
derstand that you are or were director
or officer. This company had insurance
in force on January 1st of this
year amounting to nearly eighty thous-
and dollars. Its total assets were $685. 1S),
five hundred and ninety eight dollars
and eighteen cents, and it's liabilities,
for borrowed money, three Thousand five
hundred dollars. The statement shows
that in this condition 1t paid claims of
some five thousand dollars. should be
sorry to suppose that you speak as you
did about companies getting out of pay
ing altogether from your experience with
the company you personally know most
about, but certainly, the statement
doesn It prove that you know much about
the 9th ers.
Do you not owe the life insurance com
panies and your hearers an apology?
Yours very truly.
Z. E.. MCDONALD,
Special Agent Equitable Life Assurance
Society of the United States