The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1898-10-02
WHERE OUR MONEY GOES.

vou say: Add to this what is
drained out of the country annn-
ally for fire and life insurance
(two-thirds Of which never comes
back, and you will have some
idea of what goes with a large per
cent of the peoples money.
/ regard this as a deliberate at
tempt to injure a legitimate busi-
ness, or a case of objectionable ig-
noranee. / have not the time nor
inclination to enter into an ex-
haustive argument of the case, un-
dertaking to educate an obstinate
pupil, for it is probable that no
amount of proof would be effective
against one competent of making
such wild assertions. l do not
claim to know more about life in
surance than fairly intelligent peo-
pie in other walks of life, yet do
know that the above statement is
misleading to say the least. l have
given the best part Of my life to
the study Of fire insurance, and
have not learned it all, but do
know some things which anyone
can learn by going to a little
trouble to look them up. The av-
erage dividend paid to stockholders
of fire insurance companies is less
than 6 per cent, and more than
one half of all dividends are paid
from earnings on invested assets;
the profit on underwriting being
about 2 per cent. The fact that
Western people do not invest in
fire insurance stocks ought to be
evidence that such investments are
not sufficiently remunerative to Of
fer any inducement as against local
enterprises. Every intelligent per-
son in Ardmore knows that
under ordinary conditions it will
be years before the fire insurance
companies will be repaid for what
they have contributed to our citi
zens. The Indian Territory as a
whole has been an improbable
field for the companies, and there
are states in the Union which show
a balance on the wrong side of the
ledger. These are a few facts
not wild assertiOns-which must
convince any reasonable person that
there are other elements than prof
its in fire insurance. How many
of the old merchants of Ardmore
would be in business to-day were
it not for the fire insurance COM
panies? T. J. CORNELIUS.
You will see that the above arti-
Gle was handed in for publication
on the Goth of September. When
first handed in Mr.. Cornelius failed
to sign his name. Last Saturday
he decided to do so, but on ac.
count of the editor having to leave
Ardmore for several days it was
not published.
No doubt Mr.. Cornelius feels
that he has dealt the editor of the
ARDMoREITE crushing blow-one
that will build for himself fame
and heap upon the editor the anath-
emas of the people. We have
come across such men as Mr.. Cor
nelius before. Because he is a
bright and interesting gentleman
and live fire insurance agent, he
needn't think he is "the only tin
can in the alley" There are
others.
In the first place, the editor,
though crushed and bleeding from
the awful blow dealt by Mr.. Cor
nelius, wishes to state that he has
no apology to make for what he
has said-that he stands pat by it.
In the second place, the editor
may be 'unpardonably ignorant, ;"
as Mr.. Cornelius seems to think,
but that gentleman knew he was
not stating a fact when he stated
that what we said was "deliber-
ate attempt to injure a legitimate
business. In this he simply
makes a bold, bad effort to manu-
facture prejudice against the editor
and the ARDMoREITE in the minds
of those in Ardmore who have
reaped benefits from fire insurance
and to give himself a little cheap
advertising.
In the third place, we would
kindly inform Mr.. Cornelius that