Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1898-08-31

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tanned long editorial in which Su
perintendent McNall was denounced
because he occasionally looks into
the affairs of eastern insurance com
panies. McNall and his examiner
were held up by Anthony as ''scanda
lizers of Kansas"
d. o. McCray, who formerly edited
the Times for Anthony, and who is g
warm personal friend of the colonel,
was named in the editorial as one ol
the men who went about holding uI
insurance companies much as high.
wayman does when he tackles a man
unawares, in back alley at midnight
When McCray read the editorial be
"took his pen in hand'' and wrote
Colonel Anthony very affectionate
letter in which he discusses some mat
ter OF history in very entertaining
way. Following is McCray's e. istle
to Daniel:
My DEAR COLONEL ANTHONY.
Aug. ii, 1851 note in today's
issue of todays Times that you devote
considerable space to the ma ter OF
examination of certain insurance com
panies. and as my name appears in
your leading editorial, as one who
goes about holding up" these purely
benevolent and strictly charitable in
stitutions word may not be out of
place.
Twill admit that $25 a day is a
little more than you are in the habit
of paying to men who edit the Leaven-
worth Times in fact, l once edited
the paper for less sum than that
per week, but l was several years
younger then.
Proper supervision over insurance
companies, and an examination of
their assets and books, is not q new
thing in Kansas. That immaculate
statesman, Daniel Webster Wilder,
set the pace, and as the records in the
department show, he had something
like dozen "road agents" going a.
bout "ho'ding up" these benevolent
corporations.
But this happened several years
ago. In 1880, when gang rule al
most lost the state to the repub-
lican party, 1 remember, an insur-
ance combine came to Topeka from
Omaha to square things. 1t was cur
rent gossip that nice little sum was
contributed by the combine to the
republican campaign fund. That
contribution wiped out multitude
Of sins and nobody heard of the in
surance department interceding in
behalf of citizens who had been
swindled out of honest losses or in
examining into the condition of COM
panies that practically confessed in
solvency by refusing to pay losses.
How Morrill, Made a Fortune.
The same sweet harmony between
the Kansas insurance department and
the insurance companies prevailed
during the brilliant (?) administra-
tion Of that weak old ass, E. N. Nor
rill. You have not forgotten, of
course, that your beloved, but late
lamented, Cousin George presided
over the insurance department dur
ing part of the Morrill, reign. The
combine had such a good time in
Kansas during that administration
doing about as it pleased, that lit
tie jacking up by superintendent
who believes the people have some
rights, seems a great hardship on
these great institutions which go
about scattering charity and benev-
oleIce among the people.
There were good reasons why Nor.
rill and cousin George should protect
the insurance combine during their
meteoric career, for you, better than
anybody else in Kansas, know how
Morrill, made his fortune. For TWEEN.
ty-fVe years he borrowed insurance
company money at q low rate OF in
terest and loaned it out to the farm
ers of north eastern Kansas at a
greater rate, simply guaranteeing the
payment Of interest. Do you sup
pose he would have permitted q su-
erin tende mt of insurance appointed
by himself to m6l st the combine
which had thus made him wealthy Z?
II you do you must have more con-
fidence in him than give you cred.
it for having.
And what did Morrill, and the gang
do in the campaign of 1896? When
they discovered that power was about
to slip from them, and when the old
man was begging for another term,
he sent Billy Edwards down to New
York, and with his Macedonian cry