The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-10-31
TOM WATSON WANTS BIDS
Especially From Tom Ryan for His
Policy i'm the ECU. table.

Il oner for sale to the highest and
best bidder a life insurance policy"
says Tom Watson in his magazine for
October.
1t IS In frst-cIass condition. | have
fed it on fat premiums for nearly
twenty years. The red ink which
charmed my youthful eyes in 1886 is
still a brilliant, enticing, r~eassuring
red. The huge official stamp of the
Equitable is unsullied, as of yore, and
it seems to be saying TO me, with an
Oliver Twist emphasis:
More want some more."
Once upon a time a fire swept the
streets OF the town and my law Office
was burned-books, furniture, briefs
and so forth-but this precious policy,
escaped unsigned.
1t had been placed in the innermost
box or the iron safe, and came out of
the furnace without the smell of fire
on its garments.
Let the books burn, let the furniture
and the papers go up in fiames-if on
~ | MAJ save this precious insurance
policy.
So here it is, safe, sound as pretty
as new shoes-and l want to sell it.
Who wants to buy?
Give me a bid, somebody. The pol
icy is for 5000, and it natures in De-
tober, 1906.
what do | hear for this policy?
Nineteen times l nave come forward
like a plain, average American fool
and paid a premium of S113.5O for the
blessed privilege of keeping this old
piece Of paper ''alive." It had to be
fed on that sum once a ear to keep it
from going to the wa~ste-basket. If
you have nothing else to dc and want
to learn something about life insur-
ance, take out your pencil and calcu-
late what my nineteen premiums now
mount to at compound interest
During those nineteen years it was
not always an easy matter for me to
pay b premium. Sometimes it was
decidedly hard. And there was no
year when l could not have used the
money very much to the comfort of
myself and family. But that hungry
policy had to be fed, else it would 20
dead.
During the early nineties the demo-
cratic party and | got after each other
hot and heavy, and, as hat dear old
thing had possession of all the ma
chinery, it finally did all it wanted to
do to me, protests of mine to the con-
trary Notwithstanding.
Hard up? Yes, 1 got very hard up.
No congressional salary, no law-case
fees, heavy expenses, everything tend
ing to h "demnition bOw-wows.'
The sheriff got me-sold some of my
land that TOlstoy is worrying about,
the sale taking place while I was on
the stump making speeches for ''the
people"
SO you see the morbid appetite of
the insurance policy for the yearly pre-
MUM was most inconvenient at times.
1t made me grunt, as I paid, more than
once. And there did come a time. if,
my memory serv me right, when a
dear old friend came forward and vol
UNFAIRLY paid the premium for me, he
knowing how very hard l was pressed
for ready money.
But the Equitable got it's premiums,
No matter how much / needed the
money at home, the yearly premium
Tad to go to New York; and it went.
What became of it after it got to
New York? All, there's the joke, the
cruel joke of the whole matter.
My money went into the pot of the
Equitable Society, together with that
of thousands of other plain, average
American fools, until a huge accumu-
lation was there.
And then there was a merry dance
indeed among our trustees.
Salaries twice as big as that of the
President Of the United States were
paid to mel who were foully abusing
their TRUST and shamelessly betraying
ne and other thousands Of dupes.
Ft cdle money was paid to both the
great political parties to keep down in
Nestigation and exposure. Lobbyists
were hired at lavish expense to keep
the legislature asleep. Lawyers were
paid "hush money by the tens of thou
sands to stave off legal inquiry; direc-
tors were allowed to steal our money
under the shallow device of lending it
to corporations owned by themselves.
Greedy spectators were given control
Of u funds in the carrying. out OF
marauding deals. A carnival of fraud
and thievry and extravaganza took
place. the laws being broken with
braZen confidence in the power of the
rascals to bride their way to safety.
Yes, the Equitable Society Of New
York has swindled me and thousands
of other dupes out of honest, hard
earned money. Each of us who con-
tributed to make the Equitable what
it was had an interest in the earnings,
in the surplus. That was the harvest;
we made tit was ours.
Where is it? What share Of it will
| any of us ever get?