The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1906-05-09
LAURENS, S. c., May 9, 1906.
PUBLICITY SAVES MONEY.


The New York Mutual Life Insurance
Company saved in expenses, so it is
announced, two millions during the first
three months of 1906 as compared with
the same months in 1905. This gives
some idea Of the tremendous wasteful-
ness that has prevailed in this great COM
pany and it is beyond question that the
sam methods have characterized until
last years exposures the conduct of
the management of the other great
companies.
What brought about the change?
Prosecutions? Nobody has been sent
to Jail. MacCurdy is at large and un-
der no criminal charges, though every
body believes that he has betrayed his
trust and robbed the policy-holders and
the same is true of late officers of the
Equitable and of the New York Life
not to mention dozens of smaller con-
Germs. All of the big companies have
been ~reorganized and are being con-
Quoted with some regard for the inter
ests of the persons who buy the insur-
ance policies.
But nobody has been prosecuted. Ex-
posture has brought about the reforms.
The exposures have been made by the
newspapers, these same newspapers
that the demagogic politicians have de-
nounced as agencies of the ''money
power" and as corrupt. The New York
World has been the leader in the wood
work and it's exertions have saved to
the American people many millions of
dollars.
Publicity is the greatest of all police
men. Yet we have members of the
legislature from time to time offering
bills to conceal the disbursement of
county and other public funds under
the plea of saving the money of the
Taxpayers by cutting down the public
advertising bills. The truth is that the
state of South Carolina and the coun-
ties would save money in the long run
if they would require that reports of
fiscal officers be printed in far greater
detail than is now the custom.
If the laws of Pennsylvania and
other states had compelled the Stand
ard Oil companies to publish statements
of their affairs in the same way that
banks are compelled to publish them it
is likely that the people would have
taken warning in time and that the
monopoly would have been throttled.
Laws ought to be enacted in this state
now requiring cotton mills and other
manufacturing to make more of their
affairs public. Corporations ought tc
be watched, they have special powers
and they include certain dangers anc
for the protection of the people they
should be forced to operate in the
open. If the Union Cotton Mills hac
been forced to print in a newspapei
four times a year statements of its
condition suspicion would probably
have been excited when half a million
OIL one million dollars instead of thre
million had been lost in speculation.
We do not mean that publicity is al
absolute safeguard but we do say tina
it is the greatest of all methods of pre-
venting wrong-doing.
We should like to see this subjec
figure in the campaign this year. Som,
corporations wish their affairs to b
kept quiet because they are making
more money than they are willing TO
the public to know about, others becaus
they are making less. But when tn
state permits persons to band togethe
and form an artificial person with pc
culiar privileges and powers the stat
may rightfully demand that it's book
be open. Nearly all the corporatioI
abuses of these times are due to thei
ability and disposition to conceal. w
are especially glad that the most promi
nent corporation in this county ha
taken the lead in this matter by init
mating that it will court publicity il
it's affairs and we trust that prosperity
candidates for the legislature will con
slider the feasibility of passing law
that will cause a better condition O
affairs generally to come about.