The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-09-21
FUSION SELECTION
 NOT TRICK TICKET
so DECLARES COUNSEL BARD IN REPLY TO LETTER FROM
 PRES. PEABODY.

Not Chosen tO Aid in Election of Either
 of Other Tickets-Managers Agents
 and PoIicyhoIders of Mutual Life Be-
 hind Choice-Win Not Yet Announce
 Names of Supporters Saying 1t is Pre-
 mature-ExpIains Why Other Tickets
 Are Unsatisfactory.
 New York. Sept. 2O.-Albert s. Bard counsel for the selected fusion ticket of the Mutual Life Insurance company, made public letter tonight which was sent by him to President Peabody, ot the company, in reply to letter by the latter asking for information regarding the fusion ticket
 MT. Peabody, in his letter to MT. Bard, said that until he knew more about who was back of the fusion ticket and it's purposes he could not consent to serve as a candidate on II. MT. Bard's reply, in part, follows:
 'As to the character and personality of the movers in the matter, l emphat- ically assure you that this ticket was not originated for the purpose of aiding in the selection of either of the other tickets. It is not trick ticket but an earnest effort to accomplish the best for the company. The persons behind the ticket I represent are managers, agents and policyholders of the Mutual Life Insurance company, but 1t would be premature to announce at the pres ent time the names of the Individuals supporting the movement, even for your purposes, and I am not at liberty to do so. You can see that to do this at the present time would be to give the NC Curdy element in the board of trustees, who are in the position of employers oI the managers and agents and in control of the machinery of the company 1tselt, an unfair advantage solely by reason of their power and without respect to the merits of the issue For the same req son it was impossible to consult with our nominees in advance, however glad we would have been to do so in ordi- nary circumstances.
 AS to the purpose of the movers in this matter, I am able to be entirely explicit. The administration ticket Is distinctly unsatisfactory to us by req son of the inclusion of the 'McCurdy trustees" gentlemen who, whether rightly or wrongly, are more or less closely identified in the public mind with the abuses of power and infidel- ity to the interests of the company and its members which have recently been disclosed. The agency committee, the most important committee of the com .pany. and the body which has for years past, and still does, dictate the policy of the company is to-day composed of men who were placed on the board of trustees, and in such committee under the McCurdy regime. In our Judgment 1t will be impossibleto restore public confidence in the Mutual Life SC long as these components of the McCurdy regi- me occupy their old places of infiu- ence and power, and their continued candidacy is working incalculable in jury to the company.
 eve oppose the united committees ticket because we consider it the height of folly to turn out every man now as- sociated with the management of the company. Such course, in our iudg- ment. would lead to Reorganization, where continuity in business Is essen- tial.
 These considerations were urged upon the persons in and out of the ad- ministration who have put the other tickets in nomination, and we should have been glad if such consideration had appealed more strongly to them, but in default thereof we have felt compelled to put in nomiantion third ticket"