The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-08-23
new YORK LIFE
AFTER Proxies
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES HttlII TEE
HEALS They ARE BEING v
GATHEREp--No lot LAWFUL az
BEFORE OCTOBER 10.

NEW YORK Aug 70. tters have
come to The Internal ipnat Foley Hold
ers' COMMITTEES from policy holders Of
4 the New York life Inautance com:
panies scattered over a vile area In
this country and from some in South
| American countries sas well convinc-
ing Tie committee that there is a gen.
eral campaign BY that company for
proxies In advance Of october IS, the
earliest date under which proxies can
|ibe legally solicited under the new
Armstrong laws. The method de-
scrIbed by the policy holders Is the
same as that told some months ago.
namely. to have the agents get prox-
lies running to the administration
4 proxy committee filled out with the
signatures of the policy holder, but
with the date left blank.
Monday the international Commit
j tee gave out a letter which Samuel
4 Unternyer its counsel, sent to Super.
.Iintendent of Insurance o'to Kelsey,
calling his attention to the matter
and asking that he notlf;. the officers
Iof the company of the criminal 1iabili.
-Ety Of any who take part in the ad-
vance campaign under tho new insur-
lance law. The international Commit
tee also is collecting evidence on the
matter itself from several sources and
interesting Developments are looked
for If policy holders continue to write
in about the proxy hunt. s.
This is the letter to tile state Su-
fperfntendent:
August21, 1906.
lotto Kelsey, Esq, Superintendent Of
Insurance, Albany. N. v.
Dear Sir: Information comes to us
to. the enect that the agents and
agency managers and directors of the
companies are gathering proxies with
out date for the Forthcoming election
with the intent of filling in the dates
as of day subsequent tc October IS,
and using them in the election.
This is a misdemeanor under the
4 statute.
H r. AS one instance we cite the case OF
A Thaddeus Bell, the agency director
of the New York Life Insurance Com
pany for the State OF Texas and ask
you to notify the company That the Of
ficers will be held liable for counte.
Inancing and becoming privy to any
such transactions.
We understand that Mir, Christie,
the Inspector of Agencies for South
American and spanisn-sr- aking coun-
tries Is also very active ia The same
| direction. Very truly yours,
SAMUEL U&.TERMYER,
General Counsel, international Policy
Holders Committee.
The Information which the Interna-
tional committee is getting Indicates
--thnt the proxy hunt as at present con-
Quoted is part of scheme which was
under way as far back as the time
when the original information came
out on the subject. ThGn. however,
officials of the New York Life denied
strenuously that any suck undertake
ing was under way, and called atten-
ton to the fact that any insurance Of
fetal in this State who had part in
it would be guilty of ntsdemeanor
for violating the Armstrong laws, as
the wording of the statute on this sub
ject is explicit.
4 The activities of agents in other
States and in South American coun.
tries are, Of course, not actionable un-
der New York SITE laws, but the sim
4 ilarity Of methods followed and the
use OF the company's literature sent
out In connection with the straw
4 vote which the New York Life agents
are getting, are taken as showing
either that instructions have been re-
ceived from some central point or
else that the agents widely scattered
throughout this country, are in re-
markably close touch with each 9TH
ier.,
The International CONF 'ttee, 1t now
develops, has been keeping very close
tabs on Seymour Eaton, its former
secretary, who spent urge part of
"Wednesday in the New York Life
building, and a minute record of Mr..
Eaton's dolngs since he sunt in his
midnight resignation has been pre-
pared. The higher oncl%ls of the
New York Life had nothing TO say
about Mr.. Eaton or any other subject
yesterday. One Of tho subordinate
officers, who explained That he did not
\ want to be quoted, declared "as a mat
ter of Information that MIR. Eaton
was not at the building on Wednes-
day.
The Conference committees Of the
international Policy Holders Commit
tee and the Mutual Life Policy Hold
| ers' Association got together again for