The Washington times., 1906-08-13
INSURANCE WAR
DEVELOPS TRICK
Jokes Written in Russian on
Letters to Policy
holders.
DETECTED JUST IN TIME
Envelopes Purposely Misdirected or
Given Absurd Addresses by Rus
sian Writers.

NEW YORK, Aug. 13.-George r.
Scrugham. organization manager Of the
interna tionaI policyholders' committee.
is having troubles he never dreamed of
in getting out the committees circulars
10 the foreign pOucyhoIders Of the
Mutual and New York Life Insurance
Companies. Just who instigated the
most recent troubles IS a mystery. and
while some OF the employees Of the COM
mittee attribute them 10 an overzealous
advocate Of the present managements OF
the companies, this Ciew has not yet
been accepted as fact.
To facilitate the delivery OF the mail
matter OF the foreign pOllcyholders a
special corps OF clerks OF different ma
tlOnalities has been employed to ad-
dress the envelopes in their native Ian
guage and script Eleven Russians were
employed to address the envelopes to
the N,OO0 Russian poncyholders Of the
New York Life. The name. street ad-
dress. and town were written IN Rus
sian characters and only the word
Russia" in English.
Had Learned to Be Wary.
Mr.. schrugham is a pupil Of the late
Mark Hanna, having been the Ohio
mans chief confidential ala in the two
Mckinley campaigns. He is a Ken
lucky Republican, with bullet wounds
TO prove 1t, and having been warned or
tricks the life insurance men might at
tempt. 10 interfere with the pOlicyhOld-
ers' movement. he trusted neither 20
chance nor the Russian clerks.
Without informing them he employed
four VeTifiers TO go over the addresses
on the envelopes. When the verifers
got 70 work the eleven clerks had
addressed $500 Of the 1900 envelopes.
Translated the address on one en-
velope read;
MI Highup Somebody.
Somewhere,
Russia"
In splendidly written Russian another
envelope was addressed Ia this wise:
Three Cheers for Gorky,
Down with the Car,
st Petersburg, Russia"
A third envelope was addressed:
Mr.. This Is Easy.
Were Paid. Too.
Moscow, Russia"
Identity Traced.
The veriders got out about one hum
dred Of the envelopes on which the
clerks had written In lieu of names and
addresses the nrst ridiculous phrase that
occurred to them. The identity or
seven of the clerks was fixed by the
handwriting and Mr.. Scrugham, prepar-
atory 10 discharging them. tried to ind
out II they had been paid by any one
10 write false addresses. They all pre-
tended they couldn't understand him
but left as soon as he said they were
discharged, Two OF the remaining four
left OF their own volitiOn and the other
two whose work proved trustworthy re-
mained.
The German verifers found that some
or the German clerks had been tam
pered with, but the blunders they made
were easily corrected.
Relative 20 the report that Samuel
IntermyeF, counsel for the committees
had contributed practically all the
money so far required Mr.. Untermyer
said yesterday.
Il have not contributed any Of my
own money 10 this campaign as Vet. ana
do not believe It VIII be necessary for me
or any member of the committee 10 do
so beyond our fair proportion as policy
holders"
on this same subject Mr.. scrugham
said;
The entire expense OF this move
ment is being met by the body of the
polcyholders."