The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1909-07-30

the rating connneny. This Is what i!
making the tro6ble. these independent
are thorn ia the side Of the combine
and they have gone to work to drive
them out of the state and destroy the
competition which the laws Of the state
entitle our people to.
The plan adopted 10 to force the Local
lAGencies to cease to write insurance
for the Non Board or independent Com
panies, and then destroy the confidence
of the public in the said Independent or
Non Board Companies. SO that if they
| get other agents the people will be
afraid of them.
As proof, agreat number of field men
Of the combine or trust swooped down
on Tupelo about the middle of June
and brought such pressure to bear on
our local agencies as made them cut out
the independent or Non Board Compan-
les or such of them as they thought
they could drive out.
happen to know in the largest agen
cy in this town the agent was very
much opposed to being coerced into this
movement and resisted it for sometime,
but they came so streng that he reluc-
tantly yielded to their de mands. am
sorry he did and think he made great
mistake.
The Non Board Companies then estab-
lished another agency to write their
policies, they have put down the rate
very much. The scheme resorted to
to meet this is now being persistently
worked to destroy confidence in the Non
Board Companies.
These same Non poa.'d Companies
were good enough to write our policies
in before the combine swo0ped down
on Tupelo.
Take my own case. The same local
agency has always written my policies.
have never examined or asked
what companies they we're in. have
always been assured by the agency that
l Twas being well taken care of. l. find
now, that some of my policies were in
the very companies that the agency
was forced by the combine to abandon
and that agency is now warning the
people against and denouncing them as
Buzzard Companies. This is a little
too transparent. If these companies
are good enough for our policies to be
written in before the combine attempt
I'd to force them out, they are good
enough for them to bewritten in to-day.
He did not give them up because they
were not good companies, but he gave
them up because the combine demanded
i. and becaus he did this they are now
called Buzzard Companies and Back
Door Sneaks.
/ have not . particle Of interest in
any insurance company or any insur-
ance agency, have the kindest of
feeling and the best of wishes for the
old agencies in this town. l am as sor-
ry as any bodylcan be that they per-
mitted themselves to be buil-dozed into
casting out the independent companies.
Every Insurance Company doing bus
mess in this state, whether Board or
Non Board, Regular or Independent,
before they can do business In this state
must satisfy the Commissioner of this
state that they are good for any losses
they sustain and the people who use
their policies will be protected. That
is his business. Some Of the Beard
Companies are weaker finantially l
think than any Non Board Company do
ing business in the 4tate.
The people in this state are entitled
to competition in btrchasinG insurance
just as they haye to submit to compe-
ton in the things they makel and sell.
The law attempts to secure them this
right, an ! as long as good independent