The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-12-20
Pioneer Life Passes
Another Mile Stone on
High Way to Success
Splendid Spirit Shown at the Big Booster Banquet Employees
and Friends Last Evening "
Men Behind Most Influential and Responsible Entire State
and It's Success Is Assured
Keep North Dakota Money IN North Dakea Is Slogan Of Men
Behind This Splendid Home Organization ~

be distinguished from banker or a
railroad president.
Col. Tom" Hughes,
One of the men who has striven to
make the Pioneer Life Insurance Co.,
what it is as much as anyone else is
Col. Tom" Hughes and programme
of that kind without the sound of his
voice would not have been complete.
Governor elect Hanna evidently knew
this and he called on the colonel, who
is manager of agents and one of the
vice presidents, for a speech when
the first opening presented. Owing to
a belated train, Mr.. Seller, the James
town agent who was to have spoken.
could not be present, so Colonel
Hughes responded instead.
What Colonel Hughes was direct and
to the point. In fact he quite disap-
pointed the tOastmaster. who had gone
to great pains to introduce him, by
not speaking longer. Mr.. Hughes said
1t was the banquet of the agents and
he told a little something of their
work during the last year. He was
heartily applauded.
Hardy Read Speech.
One of the wittiest and most sue
cessful talks Of the evening was that
given by J. P. Hardy, former presi-
dent of the Fargo Commercial club
who responded in place of Pres. Nor
ton Page of that organiza ton who was
Unavoidably absent Mr.. Hardy said
he had so recently been apprised OF
the fact that he was to speak that he
would have been at a, complete loss
as what to say, had not President Page
given him his manuscript to read. So
Mr.. Hardy read Mr.. Pages speech"
with his own interpretations.
I'm missing the president of the
commercial club tonight, you are miss
ing more than page" ne said. You
are missing a whole chapter" MIR.
/ Hardy has fully established rhe
NJ. Depew anyway and last night he
fully lived up to that reputation.
FeekIer Presented Facts.
Although statistIcally, the talk of J.
J. Feckler, secretary of the company,
was interesting, Mr.. Feckler told how,
through the combined efforts and CO.
| operation of the officers the success
! of the company had been made pos
sihle and that the confidence of the
/ policy holders In the companys STA
! bility was largely attributed to the
{ men back of It. Mr.. Feckler stated
! that three years ago the company was
not recognized as a competitive fac
! tor in the insurance field, but after
writing more business in North Da-
kota, for three years consecutiVely,
than any other company operating in
| the state, II made a place for itself
| and the older companies are now meet
| ing them with the charge of being too
young and weak. He showed by re-
ports that the Pioneer Life had more
assets in proportion to the liabilities
than any active company operating in
the state and said that the millions OF
! business on company's books or the
Of he HTYu nv
could not be taken as a measure of it's
strength but that assets in proportion
to liabilities was the only and true
measure of any financial institutions
strength.
The Pioneer Life being a stock
company, he showed that its expenses
were borne by the stockholders and
said that even if such were the case
the Pioneer Life made a splendid
| showing among the companies or
ganized since 1896 and doing more than
| $4,000 of business in the state Of
North Dakota. OF these only threa
were below the Pioneer in percentage
of new premiums used for total first
years expenses, which two others or
| ganized in 1885 exceeded the Pioneer
I Life.
He said further that If age is an
| indication of solvency-why not pat
| ronize New York banks that have a
capital of $25,000,000 and deposits of
250,000,000 and showed that in case
of a panic perhaps money would be
safer in any one of the smallest of our
North Dakota banks. He said that
home banks served home people to bet
ter advantage than those of far off
which was all due tot the men associ-
ated with these institutions and that
the people had confidence in the men
and their management rather than the
age of the bank or the millions that
are deposited in them. Further, he
CONTINUED on Page Six.