Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1912-02-06
AL Things Human Have an End
Have Reached the Limit and
We now Come to the
Precipice
IT WAS CERTAIN TO COME
Woodmen Plan to Add Young Men
to Take Place Of Old Ones
Reaches the End.

The plan of the Modern Woodmen
of America to add five or ten young
men to the lodge for every one who
is getting to be an old man, has
reached the limit and we now have
come to the precipice, and can look
over into the bottomless pit. 1t was
certain to come. The hot air ora
tory with which we have been
regaled at all our public meetings
has struck blizzard and cooled off.
1t has always been the old idea
of getting something for nothing.
The Aladdin's Lamp was not more
wonderful than the transformation
that the fraternal idea was to have
wrought in the. financial world. The
idea Of getting thousand dollars at
death for a few hundred that had
been paid in during life seems now
to have been chimerical, but it work
ed for a score of years. and with
some is working yet. A man that
can do that and keep business going
Is a wonder and the business world
has great need Of him.
But now we have reached the
cul-de-sac, and only a yawning
abyss confronts us. Like a ship
wreck at sea, nothing is left for us
hut jump into the ocean and be lost
to;sight and sense.
I'VE have burned the candle at
both ends. We have paid In too lit
tie and paid out too much in SAL
aries and expense Of administration.
And in the end we have had demon
strated to us, what we all know,
that there is no insurance in the
long run but old line insurance. AS
long as many more join than die,
so long fraternal insurance society
can go on and appear safe and
sound, but when 20 or 25 years OF
that kind of management has been
in operation, the fatal fact becomes
evident that the chance OF those
who are by Providence permitted to
live many years Ion ger, will find
that their portion at death will be
q minus quantity.
Fraternal insurance is like the
tulip. blossoms early and challenges
the eye. but 1t also. like the tulip,
dies early, and leaves the great ma
jority holding the sack and despoil-
ed OF hope.
The writer has been paying in to
the Woodman camp his dues for
twenty-five years and is now past
the insurable age. The only way to
get anything out OF fraternal in
surance company is to die early, for
they are all destined TO go upon the
rock of dissolution in about 25
years. Meanwhile we have paid a
lot OF death claims and done world
OF good no doubt, but the idea of
permanancy has faded away like the
rainbow as the clouds have rolled
by.
The young men especially should
get into some permanent insurance
company Of the old line order and
understand that the idea OF getting
out Of a fraternal Insurance COM
pany a thousand dollars after pay
ing In only a few hundred, and per-
haps less than that, Is q fallacy and
II q part OF q scheme that is rotten
at the core.
For years / have foreseen all this
and talked it over with friends. but
held my place, for dislike to be a
knocker, especially when so many
were buoyant with hope and dwelt
in an atmosphere Of great expecta-
tions. But the fact is patent to any
person who thinks twice a week,
that the end was fast approaching
and that a dissolution OF all frater-
nal insurance. which Is also fraudu-
lent insurance, must inevitably
come. and as twenty-five years of
existence is approached, that the fin-
al day of reckoning Is at hand.
It Is no use to have raised our
hand In restraint Of the big oficials
who are In the saddle-they have