The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-06-29

of the people, and better promotes
their industrial efficiency than any or
ganized charity or pa~ternalistic insti-
tuition fathered by the state or found
ed upon swollen fortunes.
1.-THE. people in every walk of life are
striving to live decently and acquire
a competence for old age. Sound life
insurance is one of the greatest, If not
the greatest, aid to the end at which
they are aiming. Therefore it is reas-
enable, and in fact necessary, that
there should be an intelligent spirit of
cooperation between the people
themselves and their representatives,
.law-making officials and the institu-
ton of insurance as represented by
company officers and the agents. That
legislation should be directed toward
securing better service by standardiz-
ed field representation than toward an
illegitimate, unjust OF overburdensome
taxation.
"A spirit of antagonistic and unin-
telligent dealing is destructive to the
companies and, what is more import
ant, to the interests OF the people
Just as antagonism and lack of iltelli-
gent cooperation Is responsible for
most of the economic and social
problems confronting the American
people.
IF it were cloudy at Atlantic City
today and someone told you 1t would
not be brighter and lighter IL the sun
shone, you would have just aus for
feeling that an offense had been aim
ed at your sense OF reasoning. A cloud
is hanging over the business of life
and instruction through the
medium of educational institutions,
public and private, and by means of
an institutional advertisement VIII
turn on the light.
II want to say to the gentlemen
representing the daily and in
surance press that the life insurance
business is the greatest business in
the world and the least comprehended
and understood as a business ana in
its economic and benef1cent relation to
The life insurance agent
who is properly following his calling
is ministering to humanity in the Ca
Of the clergyman, the doctor.
the educator, and he Is heading off the
charity worker, and his vocation calls
of human nature, and as coun-
selor and adviser is second not even
to the profession Of law. I make this
statement to emphasize the fact that
this movement springs from unbound
enthusiasm and abiding confidence
in the business Of life insurance con-
Quoted as 1t should be with an inteIli-
gent community Of interest between
the people, the companies and the
agents.
"The men who are urging this
are not agitators. and they
recognize the value and necessity of
the closest spirit Of an1ity and Coop
Grafton between the companies on one
side and the agents on the other.
For that reason it is proposed that the
agents Of the country contribute the
funds necessary to inaugurate this
on the same basis that the
were asked to defray the
expenses, namely, 5 cents per 1000 on
the basis of individual production, and
5 cents per 1000 on the basis OF agen-
production.
The ox-Tsam Method.
1.-THE president Of a prominent COM
pany commented recently upon the
lack Of understanding of the people in
to life insurance, mentioning
especially the matter Of policy loans,
recommending that the agents of that
company indulge in q campaign Of ed
ucation. The agents of the country
have been INDUCING In a campaign of
They have improved conditions, but
men of experience In the field recog-
nize that the process Of word of
mouth and shoe leather, unaided by
printers ink, is the ox-team method.
People read today, and if the insur-
ance as an institution cannot and does
not construct institutional reading
matter that will educate the people in
regard to. life insurance in it's many
ramifications, then that is the fault of
the business, and not the fact that the
people do not need educating and that
are not ready to receive ii.
"Did you ever stand in a busy thor
oughfare in a crowded city and see
the automobiles and electric vehicles
rush by and hear the whirring OF the
trolley car, and think of the electric
light and telephone in the buildings
about you, and ave almost an occult
feeling as. IL you were transported to
another planet because Of the modern
inventions and conveyances about
you? Then did you ever make COM
parison in your mind as to the ad-
vancement of field conditions in life
insurance in the last generation?
Notice the expression, Union Of all
forces. All, gentlemen, there Is the
point about which this whole PROPOSE
ton swings. The people have beer
threshed to death with extreme parti-
sanism. No two agents tell them the
same thing and no two companies rec
onmend the same kind Of insurance
as meeting the economic requirements
of the r~.olicyholders. the n who pay
the premiums. For nee in the his
tory of American life insurance, We
have the opportunity to come together
upon a common plane and strike while
the iron Is hot.
"The outlook in It's issue Of last
week very ably put the situation in
the statement :
"Tf this bureau fulfils the function
thus outlined, If it's animating spirit is
not to garner more premiums or write
a greater volume of life insurance, but
to insure-we purposely lay emphasis
on the word insure-more people
against the priyation of death or of
old age, it will perform a great and
useful work.
LET us use our reason and not our
prejudice in deciding this proposition.
Is it not true that the situation de-
mands attention? Is 1t not p~sycholog-
ically sound n reasonable that when
the people read about life insurance
and get the same story In the different
magazines and the daily press, and
learn to recognize that the informa-
ton is institutional and no partisan,
II will have the desired effect?
During the present summer I have
stood for over an hour on more than
one occasion In the hot sun when IL
was 100 degrees in the shade. talking
to an Iowa farmer who did not carry
"a. dollar OF life insurance. This exre-
rience with an Intelligent class Of
farmers more than ever imbued me
with the idea that institutional adver-
Using of life insurance is a practical
.proposition--and it is a pre- eminently
practical proposition-but that expert
ence and close attention to the matter
in other ways for eleven months has
convinced me that it is a duty resting
upon the shoulders of insurance men,