The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-04-19
They are in it for what they can get
out of it.
Like dollar A Year"

WV va -
Like dollar A Year"
The last insurance report issued by
the New York State Department of
Insurance says that Charley Schwab,
chairman of the board of directors
Of the Bethlehem Steel, director Of
the Chase National Bank and various
other multi-million dollar corpora
tions, finds time to act as a director
Of the mutual Metropolitan Life
for the ridiculous salary Of $135 per
year.
AT this point Mr.. Fiske takes the
old glory into his talon-like hands
and periodically waves it with the
utter abandon with which he handles
statistics. Says he:
1.-THE Metropolitan owns over
$75,000000 Of the securities Of
light and power companies. When
one Of these companies is unfairly
treated, it is you the policy
holders of the Metropolitan and in
other insurance companies who are
the real governing body of this re-
public who suffer"
You see the memorable logic? You
theoretically own the Metropolitan.
but the Metropolitan actually owns
bonds Of light and power companies.
Therefore it is wrong to vote for
state ownership of public utilities,
says Mr.. Fiske.
Expensive Glory.
1t will be a great relief for the
millions upon millions of weekly life
insurance policyholders to learn that
although they cannot get a loan on
their policies until they have been in
force for ten years, nevertheless, they
are the honored partners Of Fiske,
Schwab, Day, Wiggin and others. The
policyholder may be about to be
evicted. Never mind "The Metro
politan owns over $7500O,OOO of the
securities of light and power com
panies."
At this juncture Mr.. Fiske delivers
himself of a chunk of "Big Four"
propaganda that surely must have
been written with the presidential
tongue in the presidential cheek. 1t
is as follows:
at must be recognized that not
corporate distractions but the
American people are the owners of
the bond capital Of companies
referring to the light and power
companies). Every policyholder is
ipso facto capitalist and an at
tack upon capital investments is an
attack upon the wage earners of
the country"
One is inclined to pause for mo-
ment when reading tripe of this ma
ture and wonder how any adult in his
senses could possibly imagine that
the the American insuring public,
pap-fed though it is, would take the
above statement seriously.
A Tall Story.
/ understand that Haley Fiske's
office is right up in the upper reaches
of the Metropolitan buildings tower.
Can it be that the rarified air up
there has gone to his head? Or is
it that he has found the worker-in-
surer public so gullible that he is
trying to see to what extent he can
go without being openly laughed at?
every policyholder is ipso facto
a capitalist" The reader may not
have been aware of his good fortune
heretofore, but now he has it on the
most reliable authority that he is a
m aYoh IF +ba o,,-,,;,c a1o.. II -
be living in the most degrading
slums, he may be scrimping and saw
ing to make both ends meet. That
means nothing to Haley Fiske, $780,
600 year president of the Metro
politan, if only one has a swindling
weekly payment life insurance policy,
then one is, ipso facto, capitalist.
Every policyholder is not a capital
list, he is merely a customer buying
much needed protection from an in
surance trust at exorbitant prices
on eriminally harsh conditions.
To The Point.
Dizzy with his success at back alley
economics, Mr.. Fiske gets down to
what is known in the best Rotarian
circles as hard tacks:
"Plans for municipal, state or
federal ownership of public utilities
often sound well as presented by
their advocates. But before assent
ing to them, every policyholder
should examine them carefully,
asking himself how political owner
ship can possibly give him results
to compare with those attained
through private ownership"
Mr.. Fiske may not know it, but
across the international boundary the
Ontario Power Commission. which
belongs to the people of Ontario
serves the Canadian power and light
consumer with these necessities at
infinitely cheaper rates than his
American cousin can buy it from pri.
vately owned companies.
To behold the president Of "mu.
tual" life insurance company rantinp
against naturalization in its highest