Evening star., 1939-02-13
Metropolitan Life
Vote Charge Denied
By Manager Here
Testimony Described as
Part Of Campaign by
C.I. O. Members

Vincent Saccardi, manager of the
Washington Office of the Metropoli-
tan Life Insurance Co., today We
hemently denied charges of election
Justification by company agents and
asserted such charges we're part of
a ridiculous" campaign by members
Of c. I. O. union to discredit the
company management.
He referred to testimony before
the Monopoly Committee last week
by IL agents of the company in other
ofices, who said 1t was common prac-
tice for agents to forge the names
of policyholders to ballots for elec-
ton Of directors.
THAT never has been the practice
and we are prepared to prove it" Mr..
Saccardi said. II consider that testi-
mony just another high pressure
method of attempting to stampede
the officers of the company into
making concessions to G. I. O..
union"
Mr.. Saccardi said all of the agents
who had testified before the COM
mittee were members of c. I. O.
union active in the insurance field.
He added that Chairman Douglas of
the Securities and Exchange Com
mission, which presented the testi-
mony, mo doubt was well aware" of
this membership and that surely
should have aroused his suspicious
Before making the statement he did,
he should have determined from
other sources if there was. any
foundation to the charges"
Retraction Urged.
Mr.. Douglas told reporters after
the committee adjourned Friday
that the evidence presented was
'fn my opinion, sufficient to estab-
ish the existence of a widespread
custom of tampering with ballots"
I'VE feel that he should imme-
diately retract this statement" Mr..
Saccardi said, "as we feel this is a
direct attack upon the integrity
and character of the company
agents and its assistant managers"
In support Of his denial of the
forgery" charges, Mr.. Saccardi in
troduced a reporter from The Star
to more than half of the company's
200 agents here, all of whom denied
they ever had heard of the alleged
practice until they read the testi-
mony before the Monopoly Com
mittee.
G. w. Kennedy, ST., who said he
had worked with Metropolitan for
80 years, said the charges were
ridiculous" He added that there
never had been any pressure by the
management to bring in signed bal
lots for the biennial elections of
directors, and he could see no rea-
son for the idea Of forging policy
holders name to a ballot even oc-
curing to an agent.
Signatures Declared No Trouble.
All the agents interviewed said
they never had experienced trouble
in getting policyholders to sign the
ballots after explaining to them what
the election was for. They obtained
the signatures during regular COL
lection calls upon policyholders, so
that the balloting involved practi-
cally no extra work, the agents said.
Among the agents answering the
forgery charges were D. I. Coakley,
who has been with the company
81 years; G. F. Daugherty, an en-
ploye for % years: E. E. Beall, for
% years; George E. Hynson, for 10
years, and several who had worked
in New Jersey, New York, Pennsyl-
vania, Maryland, Virginia and other
offices before coming to Washing
ton.
Most of the local agents said they
we're eager to present their side of
the case to the Monopoly Commit
tee. Mr.. Saccardi said thousands of
kilograms from agents all over the
country were pouring in to the COM
mittee, protesting the procedure and
demanding an opportunity to refute
last weeks testimony.
1t was uncertain whether the COM
pany will be given an immediate
hearing. The committee procedure
30 far has been to hear only evidence
presented by Government agencies.
It cut of further evidence the S.
e. G. was ready to present about
the alleged forgery practice last
week on grounds that 1t would be
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