A LETTER TO POLICYHOLDERS.

Sent out by T. B. Sweeney, of Wheeling, W. Va., and which has produced most satisfactory results:

"If it has ever been suggested to you to exchange your old policy in the Equitable for a new one in another company, this letter will be interesting to you. After reading it also read the enclosed pamphlets entitled 'Old Friends' and 'Inadequate' as the illustrations therein contained are quite apt.

"It is true that the latest policy contract contains some very attractive features over the older forms-but in no case does it justify the assured to give up one of our old policies to take out a new one in any company on earth. Not only do you thereby forfeit your accumulations in dividends; not only do you tear down a partly completed house to begin another which in the end is no better; but you must pay a higher premium at your increased age. I would caution you, therefore, to beware of unscrupulous agents who advise you to give up one of our old policies for one of their new ones. The agent alone profits by the transaction, and the assured in every case is loser. In the event you ever contemplate such a thing write to me first, and I will cheerfully give you further information on the subject, which may be of advantage to you."

DO THEY GUESS AT IT?

I have just been reading in the "World Almanac" the ages of the aggregate population of the United States. It seems to me that the larger number of persons at ages represented by round numbers as 35, 40 and 45 is remarkable. Do some persons give their ages only approximately?

E. D. Monroe.

We don't know. Perhaps it was the female population that approximated their ages, or it may be that the years '55, '60 and '65 were particularly prolific. We know that we personally are rapidly approaching a time when we shall give our age only approximately. We don't know whether the next census taker will get our correct age or not, but we shall think twice before we give it to him.

FROM OVER THE WATER. Munkittrick & Triggs, of London, send the following letter from one of their satisfied policyholders:

"It gives me immense satisfaction and pleasure to receive the result I do to-day, and as regards promptness you cannot be beaten, for it is exactly fifteen years to-day since I commenced this assurance. In point of courtesy and voluntary kind assistance to save your members expense, you certainly, as our American cousins say, 'Take the cake.' For the protection to myself and to my family through these years, and for your consideration at all times I heartily thank you. My son will shortly take his place in your ranks as a member. "J. Knight."

A CLEVER G. D. CIRCULAR. The following attractive letter, issued by one of the most successful of the Society's managers, was productive of many replies. It will be noticed that it draws attention to the investment feature of the Gold Debentures, and does it in a most ingenious way.

Dear Sir.-The Equitable Life Assurance Society authorizes me to quote you the following terms for a block of $5,000 5 per cent Twenty-Year Gold Debentures, principal and interest payable in gold coin at the Mercantile Trust Company, New York City; non-assessable, free from tax and participating in the profit earnings of the Equitable Life. Your subscription will be received on a basis of twenty annual payments of $229.95 each, the first to be due not later than January 28, 1900, bonds to be delivered to your legal representatives upon your death. Should this occur before the twenty payments had all been made the unpaid instalments would be waived.

As stated above, you would be guaranteed your share of all profits earned by the Equitable during the twenty years you were a member of the company. This matter, and a large number of other features in connection with the contract favorable to the subscriber, I shall be glad to take up with you in person fully.

For reasons which I shall explain to you, the above quotations are subject to change without notice, and the Society reserves the right to reject any or all subscriptions.

HOW TO BE AN AGENT.

II. The Value of Sentiment to the Agent.

IMPORTANCE OF CONCENTRATION.

The best motto for the life agent is "This One Thing I Do." That was the motto of a youth who lived near West Point, on the Hudson River. The other day I came across an item about him in the New York Sun. Here it is:

Highland Falls, N. Y.-When Arthur Slausen, aged thirteen, went fishing this afternoon he took with him little Harry Rose, aged eight. An hour two later little Harry's father came upon Slauson as he sat alone on the bank of the Hudson fishing.

or

"Where's Harry?"

"I dunno."

"What has become of him?"

"I dunno."

"When did he leave you?"

"I don't know nothin' about him."

"But you must know. Where's my boy? What have you done with him? Tell me-be quick!" "Well-I shoved him in the river."

It was true! The little boy was dead at the bottom of the Hudson.

"Why did you do it?" somebody asked.
"Because he bothered me," was the retort.
"And you saw him drown?"
"Yep."

"And you did not try to save him?"
"No."

"Why?"

"I was afishin'."

It may be the opinion of some persons that this ardent young fisherman carried his principle too far; but, however that may be, his singleness of purpose teaches a valuable lesson to the life assurance agent, and that not simply on the general principle that a shoemaker should stick to his last, but for a special reason; namely, that the work of the life agent is not material, but spiritual. If he is to succeed it must be through the influence of mind on mindwill against will-confidence against doubt, certainty against uncertainty; enthusiasm against apathy.

WHY SENTIMENT IS IMPORTANT.

The instrument with which the agent achieves his triumphs is himself. If his mind and heart are not attuned to this work he can no more hope to achieve success than the musician can hope to extract sweet strains from a violin that is cracked. But if he represents a company in which he has

pride; if he is in harmony with its management; if there are no jarring discords; if through its influence he is tuned up to concert pitch, then he can discourse sweet music and charm all hearers. Hence the Equitable agent must be imbued with the Equitable spirit, and must train his mind and heart as the athlete trains his body, or as the prima donna cultivates her voice, in order that the means may be adapted to the end for which he strives.

Soon after I joined the Equitable, and when I was yet young and inexperienced, I once listened to a speech made by Mr. Hyde to a body of Equitable agents. He urged upon them the importance of sentiment in their business; he claimed that their success depended on the quality of their sentiment for the company they represented. I did not at the time fully grasp the significance of that statement. "Is it not," said I to myself, "a mere matter of business with the agent? He has certain goods to sell, and if he gets paid for his work is that not all there is to it?" No. In the case of those who represent the Equitable that certainly is not the case, although it may be so with the agents of some companies. To appeal to the sentiment of the agents of certain companies would be like seeking to feed hungry men on stones, or sending them to gather grapes from thorns or figs from thistles. Hence the agents of such companies are to be commiserated. But Mr. Hyde was right as far as the agents of the Equitable are concerned. The Equitable agent has no more valuable possession than this sentiment—his loyalty to his Society: his confidence in the integrity of its management; his appreciation of the reforms it has introduced: his conviction that its administration is just: that its affairs will be conducted in the future, as they have been in the past, in a spirit of the strictest mutuality, for the best interests of its policyholders.

Life assurance companies may be divided into three classes:

for its own sake, who are ready to do anything to beat the Equitable, even if they must ride down and trample upon their own policyholders to accomplish their purpose; who are always crying reform where there is no reform, or practicing liberality to strangers at the expense of their own steadiast members; who disregard principle; who eschew science; who do not scruple to obliterate the old land-marks; who are clever and smart and superficially and temporarily successful, but who are all the time doing injury to their policyholders and to the noble calling of life

assurance.

Now, the Equitable belongs to neither of these classes. It does not belong to the first category, because the companies of that class are neither aggressive nor progressive, and the Equitable is both. It does not belong to the second category, because the Equitable does hold to sound doctrine; it does seek to protect its members; it does aim to do only a sound, wholesome, lasting business. It belongs to a third, and altogether different, class.

It has done more than any other company to develop and improve the practice of modern life assurance.

Have you ever thought what assurance would be to-day if the Equitable had never existed, and if its first President, and its second President, and its third President had never lived? I once had a dream of precisely that situation, and this is what I saw in my vision. The business was restricted to a few dry channels. The policy contract had grown and grown until it had become twenty or thirty pages in length-a technical and obscure legal instrument loaded down with arduous conditions, leaving to the widow and orphan a lawsuit instead of a legacy; resulting in contests and disputes. In the few cases where some return was made to the beneficiaries it was after hope deferred had made the heart utterly sick. No return of the entire reserve at any period was guaranteed. No promise of a full share of surplus profits at any time was made. Every company had its staff of adjusters traveling over the country digging up points to be used in resisting the payment of claims. The whole system had become a snare and a delusion, and was steadily falling into decay.

But this was only a dream. As a matter of fact, during the last forty years improvements and reforms have followed one another in quick succession, and the Equitable has, in nearly every instance, been the company to introduce them. It has cleared the way; it has made the path smooth; and whenever it has penetrated into a country it has there established peace and safety, and the other companies have followed in and shared the advantage. The Equitable has ever been the first company to see the need for reform, and it has had the nerve to act first and alone, and the grit to stand steadfast when assailed for taking the initiative.

new

TRUE ENTERPRISE.

There are a few agents who acknowledge the truth of all this as far as the past is concerned, but who sometimes wonder whether the Equitable has not during recent years ceased to advance-allowing other companies to get ahead of it. Do not permit any such fallacy to dim your vision. Remember that it is one thing to go forward along the right path in the right direction, and another and a very different thing to dash ahead heedlessly over a path that may finally lead you over the cliff. Not all new things are reforms, and if the Equitable is not introducing something new at every turn it is because it has brought the practice of American life assurance to so complete a state that most of the great and far-reaching reforms are things of the past. Consequently when the Equitable calls a halt it is not because it has lost courage, but because it has arrived. Again, if some other company introduces some new thing that tends to evil and disintegration and the Equitable says: “No, our motto is, Not for a day, but for all time," its protest does not indicate a faint heart or diminished enterprise.

PECUNIARY VALUE OF SENTIMENT.

It is a privilege to the agent to be connected with such a company as the Equitable, and the fact that it is such a company draws the staff officers and field officers together as those of no other company can be drawn.

And this is no mean advantage. It "cuts ice." "There's money in it." It means dollars for the agent. Just as the stream

cannot rise above the level of the spring, so the agent cannot instill into the mind of the man he solicits more confidence than he has within himself. With the successful agent it is the transfer of his enthusiasm to the applicant, but the agent cannot have genuine enthusiasm about a company in which he has little confidence himself. Since it is true, therefore, that the agent can place absolute reliance upon the management of the Equitable, that certainty will create in him a burning zeal, and that zeal will have a money value with which he can purchase success. The agent is a sort of automobile, dead and motionless if his storage battery is exhausted, but if he can charge himself with electricity at the Equitable power-house he can take passengers aboard and carry them to their destination.

Such facts as these explain why some men of ability fail to produce adequate results even when they occupy the richest fields; while men of inferior capacity in poorer fields succeed. It is for such reasons that men of moderate attainments often outrun men of exceptional force, and that those who are weak sometimes accomplish more than those who are strong. But when the strongest man, in the most fruitful territory, is overflowing with sentiment about the strongest and best company in the world, then it is that brilliant achievements astonish the people.

Let me recapitulate. The agent's success depends upon himself-upon the condition of his own mind, and its concentration on his work. If he lacks confidence in his company and its policy of management, his mind will not be attuned to his work, and he will not achieve marked success. Hence, it pays for the agent to be identified with such a company as the Equitable, for thereby he will be charged with a mental and spiritual force which will enable him to convince those with whom he talks, and thus constrain them to cast in their lot with us.

A SIGNIFICANT ILLUSTRATION OF THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF SENTIMENT.

And how can the value of a loyal enthusiasm be illustrated more fittingly than by referring to a recent exhibition of sentiment on the part of the agents of the Equitable: an exhibition unparalleled in the history of

life assurance? The officers are proud of their association with a body of such loyal agents as those who at the close of the year 1899 rose as one man to resist an assault upon the fair fame and prosperity of their beloved Society. What a notable uprising it was!

Glance for a moment at the facts:

As the year 1899 came to a close it was known to all the world that the entire agency force of the Society was entering upon a period of transition. The officers of another company reasoned thus: "With the agents of the Equitable it is purely a matter of dollars and cents. They will all be foot-loose at the beginning of the year. They expect to be compensated hereafter On a basis-better for them in the long run, it is true-but less remunerative in the beginning. Hence, as they are likely to look no further than the ends of their own noses, and as they will be in an unsettled and uncertain frame of mind at that time, they can easily be dazzled by offers of immediate advantage; we can readily draw them from their allegiance to the Equitable, and by such a course we shall gain a two-fold advantage: we shall add to our glory and seriously cripple an active competitor."

But they reckoned without their host. They little knew the sentiment of the Equitable's agents. What was the result? First, indignation; then enthusiasm; finally, a welding of those bands of confidence and sympathy which have always bound the Equitable and its officers and its agents together. From that hour a burning zeal has characterized the work of the agents of the Equitable Society, unexampled even in our own history, noted as it is for so many signal triumphs.

And this exhibition of loyalty has been so remarkable that I can liken it only to that spirit of patriotism which so recently thrilled through every fibre of the American people. Do not smile, then, if I quote words that are threadbare. but whose meaning must ever be fresh and inspiring"Breathes there a man with soul so dead Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land?" Breathes there an agent of the Equitable who never has said to himself. "This is my own, my chosen company, of which I am

justly proud, in which I have immovable confidence, under whose banner I shall always serve, in whose successes I rejoice, and whose triumphs will ever be my triumphs?"

If there be in our ranks an agent who is without this spirit of loyalty let him examine himself to see whether he has not failed to attain to a full measure of success, because he has not yet reached a complete development.

THE AGENT'S REWARD IS NOT SIMPLY A CONSCIOUSNESS OF VIRTUE: HE SECURES IN ADDITION A PECUNIARY ADVANTAGE.

And now, as a parting word, remember this:

Virtue may be its own reward, but it is a very pleasant thing if, in addition to that reward we receive a liberal cash dividend. And, if my contention is sound, the agent who is imbued with the true Equitable spirit will receive that dividend, for the agent who has this sentiment will do a larger and a better business; and if he does a larger and a better business he will make more money; and if he makes more money he can extend his field of operations, and his success and prosperity will steadily in

TWO EXTREMES.

One of the most promising agents of the Society in Pittsburg is a youth who has just broken away from the apron strings of his Alma Mater. If he had decided to study a profession instead of beginning to earn a living at once, it would be necessary to support himself and go to considerable expense while training himself for practical life, and after that he would have to begin at the bottom of the ladder. Even if he had decided to go into any ordinary branch of business it is doubtful if he could at the start have found a position to pay him more than a few dollars a week. As a life assurance agent, however, he made in the first month enough to support himself comfortably, and his business has steadily increased from month to month ever since.

Another of the Pittsburg agents is seventy-five years old. He received a prize at the recent convention for a large amount of business transacted. Among the many successful men identified with that agency he is in the first rank, and writes policies for very large amounts.

Here, then, are two extremes. In life assurance, young men of brains and energy can make a living without serving an apprenticeship, and, on the other hand, there is no dead-line which the older men need dread. Whatever Mr. Woods may think of the expediency of killing off old clergymen, he is ever ready to drink a bumper (of Apollinaris) to the long life of all his agents.

TO PAY FOR A HOME.

One of the Society's metropolitan managers, in sending the letter below to the editor, says: The "simple faith" which you literary cusses have instilled into these poor widows-seeking to found homes in the general beneficence of life assurance, is inspiring to say the least.

Dear Sir.-Please let me know if there is any way by which I can take out a policy in your company and then sell it for cash. If so, what would be the cost of a policy, and what would be the discount? I am a widow, in good health, 38 years of age. My object is to raise money to pay for a home.

[We would like to pay for our cottage in the same way.-Er.]