KEEPING BUSINESS ON THE BOOKS. F. P. Chapin, of the Toledo Agency, is a firm believer in looking after business once secured and keeping it upon the books. He seems to feel that old friends are better than new ventures, and that old friends will always help and be instrumental in swelling new business.

His success in building up the Toledo Agency has been very gratifying and there are few agencies showing an equal percentage of business that stays. When he took charge of the Toledo field, it was one of the places in the United States where the Equitable was comparatively unknown.

He advertises freely, and here is a letter which he sends to all new policyholders about thirty days before their second annual payment comes due. These are written, and so have the value of a personal appeal, instead of being printed circulars or mimeograph copies, which are often so mechanical in appearance as to destroy their greatest good.

"You have undoubtedly received notice of your premium due at this office on April 25th upon your policy in the Equitable Life. This being your second premium, I thought it best to write you so that even if the official notice always sent from the home office fails to reach you, you will have proper notice of the time and amount of your payment. You will receive the "Equitable Record" hereafter, a little publication (magazine form), which is issued quarterly by the Equitable Society and mailed to policyholders, and which will enable you to learn all about the company you are assured in, and which is the strongest in the world.

Sometimes agents of competing companies attempt to dissatisfy men with the policies they hold. Some such may try to induce you to throw up your policy, lose what you have already paid and take another policy with them. Their whole effort is to secure commissions upon the first year's premium. There is no company in the world that can write you a better policy than can the Equitable, and if for any reason you feel that you have selected the wrong form of policy, the Equitable will usually allow you to change it before your second premium is paid. I trust you will feel at perfect liberty to address me upon this or any other subject at any time.

As time passes all men realize that their assurance is one of their best assets, and they desire to keep it sacred and secure. The motto of the Equitable has always been: "Not for a day, but for all time," and a strict regard for this principle by its officers in the conduct and management of its growth has made it without doubt the strongest, safest and best company in the world, with assets of two hundred and eighty million dollars."

ARCHIBALD C. HAYNES.

Archibald C. Haynes is so well known to all the representatives of the Society that it is hardly necessary to remark upon his achievements in the life assurance field. We give his portrait, which speaks for itself. Why say that Archy Haynes is handsome and agreeable, full of magnetism, surcharged with electricity, an impassioned speaker, one of the most successful canvassers and agency organizers that the Equitable has developed. His willingness to counsel and assist his fellow-workers has been a source of gratification both to them and the officers of the Society. His versatility is such that he has materially aided many of his fellowmanagers by suggestions as to the best way in which they can enthuse and help the individual members of their agencies.

The first man to carry $100,000 in the Equitable was Hamilton Disston, one of Mr. Haynes's policyholders. Subsequently Mr. Haynes increased Mr. Disston's assurance to $1,000,000, this, of course, being placed in several companies.

YOU GO, MY DEAR.

Cinjurer-I will ask some lady in the company to step on the stage and stand in this cabinet. I will then close the door. When I open it again the lady will have vanished without leaving any trace behind. Man in Front Seat (to his wife)-You go up, my dear.

A CHANGE SUGGESTED.

To the Editor of the News:

There is only one thing I don't like about your paper, and that is its name. It is essentially commonplace. I hope you will give me credit for tact in approaching this question so delicately, for I want to put you into a good humor, so as to induce you to accept my views.

Is it true that somebody suggested the name "Equitable Search-Light," and that you discarded it because it was too late? You have often told me that it is never too late to mend (where there is no heart murmur or albumen), and so I want to know why you do not change the name of our paper to "The Equitable Search-Light" and put one of your light-house pictures at the head of the page? Joseph Bowes.

[The mild suggestion so timidly and gracefully put by our esteemed Baltimore correspondent may or may not be worth considering. We are willing to put the question to a vote, and if the managers and agents in the United States will take the trouble to send in their votes to the editor of the Equitable News, before May 1, we hereby agree that if more than half the agents vote and if a majority of the votes cast are in favor of "The Equitable Search-Light," we will, with the number of January 1st, 1901, if not before, change the name of this paper. Otherwise it will remain as it is. There!—ED.]

IT DOESN'T ALWAYS FOLLOW THAT YOU ARE GOING TO BE LONG Lived BECAUSE ALL YOUR FAMILY WERE. An excuse that a life assurance agent often hears is: "Oh, I don't need to assure now. I come from a long-lived family, and it isn't necessary for me to take out assurance for years yet." It doesn't always follow, however, that he is correct in his premises. For example, the other day the Society declined to accept a risk whose family history was as follows:

EXTRACTS FROM OFFICIAL CIRCULARS.

It has been our aim in the past to offer to the public assurance based upon correct business and mathematical principles, and to have it free of any tricks, evasions or equivocations, and we are determined not to be diverted from this by any thoughtless or seemingly unscrupulous competitors.

As I have said to you at times in the past, so long as envy loves a shining mark will the Equitable be the target for the arrows of its rivals and enemies.

The work of the coming year is before you. If you have the grit and the backbone to overcome and rise superior to all the obstacles that obstruct your pathway; the tact and good sense to make the most of all the facilities in your hands; the system and ability to put every part of your field in the most perfect order; the power to work when other men give up, until you get that "second wind" and feel that "second strength" which knows no fatigue; if you have these qualities, which I know so many of you possess in an eminent degree, coupled with the determination to outdo all your previous efforts, you will be able to write your part, and more than your part, of new business for the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States in the year 1890.

From a circular of Henry B. Hyde, dated December 25, 1889.

THE GOLD DEBENTURES. The action which has just been taken by Congress in directing the refunding of certain United States bonds on the basis of 2 per cent., and the avidity with which the banks have seized upon these refunded bonds, even at this rate of interest, is another and most significant illustration of the fact that investors will have to content themselves in the future with very much lower interest rates than they have enjoyed in the past.

In this same connection it is to be noted that the Canadian Parliament at its last session passed a law requiring life assurance companies doing business in that country to value their reserves on a 31⁄2 per cent. basis. And the action of these two governments, representing, as they do practically, all the great moneyed interests of the western hemisphere, which are probably the largest in the world, is the more remarkable because it follows so promptly the opinions recently expressed by a large number of the most prominent financiers in this country, to the effect that lower returns upon investments must certainly be counted upon hereafter. These opinions the Society collated at the time of their expression and printed for general circulation.

With the conditions thus pointed out to face in the making of future investments, what investor would not jump at an opportunity to obtain at par a 5 per cent investment as secure as a Government Bond and at the same time possessing advantages which no Government Bond ever possessed? Yet an investment of precisely this kind is to-day within reach not only of the wealthy capitalist with large sums of money to place, but of the smaller investor who is seeking the best means of preserving to himself the results of his labors.

Startling as this statement may seem, it is, nevertheless, most emphatically true, and, moreover, is within the reach of everyone who reads this article.

This investment is the Equitable's Gold Debenture Endowment. Here is a security of the most approved and substantial character, bearing interest at the rate of 5 per cent for twenty years; principal and interest both payable in gold coin; as safe as a Government Bond, and with this exceed

ingly important advantage, that where the purchaser of Government Bonds must pay for them in one lump sum, these debentures are purchased by fifteen or twenty equal annual payments.

Think of the advantages possessed by a man who has in his safe an investment of this kind for $50,000, $100,000 or $200,000, backed by such an organization as the Equitable, and guaranteeing a twenty-year income at a rate now becoming more and more difficult to realize on safe securities. Even in the time of a panic he could afford to smile at the vagaries of the stock market, or snap his fingers at depreciations in real estate. And, besides all this, as has already been intimated, he will find when he has made the number of payments necessary to complete his purchase that instead of having had to pay a premium above par for his investment, the cost will be reduced by a dividend then to be declared by the Society, which will be paid to him in cash in gold coin, thus materially lessening the price paid for his securities.

In addition to this, these debentures possess another advantage which no other forms of securities present; an advantage which is one of the strongest points in their favor; if the investor dies before all his payments are made, the future payments are immediately canceled and the debentures become at once the property of his estate without further expense.

But it would take too long to tell all the benefits to be derived from an investment in these debentures, although one or two of them may be briefly hinted at.

Government Bonds, even if they have to be bought at a premium, can also be sold at a premium. So can debentures. Government Bonds can be used as collateral for loans. So can these debentures; and more than that, if while paying for his debentures in instalments, the investor should need assistance in making further payments, he can borrow from the Society for that purpose after five annual payments have been made.

Ought not this to be an easy security to sell? S. S. McC.

"For age and want, save while we may, No morning sun lasts the whole day." FRANKLIN.

Moral-Take an endowment policy in

the Equitable.

THE BEST ADVERTISEMENT. SUGGESTIONS FROM AN AGENT.

To the Editor of the News:

Advertising is an art and also a science. Can you not give your readers good advice about advertising, and can you not obtain from many of the bright agents of the Equitable good points for publication?

To frame a good life assurance advertisement requires a very high order of talent. It is as easy as rolling off a log to write good advertisements for patent medicines and baking powders and ginger snaps and pianos and sewing machines, because these are things which people buy voluntarily. All you have to do is to steer the purchaser in the right direction. With life assurance it is altogether different. Few men buy it voluntarily; hence the majority of the life assurance advertisements are worthless. The advertising that pays, therefore, is that which fixes the name of a particular company firmly in the memory of the people so that when the agent of that company solicits business, a sympathetic chord will be struck.

Why don't you offer a prize to the Equitable agent who will submit the best Equitable advertisement? I should like to enter such a competition myself, although I have not as yet tried to solve the problem.

In my estimation the two great difficulties are, first, the form of advertisement, and second, the question of expense. The best form in the world will accomplish nothing unless it is printed; and many a good form may do more harm than good because it will cost more than it is worth to give it sufficient publicity to make it serve its end. Take the Rock of Gibraltar, for example, I doubt if any better life assurance advertisement has ever been devised; but it would never have done much good if that symbol had not been employed in every advertisement published by the company using it, and if that company had not spent thousands of dollars in impressing it upon the minds of the people, and keeping it before their eyes day in and day out, year in and year out, all over the country. I should like very much to know, therefore, whether the enormous amount of money which must have been spent in this advertising has paid better than if the

money had been saved, or if it had been used in some other way. In short, whether it has cost more than it has come to or not.

You may print this letter if you see fit, but, as I do not wish you to print my name, I subscribe myself simply,

An Equitable Agent. [Good! Now let us carry out this sugges tion.-ED.]

THE BACHELOR'S TOAST.

I drink to the man who ne'er woos-aye, nor weds

The man who sews buttons and mendsThe man who can live without women around; Here's joy to my bachelor friends!

He has none to keep but himself-happy man!
And always enough to pay bills!

He gives to the grocer a merry ha-ha!
And squanders no shekels on frills.

So here's to the bachelor-blessed is he,
Who has none to keep but himself-
The man who smiles grimly while Cupid puts back
His worn and frayed goods on their shelf.
-Ohio State Journal.

[Does such a man need life assurance? Of course! He doesn't need a straight life or a continuous instalment, but he does need a Gold Bond or a deferred dividend Endowment.-ED.]

BILL NYE ON LIFE ASSURANCE. In these days of dynamite and swiftchanging presidential administrations, and dark tunnels through which an engineer goes groping his way at twenty-five miles per hour; these days of tumbling signs of the times, and tipsy telegraph poles, live wires and dead repairers, these days when the politician and the deadly bridge policeman with his pull, lie down together (under the influence of the same stimulant), these days when death lurks in the air we breathe, the earth we tread, the food we eat, the water-the water we bathe inI say it behooves us to look well to our assurance and our future state, and I take pleasure in certifying and saying to whom these presents may come, that since I became fully assured, my health has improved so much that it is a subject for profound congratulation on my own part, and the deepest disgust, on the part of those who would naturally inherit my vast wealth.

HOW TO SELL ASSURANCE.

II. Surplus.

What is the surplus of a life company? Is it a strange, weird, mysterious, abstruse mathematical quantity about which there must be all sorts of doubts and uncertainties, and the true significance of which can only be gathered after profound research, and only by those who have rare technical scientific knowledge? It would seem so from the talk with which some people connected with certain life companies favor the public.

But, as a matter of fact, the surplus of a life company is precisely what the surplus of any individual is. It is nothing more nor less than the money, or property, which the company holds after making provision for all its obligations. It is, therefore, the most important part of its holdings. It measures its wealth, its strength, the quality of its management, and its success.

Recently a trust company and a large banking firm in New York closed their doors. Both the company and the firm owned property worth millions, but their obligations ran into the millions also, and exceeded their assets. In other words, they had ceased to be wealthy because they lacked surplus.

The man who puts all his savings into a house valued at $20,000 is not worth that sum if there is a mortgage on the house of $15,000. His wealth is represented by his surplus the difference between the value of the house and the amount of the mortgage; namely, $5,000.

Do not let interested people throw dust in your eyes. It is the old fable of the fox who sneered at tails. The people who have sought to create confusion in the minds of the public regarding the surplus of the Equitable are those who are interested in companies having less strength and less wealth-that is to say, less surplus.

"But," some one says, "doesn't the surplus of a life company differ from the surplus of a business firm or an individual? Is it not, in fact, a liability?"

Let us discuss that proposition: The surplus of a company, whose business like that of the Equitable is conducted on the mutual plan, is in a certain sense a liability.

It is, so to speak, an item of liability which the company is responsible for to those inside the organization. This is essentially true of such a company as the Equitable, for the members of the Societythe policyholders-constitute the company. The surplus, therefore, measures their wealth-the surplus fund from which their dividends are drawn. And this fund is invested and reinvested from day to day and from year to year for their further enrichment. Moreover, it measures the value of the guarantees they collectively make to one another, under the policy-contract held by each member.

The surplus of the Equitable is in this sense a liability if you please, and no agent of the Society need hesitate to acknowledge the fact, because that acknowledgement will not give the enemies of the Society a crumb of consolation, for it is a liability of an altogether different character from all the other liabilities of the company. Take any other item of indebtedness; the only way to get rid of it is by paying it. But if the whole of this surplus should be annihilated, that would not impair the solvency of the company. Why? Because all the other liabilities of the company are backed by assets sufficient to discharge them to the uttermost farthing. And if the entire surplus should be annihilated, it is even conceivable that the company could still continue to prosper; might build up new strength; might gradually accumulate a new surplus, and again begin to pay dividends to policyholders from that new accumulation. But the only reason that surplus could thus be annihilated without disaster would be that it is surplus and not that portion of the assets necessary to provide for the actual obligations of the company.

A tree is known by its fruits, and it makes mighty little difference what surplus is called if it exists. It is to a life company the most valuable thing in the world. It is its wealth, its strength, its means of doing the greatest good to the greatest number. Surplus is surplus. Call it "surplus liabilities" or "security-dividend fund," or "dividend reserve," or what you will. What it is called matters not; what it is is all important.

Some companies divide their surplus up