January, 1905?
Trusting you will favor me with a reply, I am,
Very truly, ——
I answered:
Since the chapter which contained the fac-simile of the million-dollar policy was published I have received many letters similar to the above, but have not answered any because I wished to see how far the insurance people would go in this matter. Finding I did not reply to the different attempts they made in their subsidized journals to draw me out, they grew bolder, until the use of this million-dollar policy has become the chief defence of the Big Three companies. I want my readers to think this point over and weigh its significance carefully. In a previous chapter I called attention to the fact that there is nothing to protect the policy-holder from being robbed of the amounts he has invested to insure his family from poverty after his death but the honesty of the men who really control the big insurance companies as absolutely as any of their policy-holders do their personal affairs. If these men are honest, policy-holders in their companies may rest easy for the time being; but if they are dishonest, the policy-holders should call them to account, for these men have it absolutely in their power to make way with the funds of the companies they manage until there will not be a dollar left for policy-holders.
Therefore the one thing for policy-holders to settle, the one vital thing is, Are these men honest, or are they tricksters and liars?
To settle this point they must be weighed in the same way that all other men and women in this world are weighed—by the simple, ordinary standards: Do they lie? Do they trick? Do they cheat?
When I made my charges in my first