respectively, and in 1846 our first life insurance company --the Connecticut Mutual.

In both classes of insurance since that day these and other companies have gained rapid headway and now stand, with our Etna Life, Phoenix Mutual and the Travelers and others, as among the stable companies of the United States. And we are all justly proud of their record in Connecticut, and in view of this past I judge as a state we ought to be well informed on insurance matters. And so I think, in your meeting with our citizens, whose hospitality you will share, you will find a general interest in and good knowledge of insurance details.

I bid you welcome, gentlemen, to a state whose record is replete with lofty incentive and deeds-the patriotism and loyalty of whose citizens has always been in evidence in any crucial period of our nation's history, her inhabitants industrious and frugal, to a state where the incentive genius of her people has made the commonwealth a veritable hive of industry and by this genius and enterprise she has given to the world some of the most valuable productions of the age, where learning and religion, going hand in hand, have always been prominent characteristics of her people, so that within the state's borders are a leading university and schools and colleges of wider than state fame, within whose walls are gathered students from every clime and from which are graduated men and women who have and are playing distinguished and prominent parts in life's role-and whom you as citizens of the several states of our Union represented here, can claim many. I bid you welcome to a state that, in the two hundred or more years of her existence, has been advancing in all ways along the best lines and which today, by virtue of her history is holding a position of high respect and honor among her sister states.

The gates of the city and the avenues of the state are open to you and we invite you during your session to enjoy our hospitality to the fullest and freest extent. You will see much, I am sure, in your travel over our state and in your visit to this city which will interest you. Our capitol building is an object of much attention by the visitor, where are housed many objects of interest in our state history, including a reminder of the

first written constitution, which has been taken as a model for similar documents of various states and also adopted as the framework of our national constitution.

The story and location of the Charter Oak will attract you and you will be told of the numerous articles made from the wood of this tree and we shall not dispute with you if you insist that this number is abnormally large as the product of one oak. The "wooden nutmeg" incident has ceased to be attractive. I warn you not to make mention of the "Nutmeg State.' We desire to be and are only heralded as the "Constitution State." We disclaim the truth of the story of the wooden nutmeg. [Laughter.]

The citizens of the state, and particularly the residents of this city will follow the proceedings of this convention with keen interest, and they will profit by your discussion of various subjects which your program indicates. I need not remind you that just at this time some untoward occurrences and conditions of the business you represent have caused uneasiness and distrust, but you will, I am positive, aim to do something in this convention to allay any unrest, and will seek to offer remedies that will inspire confidence and courage. It seems to me that no better opportunity can te afforded or grasped than this meeting to attempt to set to rights anything that may be wrong in the methods of conducting the life insurance business.

By some it is claimed that the cost of maintaining our companies is greater in America than in foreign countries, that there is too strenuous a desire for bigness at the expense of conservatism, and that immense rivalry has led to the adoption of methods that will not stand, and what policyholders desire to be assured of today is that you are proceeding along safe lines, that you are acting solely for the benefit of the insured, and that the investment of the assured is bringing its full and just return, and that none of it is wasted in extravagance, doubtful ventures or unsound predictions. If harmonious action can be taken by your honorable body to reach a better understanding among yourselves and to reassure those whose interests you have in charge, this would be considered a most desirable attainment.

You hold in your keeping a sacred trust for many persons who have, by your persuasion and influence,

placed the better part of their frugal savings in your hands-and this confidence you will not knowingly abuse. As a business man I have the greatest admiration for the versatility, ability and genius which have always made you so successful as individuals in business life and which has been one of the moving causes which have made the magnificent and successful corporations you here represent what they are in stability and magnitude in this country. Nothing but the best talent, foresight and acumen could have made the life insurance business what it is today, in its benefits to mankind, and for this a grateful nation should ever hold you in respect and honor.

Permit me to wish you, for the people of this commonwealth, a most successful and profitable meeting and to indulge the hope that you may all agree at its close that Connecticut has given you a hearty welcome, and that you will as a convention soon honor her again by your presence. [Applause.]

President Dolph-Ladies and gentlemen, the Hartford papers know something of the condition of mind of the average Hartfordians, and it seems to me when we have with us the principal magistrate of this great city, whose citizens rejoice so much in his return from a trip abroad, there is reason why we as visitors should also rejoice. I am under the impression that he returned particularly because he wanted to be with us, and on that account I take much pleasure in introducing Honorable William F. Henney, mayor of Hartford.

Mayor Henney-Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen: It is a pleasure to welcome to Hartford the National Life Underwriters' Association-an association whose work has to do with those interests and obligations which men hold most sacred. It is a sad fact, but an interesting one, and far-reaching in its consequences, that comparatively few men, however earnest and capable, are able to accumulate a competence in a lifetime. To every thinking man this fact is the occasion of profound anxiety-anxiety for the welfare of those near and dear to him, when the stout heart that loves, and the clear head that plans, and the strong arm that shelters and supports, shall be no longer here to endeavor and accomplish in grateful labors of sacrifice and service. To meet this great human need of providing for the loved

and dependent the science of life insurance has been developed. This universal necessity is the excuse for the existence of the great organization which you have the

honor to represent. The true policy contract is never tainted by any element of gambling. The science of life insurance, stripped of technical phraseology, may be defined to be the science of experience. It aims to give to the beneficiaries of the insured that amount at the maturity of the contract which it calls for, and to secure, beyond peradventure, such payment by means of premiums carefully calculated to that end, and to give to the policyholder, who, through misfortune or otherwise becomes unable to continue his payments, that amount in paidup insurance, which his payments, already made, have earned. The crying need of the age is simplicity. The drama of modern life would be immensely uplifted by a return to the old things-to simple living, simple manners, simple laws, and, above all things else, simple honesty. The business man of earlier times had his failings, to be sure, but they were overshadowed by commanding virtues. His manners may have been lacking in elegance, but they had the merit of directness; his head may have sometimes been thick, but his hands and heart were clean.

It is a startling commentary on this industrial age of ours that the man who discharges the duties of a public office according to the ordinary principles of common honesty is lauded as a hero and admired as a moral agent. I say, that the vast funds, held in trust by the life insurance companies the world over have been managed with conspicuous ability and integrity. That this has been the rule almost without exception, is shown by the surprise and shock when the contrary occurs.

No one knows so well as the insurance agent the inestimable value of honest and competent management in the home office of the company he represents. It is his best advertisement of a simple, straightforward, unequivocal contract. The insurance agent acts in a dual ca

pacity-he is called upon to represent the insurer and the insured. I have often wished that a book might be written by a competent and thoughtful agent, setting forth the principles and practice of life insurance from his standpoint. It would do much to popularize life in

surance.

If courts of last resort differ as to the true intent and meaning of a life policy, how can the uninitiated layman be expected to comprehend it? Surely no one can be more competent than the experienced agent, to place before the public, in plain and untechnical language, the nature and conditions of a life insurance contract, its advantages, its safety and its thrift.

I cannot help thinking as I look over this great and representative gathering how true it is that the science of life insurance, like all good things, is the result of growth. In this home city of insurance the struggles and trials of the pioneers in the business are known and remembered. It seems now hardly possible, but it is a fact of history, that right here in this city from one of its pulpits the proposition to take out a life insurance policy was anathematized and declared to be a flying in the face of Providence. The author of that proposition was denounced as irreligious and scandalous.

I stood a few days ago in the Tower of London at the Traitor's Gate. And as I reflected how many of earth's best and noblest had passed under that frowning arch and up those footworn stairs to an ignominious doom, it occurred to me that this world of ours has a very strange way of rewarding its benefactors. The pioneers in life insurance had a very hard time of it. In the language of Scripture they were "destitute, afflicted, tormented." And you gentlemen, and the great organizations you represent, are now enjoying to the full the fruits of their courage, their wisdom, and their fortitude. You do well to associate yourselves together in such a great society as this and to meet from time to time to compare notes and to take counsel together as to the best means of elevating and developing the great science you profess. Shakespeare has well said: "Homekeeping youth have ever homely wits." It does a man good in any profession to step abroad into the world of his fellow men. These experiences are indespensable in such a busy and progressive age as ours.