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The question was then put, and the motion of Mr. Scott prevailed.

Mr. W. D. Wyman, Chicago, Ill.-Mr. Chairman, I move you that we adopt the resolution.

The motion was seconded, and on the question being put the motion unanimously prevailed.

Mr. J. W. Fitzpatrick, Portland, Me.-I just want to say, gentlemen, that this is the last day of this convention, and we have taken particular care that you should get home at as cheap a rate as possible. Now the railroad man is at the door of this convention hall and desires to give you back your certificates, duly vized, which you will carry to the railroad station in this city and get a ticket home for one-third rate. If you do not go and get those certificates you will get no reduced rate, and remember it is not a pleasant thing to walk home,

particularly if you have ladies with you.

President Dolph-The next business before the convention is the report of the committee on resolutions on the death of Commissioner Linehan. Mr. Childs is chairman.

The following report of the committee was read by Mr. Childs:

Resolved, The National Association of Life Underwriters in annual convention assembled has learned with sorrow of the death of Col. John C. Linehan, insurance commissioner of the State of New Hampshire.

He was a wise and efficient public servant, a genial and loyal friend of the life underwriters' association, standing for all that was good and helpful to the great cause of life insurance.

The secretary is directed to extend to his bereaved family this expression of the high

esteem in which he was held by the life insurance interests of the

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country, and to spread a copy of these minutes on the records of the organization.

Mr. James Yereance, New York City—I move its adoption by a rising vote.

The motion was carried.

President Dolph-The next business before the convention is the report of the committee on the award of prize essays. The secretary will read the report.

The following report was then read by Secretary Clark: Charles E. Ady, Esq.. SEPTEMBER 11, 1905.

Chairman Prize Essay Committee,

DEAR SIR:

National Association of Life Underwriters,

Paxton Block, Omaha, Neb.

The judges of prize essays beg leave to report as follows: The marking of the judges results in giving No. 57 a rating of 95 per cent. and to No. 805 a rating of 913 per cent.; awarding, therefore, first prize to No. 57 and second prize to No. 805.

Nos. 338-2,683, 999 and 6,505 also deserve special mention for excellence, in the opinion of the judges.

In awarding the prizes the following considerations were observed, viz: The contents of the essay, its arrangement, its style. In the matter of arrangement preference was given to essays which were logical over those which exhibited singularities in this regard. In the matter of style preference was given to a plan, direct, simple, forcible style.

The essays submitted were, on the whole, of a high order of merit and very creditable to their authors.

(Signed) MILES M. DAWSON,

EDSON P. RICH,
JAMES W. GLOVER.

President Dolph-You have heard the reading of the report. What is your pleasure regarding it?

Mr. Iredell-I move it be received and adopted, and a vote of thanks be accorded the committee for their labors.

The motion prevailed.

President Dolph-I have to announce that the writer of Essay No. 57 is Mr. Melvin P. Porter, district agent of the National Life Insurance Company, and a member of the Western New York Association. Will the gentleman please come to the platform. The winner of the second prize, No. 805, is Mr. Howard H. Hoyt, western superintendent of agencies of the Equitable Life Insurance So

ciety of Chicago. I think he is not present. I would in making that announcement read the following telegram to the secretary:

Letter received. Sorry impossible to be present convention, Hartford. Hope to receive further advice in due time. H. H. HOYT.

For honorable mention, No. 338-2,683, the writer is Mr. Willard H. Lawton, manager Union Central Life Insurance Company, a member of the Philadelphia Association, who is not present. Also for honorable mention, No. 999, Mr. W. G. Harris, Worcester, Mass., a member of the Central Massachusetts Association.

Also for honorable mention-and in reading these last two names I am reading them in the order in which they appear in the report of the committee-No. 6,505, George M. Herrick, special agent of the Provident Life & Trust Company of Philadelphia, a member of the Chicago Association. Mr. Herrick is not present.

The next business being the presentation of these cups I would ask that some one suggest a representative of the Chicago Association to take the place of Mr. Hoyt.

Mr. Wyman-Mr. Chairman, I suggest Mr. Baker, president of the Chicago Association.

President Dolph-Will Mr. Baker please come to the platform? Will Messrs. McIntire and Durham come to the platform?

The gentlemen named took their seats on the platform and President Dolph continued:

I will announce, ladies and gentlemen, that the Calef loving cup will be presented by the Hon. William McIntire of the Baltimore Association. [Applause.]

Mr. McIntire-Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Mr. Porter: In the past sixteen years there have been many changes in the condition of all matters pertaining to business in this great republic. There was a time when it was only a question as to the individual so far as to occupying the relative positions in this country. Since then radical changes have come about. Men are now selected for their character, for their standing, for their ability to accomplish results in an intelligent and manly way. The government of the United States, as you are well aware, has found it necessary to adopt a system by which they are assured capable, honest and

efficient public servants. Again, the great railroads of the country found that it was necessary to disregard favoritism and influence, and substitute as a basis of employment character and ability. So it seems to have been

in the mind of our dear old friend Ben Calef. He saw sixteen years ago that the reckless and unintelligent manner of conducting our business, with the consequent ill feeling engendered between the representatives of one company against another, must some day be eradicated so that we may keep in touch with the procession of higher ideas and better manhood, and it was that thought which prompted his presentation of this cup that I am about to hand to you today. In a little town in Switzerland, reremoved from all the bustle and tumult of the world, there is erected a crude monument, and on visiting that place, not more than five hundred souls at the most, you ask why that structure? Why that crude monument? If you insist upon an answer, you will be told, as I was, that it was erected to the memory of an old man who lived in the town. When asked why to this old man, the reply was: "Because he taught the little children of this town how to pray.' So it was with good old Ben Calef. He taught us a higher ambition, and he presented to us a medium which would help us to forget the unbusinesslike methods of the past, and to elevate our calling to a higher plane.

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The subject of your essay, Mr. Porter, is indeed a most touching one, and important: Loyalty. Your committee selected well, Mr. Chairman. It is often asked what word in the English language, or portrayed anywhere in the human language is of the greatest import. All that is good, or bad in life has for its sustenance loyalty to its purpose. It matters not where you find it; one to succeed must be loyal at the beginning and to the end. Loyal, not only to corporations; loyal, not only to individuals, but for the better purposes in life; loyalty to manhood, to character and loyalty to one's self. When you

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stand in the Invalides in Paris, and view the tomb of the great Napoleon, you ask: "Why the greatness of this man? Why should he have conquered half the world? Why, today, is he known and remembered by every civilized and intelligent man and woman in the land?" It was not Napoleon himself, but it was the loyalty of those whom he knew so well how to gain and retain. So it is in our walks of life. Loyalty should be our symbol, our watchword and our purpose. Loyalty, I am happy to say, to a purpose has been taught in this organization since it was first organized in Boston; loyalty has maintained this organization, and loyalty will continue to maintain it. Loyalty on the battle field; loyalty to purpose; loyalty to the individual. Everything consists in loyalty, that makes for manhood and success in this life. Why, but this morning you have demonstrated your loyalty to this organization, to its purposes and its character. That loyalty will continue to make this organization the success it is, and the subject of commendation by every man in the insurance business whether he be president of the company or a humble agent in the backwoods of our country.

Upon you, Mr. Porter, the distinction has fallen that you receive this cup, not from our hands but from those of Major Calef. This association congratulates you, sir, and I, too, congratulate you. [Applause.]

Mr. Porter-Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I highly appreciate the honor which you confer upon me, and I gratefully receive on behalf of the Buffalo Association, this memorial which has meant so much through all these years of this association Though I confess I feel myself very much in the position of a man who called on a friend who had recently hired as a doorkeeper a Chinaman named Chin Ling. Chin Ling's mistress had instructed him in the performance of his duties. She had gone through the ceremony of calling and putting a card on the tray, and she always used the same card. Shortly after a caller came and presented his card. Chin Ling looked at the card and saw that the name was different from that on the one with which he had been trained, and he said to the caller "You go hellee; you no got likee ticket." [Laughter.] In knocking at the door of this association I feel like I have not a "likee ticket," having

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