, that my
assertion caused consternation such as would occur in a Chinese temple
if some rough intruder struck the idol, before whom a congregation was
worshipping, with a stone. At once an avalanche of letters--protests,
demands for further facts, anxious appeals from policy-holders--poured
in upon me, and frankly I took up the subject, giving my readers exactly
what they desired.

NEW HAMPSHIRE TRACTION

In order that the controversy may be unfolded in the manner in which it
was first given to the public, I give here the first letter of the
series, and then follow directly along with those passages from
succeeding numbers that are devoted to the subject:

BUFFALO, N. Y., August 25, 1904.

MR. THOMAS W. LAWSON,
Boston, Mass.

_Dear Sir_: I have been astounded beyond measure at the
revelations you make in your second article regarding the
New York Life Insurance Company, because I have two policies
in that concern which I am keeping up for the protection of
my family. My confidence in the company has been shaken by
your revelations, and I wonder if much more can be said.
Perhaps it is best for clean life insurance to tell all
now--the rest will be the better for it. Do you really
believe the officers of the company personally profited from
using the "cash on hand" of the company? Go on in your
exposure; you are doing a meritorious work, and we poor
devils, plodders, will never cease to thank you for your
work. Should like to have you intimate if anything more
about New York Life is coming.

Yours truly,
---- ----

To this I replied: I desire to emphasize that the New York Life
Insurance Company, which I cited, is no different from the Equitable and
the Mutual Life, or many of the other large companies. They are links in
the chain of the "System"--necessary links in the device by which
dollars are "made," by which the savings of the people are sucked from
the people to the "System," the "Private Things."

I will, later in my story, dwell upon this tremendous phase of this
stupendous question, and will only say at the present time, as an answer
to such questions as "Buffalo's": The insurance companies use the
billions the people have placed with them to buy or create banks and
trust companies, the stocks of which are a large part of their assets.
They then use these banks and trust companies, which exist becau