banks and trust companies, what would happen? What would
happen to the undigested securities, the insurance companies, the
people's savings, and the policies such as "Buffalo" says he has
purchased for the benefit of his family?

* * * * *

This statement precipitated a perfect flood of letters and queries,
growing more urgent as the month wore on. It was impossible to answer
all of them. I contented myself with replying to the letter of a
prominent Philadelphia church-man, a policy-holder in the New York
Life, who wrote as follows:

PHILADELPHIA, September 23, 1904.

MR. THOMAS W. LAWSON, Boston, Mass.

_My Dear Sir_: I have just finished reading the current
article on "Frenzied Finance," and like "Buffalo" I am
astounded at your statements regarding the "New York Life."
I, too, have a policy in that company and have been led to
believe that I was not only insured in the best and most
conservative company, but that I had a first-class and
perfectly _safe_ investment as well. This particular company
claims that not a dollar of its assets is invested in stocks
of any kind, and yet, to quote from your article:

"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."

Either you are manifestly unfair or else the company is
guilty of deliberate falsehood for the purpose of deceiving
the public.

As a policy-holder and prospective sharer in the surplus of
the "New York Life," I am much interested in knowing whether
its statements in regard to its investments are to be relied
upon.

Will you take just a moment to answer the following
question? Is the "New York Life" telling a falsehood when it
states that not a dollar of its assets is invested in stocks
of any kind?

Very respectfully yours,
---- ----

I replied: The transaction in regard to the New York Security Company
and the New Hampshire Traction stocks was exactly as I set it forth. I
can imagine no one but an absolute idiot who would dare to set it forth
unless he knew he was dealing with facts.

Your high position in the church should, in my opinion, peculiarly fit
you to answer fairly your question, "Is the New York Life telling a
falsehood when it states that not a