Men's ideals are better than their actions, but not better than themselves. "The thing we long for, that we are for one transcendent moment." If we could divest ourselves of the desire to develop closer fraternal relationship among agents, the whole fabric of the underwriters' associations would be thrown to the ground, and we should lapse into a condition of hatred. Of what avail is a high sense of honor to a man who stoops to mean actions? We rejoice that a loving spirit brought us together and we believe that the power of that spirit will knock off the rough edges and fit us for the higher duties to which our beneficent business beckons us. Only as the ideal becomes practical will the agent fulfil his high mission.

It is not for me to tell you how this can best be accomplished. That delightful duty has been delegated to others, and the judges must have found it difficult indeed to decide which essay was the best. In selecting Mr. Cardozo as the winner, it gives me pleasure, on behalf of Col. Vrooman, to present to his representative, the prize; for he has shown that faithful loyalty to our best conceptions is the only path to practical well doing. [Applause.] The prize was then handed to Mr. Brinkerhoff, who acknowledged its receipt in the following words:

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: I think the president of the New York Association must have

had a great deal of confidence.
in me to trust me with this
money. I don't think any of it
would get back to New York if it
were my own. [Laughter.] And
I think perhaps Mr. Cardozo, if he
has any use for this money in
New York, will be glad he was
not here himself [laughter], but,
[pausing] wait till we get him
in New York. He will have to
pledge himself before he gets this.
[Laughter.] We, of the New York
Association, are very glad to have
had one of our number at last win

I

a prize. I don't believe we ever won a prize before. don't remember it. I would like to have won it myself..

way.

[Laughter.] I haven't any ability that I heard a gentleman making a speech last night. He started in by saying he didn't know how to make a speech unless he had several days in which to prepare it. I couldn't make one even if I had several years. [Laughter.] I don't think I could write an essay if I tried. I am not going to try. I would like to win some of these prizes though. [Great laughter.] I guess you have heard about enough from me. I am pretty poor at this sort of thing, but on behalf of Mr. Cardozo and the New York Association, I thank you.

President Farley-The next order of business will be the presentation of the prize of fifteen dollars in gold offered by Doctor S. L. Fuller of Chicago, for the second best essay on the topic proposed by Col. Vrooman. In the absence of Mr. Percy V. Baldwin of Boston, who was to make the presentation, will Vice-President Appel please step to the platform? This prize having been awarded to a representative of the Western Massachusetts Association, Mr. W. P. Draper, I will ask him to please step to the platform. [Applause.] Gentlemen of the convention, no introduction is necessary. "One blast upon his bugle horn were worth a hundred men.

Mr. Appel-Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: Let me say to you, you are all going to escape the fate predicted by the presiding officer. I have simply been requested to play substitute for our good worthy friend, Mr. Baldwin, who was prevented from being here today, and I have been asked to read for him his paper. Therefore, he being vastly superior to me in expressing worthy thoughts, I gracefully perform the duty for him and for Mr. Draper.

President Farley-The chair informs you, you are still a bugler.

Mr. Appel then read the following address:

The executive committee has granted to me the honor and pleasure of presenting to you the prize made possible by the courtesy and generosity of Dr. Fuller, for the second essay upon the subject already announced. The object of our association work has well been stated to be "the encouragement of fraternity and the discouragement of friction, the cultivation of good cheer and the promotion of good fellowship." To accomplish this end,

we must know one another. Acquaintance outside of mere business routine is essential and it is through the social side of our association work that this acquaintance

becomes possible and is to be cultivated. We must know one another, not only as business competitors, but as men actuated by a common interest with a common result to achieve.

It is essential to the continued welfare of our association movement, that we should recognize this community of interest among our members. We must adopt the idea of President Roosevelt, recently expressed, when he says that the welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of us all. He is the best representative of our profession who seeks to do good to each of us by doing good to all, in other words, whose endeavor is not merely to advance his own selfish ends at the expense of others, but to represent and advance the interests of all true and honest men, conjointly with his own.

It is of such men that we are proud, and it is to assist in the development of such representatives of our business that the association movement was started and is maintained, and although that maintenance entail work, and hard work, and still more work, yet is the end desired and at least partially acomplished, well worthy of and worth, the work and effort made.

A recent writer has finely said:

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'After all, the saddest thing that can happen to a man is to carry no burdens. To be bent under too great a load is bad; to be crushed by it is lamentable; but even in that there are possibilities that are glorious. But to carry no load at all-there is nothing in that. No one seems to arrive at any goal really worth reaching in this world who does not come to it heavy laden."

We need all of fraternity, good cheer, and fellowship that we can get in this work of ours, and it is the opinion of the committee that the ideas which you offer toward a solution of this problem are of such worth as to win for

you the prize which with great pleasure I now present to you.

President Farley-Mr. Draper of the Western Massachusetts Life Underwriters' Association. [Applause.]

Mr. Draper-Mr. President and Delegates to the National Convention: I have been looking this over [indicating the money] and I find the count correct.

[Laughter.] There are three fives, and Mr. Appel has not lost any on the count. This is a very pleasant honor to me, and I realize today why the president of the association has probably deferred this pleasant honor until today. Yesterday we had the "Goulden" oratory and today we have the gold itself. I am reminded somewhat of another reason why this was held until today. There was

a

little conspiracy among the Western Massachusetts delegates to make me spend this last night. [Laughter.] I see they have scattered this morning; they did not dare to sit in a body, but you can hear the chink of my money, like the case of the fellow who used to come around to Delmonico's and stand around there, and at last one of the head waiters came and said, "what are you standing around for?" and he replied "do you want to know?" "Yes, of course, I want to know. You stand around here and you never order anything." "Well," he said, "to tell the truth, the smell of your viands is so delicious and so nutritious and so sustaining that I don't need to indulge in them." [Laughter.] "Well, if that is so," said the waiter, "you ought to pay for that too." And the man reached down in his pocket (and perhaps he had written an essay and just got a prize), and he said, "you hear the chink of my money. "Yes. "Well," he said, "I smell your viands and you hear the chink of my money." [Laughter.]

As I said, this is a very pleasant honor, and I am indebted to Col. Vrooman for the pleasure and also to Dr. Fuller of Chicago. I am also reminded of the reason for my being here. The Western Massachusetts Association

has appeared before you on some of the previous years with essays from some of our star writers, and they have, of course, as you are well aware, carried home the trophies, the beautiful Calef loving cup and the Williams vase, and we have esteemed the honor and the privilege of being the custodians of those very highly honored and prized trophies. We took a little different form this year in our association and instead of delegating the writing of these essays to the special members who we thought were well qualified for this work, we made it an open privilege, so every member of the association had the privilege to write. I wondered why the Western Massachusetts Association did not retain the cup or the vase this year, but quietly I have found out the reason. We have been custodians of the prize for seven years, and in reading the proceedings of last year, you will become thoroughly conversant with the fact that when the presentation speech was made, there seemed to be an undercurrent, not of jealousy but of peculiar_wonderment, perhaps I might say, that the Western Massachusetts Association should take away that cup another year and have it in its possession and custody constantly; and for fear that there should be any wire pulling or any arrangement possible whereby the judges should again give that to Western Massachusetts, I find that the star writers perhaps failed to put in essays and so the prize has gone to the West. And another thing, they said that they were actually afraid to have it in their custody another year; because it really wore upon their nerves to keep it safely and securely during the year. [Laughter.] I think that is one reason why it did not go to Springfield. In this contest, the usual writers did not enter, but it was left for one of the humbler and second stars, perhaps, to take advantage of Col. Vrooman's kind offer, and it was because of our interest in him and to second his interest in the association, and in the thought that perhaps among a number of papers submitted, our paper perhaps would help the other fellow to win, not thinking that we should come into it at all, that we entered the contest. Now, yesterday the air was full of inspiration for a man to make a speech, but today I can simply say one or two words which I think are fitting at this time from first impressions. We know first impressions are