President Farley-Now, the next suggestion, Mr. Chair

man?

Mr. Woodman-The next recommendation was that the local associations incorporate in their By-Laws a section requiring the selection of delegates to the National convention to be made at least two months before the date for the annual convention, the purpose being to avoid the trouble which comes from withholding from the secretary of the National Association the names of delegates until the last moment. It interferes very materially with the preparation for the convention, and it would seem that some uniformity of practice in this respect would be of advantage all around.

President Farley-Gentlemen, the suggestion of the executive committee is that no less than two months in advance of the date of the convention, the local associations appoint or elect the delegates thereto and furnish the list of names to the secretary of the National Association.

Mr. Cochran-I move the adoption of that recommendation.

The motion was seconded and carried.

Mr. Savage-Mr. President, before that motion was carried it struck me as being possibly a little unseemly for a member of the Baltimore Association to make any remarks on that point, but now that it is already carried, I might state that on October 12 we had heard from thirty associations. Nearly three weeks prior to that date we wrote a letter to the secretary of each local association, asking him to please send a list of the delegates, and on October 12 we had heard from thirty, and there are six that have not replied yet. Now, that sort of thing is a little embarrassing to the local association, and speaking on behalf of our local association, I am delighted that that motion has been carried.

President Farley-Well, the other six is a case of "also ran." The next suggestion, Mr. Woodman?

Mr. Woodman-The next recommendation, Mr. President, is as follows, in the shape of an amendment to Article IV of the By-Laws, "That the ex-presidents of the National Association shall be delegates at large at all annual conventions, with the privilege of the floor, and shall also have the right to vote with the delegates of

their respective associations, provided such associations are members of the National body."

President Farley-Gentlemen, the next suggestion is, that the ex-presidents of the association, who are exofficio life members of the executive committee, be also made delegates at large with their respective organizations. In view of this being an amendment to the Constitution, it is necessary that we go on record with an affirmative vote of two-thirds of the associations present and voting. I merely make this announcement so that you will understand there must be somewhat more formality in the recording of this vote than there has been on any of the preceding motions in regard to the recommendations of the committee. Now, what is your pleasure?

Mr. Henry W. Littlefield-I move that this be accepted as an amendment to the Constitution.

Mr. Cochran-I second that.

President Farley-It is Article IV of the By-Laws that we are amending. The question is before the house. Are you ready for the question?

The question was called for.

President Farley-I shall have to have the roll call on this by associations, and as the roll is called, will the chairman of each delegation rise and record his vote? Mr. Secretary will you please call the roll?

Secretary Mason then called the roll and reported that the amendment was unanimously adopted.

Mr. Woodman-I have discovered that in reading the committee's report this morning, I must have turned over two leaves at once and one page escaped reading.

President Farley-Another deficiency. [Laughter.] Mr. Woodman-It was voted by our committee that the National Association should this year assume the publication and sale of the report of this convention. In accordance with that vote, arrangements have been made with the Standard Publishing Company of Boston for the compilation and printing of the report. Subscriptions have already been received from the associations for a very considerable number of copies. The delegates will be afforded an opportunity to subscribe for copies during the convention, and it is hoped the subscription will be

sufficient to reimburse the National Association for any deficiency incurred on account of publication. The price of the book will be one dollar, or the same as heretofore. These reports contain much matter which could be read to great advantage by every life insurance agent. For the information of those who may wish reports of previous years, for the completion of files, we will state that they can be obtained of the Standard Publishing Company at one dollar per copy.

President Farley-Gentlemen, as a member of the subcommittee of the National executive committee which had referred to them the question as to the support that would be given the publication of the proceedings of this convention, I feel that I may be privileged to express to you in relation thereto the opinion arrived at unanimously by the sub-committee, which consisted of only two (so the unanimity went a great way) but it did not take a very long time to get at it, and that was the desirability of giving full encouragement, ample encouragement to the continuation of this publication. I have thirteen volumes in my library at home, that are consulted by me with more interest than any other equal number or any edition of twice the number of volumes. To me, the story of the growth of this association, as chronicled in he reports of the proceedings published by the Standard Publishing Company, and which is the book under consideration, is one that reads like a story. As we grow older and many of us pass behind the curtain, the sweetest memory to many of the life underwriters will be the calling up of the occasion on which the lost and missed one did his share in the work that we are all desirous of helping along. The thirteen volumes very shortly will have added to them the fourteenth. As we grow older the continuation of these publications must necessarily grow more and more interesting and we want to give evidence at this convention of the fact that we appreciate the work of our late honorary member (the only honorary membership conferred by this body) the late Col. Ransom; that we appreciate the spirit that he threw into the work by continuing the work which he himself inaugurated. I therefore hope that consideration will be given to this most earnestly. I have assurances from certain quarters which enable me at this moment to tell the secretary that

he may put down for a few friends an order for one hundred copies. [Applause.]

Now, gentlemen, this is not a mere contribution on my part; the books are for distribution, and I have the names, and I would like to have the secretary read us, as far as he has received, the orders for the proceedings of this convention. We want to emphasize this year the fact that we have appreciated the publication of thirteen volumes in the past, and, as I understand it, without heretofore, for several years past, meeting the cost of the work, and we cannot expect to have these proceedings compiled and published at an individual loss. When this association cannot pay the engraver for putting its name on its door plate, it had better do without the door plate. I would like to have this given due consideration that these publications may continue and that to this, the fourteenth, we will give testimony of our appreciation and keep the ball rolling for years to come.

Secretary Mason-A letter was sent out to all the members of the executive committee, asking them to take the matter up with the local associations and see what they could do about getting orders for publications of the proceedings of the convention. In reply to that letter I received the following subscriptions:

Philadelphia, 72; New Jersey, 15; Delaware, 6; Georgia, 5; Baltimore, 30; Chicago, 50; Cleveland, 12; Toledo, 5; Boston, 30, and the order President Farley just spoke of, one hundred, makes a total of 325 copies.

Mr. Cochran-If the order does not include New York, put an order of one hundred copies down for New York. President Farley-I haven't any knowledge of what New York has done.

Mr. Cochran-Now, Mr. President, there are many gentlemen here who have possibly not been following the course of this convention for years past and who do not appreciate the situation, and I think a few more words of explanation might be proper at this time. We all know the father of this association was the late Col. Ransom of Boston. When we first met we found it desirable for certain reasons to have some record of the action of this convention. Col. Ransom took upon himself, at his own risk, to keep the records, and the first year he published a book. It was subscribed for by many of the

gentlemen and some of the companies, and he was encouraged to publish, the second year, a complete copy of the proceedings, at his own risk, and I believe probably

that during two or three years, during the time that he published these reports in his lifetime, he came out whole. The remainder of the time, I understand, it was a dead loss to himself. Col. Ransom has now passed away. It is necessary-I say necessary advisedly, and I will show the reason why in a moment-that we should continue publishing these proceedings, and in order to do so, we are compelled to take hold of it ourselves. The Standard Publishing Company always has been very liberal in its terms, and is so now, but we owe a duty to it and ourselves in this way. I wish to echo the words of our president when he says he has a full set of the proceedings of the thirteen conventions. I also have two sets, and when you talk about discussing topics in this convention toward building up our work, I think the most helpful thing connected with all our work is the subscribing for and the reading and the re-reading and the re-reading of the proceedings of this convention for the last thirteen or fourteen years. I don't know what I would do without them. I refer to them very very frequently. As years go by, one after another passes away. We have had before us at different times, distinguished men of all walks in life, lawyers, physicians, politicians, bankers, merchants and so forth. We have had them all address our meetings and banquets at different times. We have had papers read by distinguished actuaries, men in our own professions, presidents of different companies, who have given their life to this work, and all these papers were the result of deep thought and earnest consideration, and those papers contained meat for us young fellows. You can sit down and refer to those books and you can meet almost every contingency that may arise in the business. It keeps you posted and up to the firing line, and I say to you that if you, who have not had the