Country Life*s Annual Roundup 



At 10 A. M. Thursday, February 21, 

 in Sprin^ield's Abraham Lincoln Hotel 

 ballroom, Dave Mieher, field representa- 

 tive of Country Life Insurance Company, 

 called almost 500 general and special 

 agents, officers and technical men to 

 order. The greatest Annual Round-Up 

 of this fast growing life insurance com- 

 pany was officially underway. There was 

 a feeling of jubilee and celebration in the 

 air. For back of it all was the next to 

 biggest year's business ever enjoyed by 

 the company. These men and women had 

 made the trip to Spring^field for the ex- 

 press purpose of celebrating that fact 

 and also to lay plans for a 1936 that 

 would shade even the record performance 

 of 1934. 



For two days, from morning well into 

 the night, business sessions, lectures, re- 

 ports, and inspirational talks by such 

 well known orators as Talmage DeFrees, 

 Smithboro, recently elected vice-presi- 

 dent of the L A. A., and Country Life; 

 Donald Kirkpatrick, legal counsel of the 

 I. A. A.; A. R. Jaqua of the Diamond 

 Life Bulletins; A. O. McClure, sales coun- 

 selor of Chicago, to say nothing of the 

 dynamic Larry Williams and his staff 

 of workers and advisers from the Home 

 Office of Country Life. 



Headlining the morning session the 

 first day was the annual address of the 

 Manager, L. A. Williams. He built a 

 background of definite financial improve- 

 ment in business and agricultural fields 

 against which he outlined a vision of 

 completing $100,000,000 of business in 

 force by the end of 1935. He pointed out 

 that Country Life has only now begun 

 to hit its real stride and that he was 

 calling upon the agents and the Farm 

 Bureau of Illinois to build the strongest, 

 best and biggest life insurance company 

 in the state. His address was followed 

 by a torrent of enthusiasm from all 

 present, and left no doubt that |100,000,- 

 000 was an assured fact. 



Dr. John E. Boland, upon whose shoul- 

 ders rests the responsibility of selecting 

 the risks of the company, pointed out 

 that while it often takes courage to turn 

 down an applicant for insurance, experi- 

 ence ha? shown that the risks of Country 

 Life are an important factor in the 

 strength and stability of the company 

 and strictness in selecting risks has 

 played no sx|b11 part in aiding the com- 

 pany to reach the strong position it oc- 

 cupies today. 



Field men C. C. Ramler, Dave Mieher, 

 and B. E. Mosier all gave excellent talks 

 that comments showed to be of immense 

 benefit to those present. General agents 

 L. T. Oxley, Duane Genre, Frank Sutter, 

 Tom Isaacs and Kelsye Baylor gave'ex- 



cellent talks and did themselves proud in 

 the really worthwhile ideas they brought 

 out. 



"Interesting and instructive" describes 

 the talk by A. R. Jaqua. Jaqua seemed 

 to have an inexhaustible supply of illus- 

 trations that drive home new methods to 

 the usable portion of the agent's mind. 

 His whole talk was filled with "meat" 

 that makes his visit next year to the 

 "Annual Round-Up" almost a foregone 

 conclusion. A. O. McClure, of Chicago, 

 pointed out the necessity of "finding the 

 applicant's insurance problem first then 

 helping sincerely to solve that problem 

 with the means that you have to offer. 

 "Above all be of definite service," he said. 

 McClure's talk was very well received and 

 from the amount of notes being taken 



tation of Wright's life insurance creed. 



He held that the "credo" that policy- 

 holders and agents had in the company 

 and its spirit was weightier than the 

 billions of wealth that had helped to 

 build other gigantic industries. He held 

 that this "credo" would be the mighty 

 power to build eventually a Company of 

 many times the 100 Million, even, that 

 the agents were aiming for in 1935. 



The power of confidence grenerated 

 from basic and religious belief in a thing 

 is an overwhelming influence. He showed 

 its effect in the accomplishments of 

 Washington and Lincoln, and left in the 

 minds of the agrents a thankfulness that 

 they had, for their Company, an institu- 

 tion grounded in unselfish service. 



Of especial interest to the audience 

 were the talks made by the various mem- 

 bers of the home office staff. In their 

 efforts to achieve even greater than the 

 exceptional agent-office co-operation en- 



AT THE ANNtTAL BAKQUET OF COTTHTRY LIFE IHSURANCE CONPANT AOEKT8 III ABSAHAK 

 — ■ Lincoln Hotel, 8prins<«ld. Fab. 21. 



his ideas' will be put to good use. 



At the banquet session, the evening of 

 February 21st, 354 diners heard Talmage 

 DeFrees share honors with Donald Kirk- 

 patrick. Mr. DeFrees took "Farmer Buy- 

 ing Power" as his subject and with an 

 ease and force seldom seen in speakers 

 brought a message of color and optimism 

 to men who deal with farmers. He showed 

 the result of an added billion dollars in 

 1934 buying power to the 52 million farm 

 people and the effect it already has had 

 on the income of the people of the na- 

 tion. As a demonstrating point he showed 

 his milk check of 1932 as against that of 

 1934. His talk was aptly punctuated by 

 sparkling stories and fine sentiments. 



Donald Kirkpatrick read the words of 

 Elizur Wright and claimed that Coun- 

 try Life is the true disciple of this orig- 

 inal prophet of life insurance. He showed 

 in Country Life's code the true interpre- 



joyed now, some really outstanding ex- 

 planations of procedure for speeding up 

 business were set out before the agents. 

 Both John Weaver, office manager, 

 Howard Reeder, actuary, and Allen Grib- 

 ben, assistant, gave clear, concise pic- 

 tures of their work. 



Immediately preceding the adjourn- 

 ment of the Annual Round-Up, February 

 22nd, A. E. Richardson, manager of Illi- 

 nois Agricultural Mutual Insurance Com- 

 pany, explained the new level premium 

 auto insurance plan which his company 

 has been working on for some time. His 

 explanation was grreeted with the great- 

 est enthusiasm and agents look forward 

 to a marked increase in auto insurance 

 held in thia company by Farm Bureau 

 members. V. Vaniman spoke briefly on 

 the "Confidence and Return of the Sur- 

 plus Share" and as usual made one of his 

 highly interesting talks. 



MARCH, 1935 



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