Country Life's Round-up 



YOU'D little expect a time tried life in- 

 surance man to go to the Bible for the 

 fundamentals of life insurance. Also, 

 you'd not expect to hear a professor point 

 out the essentially human reason for the 

 existence of life insurance. You'd not ex- 

 pect a Scotchman to be giving anything 

 away — especially the details of the life in- 

 surance plan he has worked out for himself 

 and his family. You'd never expect to hear 

 a lady general agent turn out to be a better 

 man than most of thosa present. 



But such was the case at the Country Life 

 General Agent's annual Round-Up at 

 Springfield. February 20 and 21. It was an 

 enthusiastic affair from start to finish 

 marred only by the fact that hundreds who 

 wanted and expected to attend could not 

 because of the heavy snow. 



But, thos2 who did attend began to ar- 

 rive as early as mid-afternoon the 19:h. 

 "Larry" Williams, manager of Country Life 

 was on hand to greet all early arrivals and 

 the evening was spent for the most part in 

 handling of special problems which needed 

 the attention of field men and members of 

 the Country Life main office staff. With a 

 good night's sleep behind them, the agents 

 and speakers assembled in the ballroom of 

 the Abraham Lincoln hotel at 10 a. m. to 

 hell Dave Mieher open and conduct the 

 morning session of the "Round-Up." This 

 session was featured by an inspirational 

 talk by Larry Williams, w'lo pointed out the 

 necessity of planning sales procedure be- 

 fore taking up the time of a prospe-tive 

 purchaser cf life in-'urance. Other speakers 

 on th"; morning program included an inter- 

 esting app'i-ation of actuarial facts to the 

 job of S2l'ing life insurance. This talk was 

 given by Howard Reader, actuary cf Coun- 

 try Life and was accompanied by charts 

 and a blackboard repressntation of ways 

 and means these facts can be used when 

 talking to an applicant. 



Russell Graham, field man. presided over 

 the afternoon session, on the 20th. Dr. Fred 

 A. Russell of the University cf Illinois gave 

 the principal talk and an interesting one it 

 was. His remarks tended to ."^how that 

 through the many ch3nges taking place in 

 the affairs of the hum^n ra-e that life in- 

 surance more than ever takes its place as 

 an economic necessity. While his talk was 

 along economic lines, the human basis of 

 his facts, the clear cut presentation took his 

 talk out of the academic class into a well 

 planned explanation of the effects of modem 

 trends upon the secu-ity of today's people. 

 He it was who sa'd. "Man always has 

 dreamed of a millennium. Man has sought 

 for a new order of things, for a better o"d?r 

 of things than that in which he finds him- 

 self. This wish dream is the basis of life 

 insurance — the dream of universal plenty." 



Dave Mieher. Chas. Masching and C. C. 

 Ramler. field men. all gave talks on various 

 methods of procedure in life insurance 

 agency work. Allan Gribben. of the actuarial 

 department brought out some usable facts 

 from the experience of his deoartmen'. A. 

 E. Richardson, manager of Illinois Agri- 

 cultural Mutual Insurance Companv. talked 

 on "points to stress in selling automobile 

 Insurance." 



The banquet, at 6 p. m.. in the Ba'l Room 

 of the hotel was attended by approximately 

 300 agents and their wives. Probably the 

 highlight of this session was the talk by 

 Anne Miller, general agent of Will county. 

 The subject given her was "Closing on the 

 first interview." But the talk she gave was 



on the subject, "What it takes to be a life 

 insurance general agent." When she had 

 finished, there was no doubt in the minds 

 of all attending that Miss Miller has what 

 it takes and in good measure. Geo. E. Metz- 

 ger, field secretary of the I. A. A. subbed 

 for Earl C. Smith, president, who was un- 

 able to attend. He read a letter of regret 

 and explanation from Mr. Smith, and then 

 followed it with a fine address on the sub- 

 ject of "Co-operating in Insurance Bffici- 

 ency." Metzger stated that an insurance 



LARRY WILLIAMS AND A. E. RICHARDSON 

 at the Round-Up banquet. Larry do«tn't play 

 the violin. ■, . ' 



authority held up Country Life Insurance 

 Company as "the one true example of a 

 'co-operative life insurance company' in ex- 

 istence in the United States today. George 

 Thiem followed with a short talk on the 

 power of publicity and advertising in 

 "Opening the Way" for the agent to talk 

 to the prospect. "Advertis'ng is sales- 

 manship in print" he stated "and success in 

 that business, as in sellng comes to those 

 who learn what moves people to buy." 



Wm. ("Bill" to you) Linker, president of 

 the General Agents Club gave a fine talk 

 on "Aggressiveness." He pointed out that 

 prospects are always apt to lean over back- 

 ward in buying. That agsnt who goes about 

 his business in an aggressive, determined 

 way is the one who is going to make a -suc- 

 cess of it. Russell Graham. A. N. Skinner, 

 and E. A. Carncross all gave excellent talks. 

 Camcross. the Scotchman, went into con- 

 siderable detail to show how the agent's own 

 life insurance pro'^lems and the way h? 

 handles them is a factor in how he handles 



THERE WAS 

 some pretty 

 heavy listening. 

 Candid Camera 

 picture during 

 the banquet 

 speeches at the 

 Round-Up. 



those of his prospects. Around ten o'clock, 

 Larry Williams, toastmaster for the evening, 

 rang down the curtain on the banquet and 

 all hands hit for group meetings or just 

 general get togethers in various rooms in 

 the hotel. Some men went to bed! 



C. C. Ramler opened the meeting, the 

 morning of February 21. Dr. John E. Boland. 

 medical examiner of Country Life gave an 

 interesting and instructive talk on "Under- 

 writing and Rating Risks." showing how his 

 department has been able to cut down the 

 mortality rate of Country Life and the part 

 the agent plays in getting detailed reports 

 on each prospect. A. R. Wright, chairma.i 

 of the investment committee explained the 

 investment structure of the company and 

 the reasons why certain types are preferrod. 

 Jchn Weaver, office manager, urged con- 

 tinued close attention to the necessary 

 methods of getting applications into the 

 office. 



A. R. Jaque. of Diamond Life Bulletins, 

 held an open forum on life insurance. Many 

 questions were hurled at him from the floor. 

 All agreed that he handled each one most 

 ably. Manager J. H. Kelker. of Farmers 

 Mutual Re-insurance Company made a 

 number of suggestions on "Covering the 

 Farm Fire Risk." stressing the importance 

 of getting complete data on all buildings 

 to be insured. 



At noon, the Round-Up was over for an- 

 other ysar. By six that night, many of the 

 agents were back in their homes, confident 

 that $100,000,000 of Country Life insuran-e 

 in force by the middle of the year will 

 be realized. 



World-Wide Recognition 



Country Life Insurance Co. is gaining: 

 nation-wide and world-wide recoifnition 

 a.s a preat co-operative life insurance 

 company. 



Dr. Kagawa, co-operative leader from 

 Japan who is touring th? country speak- 

 ing in the interest of producer and con- 

 sumer co-operation, recently visited the 

 I. A. A. and Country Life headquarters 

 to gather information about the com- 

 pany and farmer co-operation in Illinois. 



Country Life was recognized in a fiea- 

 ture article on co-operation in the Feb. 

 29 issue of Collier's Weekly. Inquiries 

 from several states have been received 

 at the office following mention of Coun- 

 try Life as the outstanding co-opera- 

 tive life insurance company on the Town 

 Hall radio program broadcast on a chain 

 hookup. / , ; :.•>"'. -i; 



i 



MARCH, 1936 



33 



