UC-NRLF SB Efl 3.3b LIBRARY OF THE University of California. at- GIFT OF qfrtflo F* W5 Thought is deeper than all speech, Feeling deeper than all thought, Soul to souls can never teach What unto itself is taught.'' FINANCIAL IDEAS Worth $5000 to You If You Can Comprehend Them! Orlando K- Fitzsimmons OF THE UNIVERSITY ILIFO* S*\ Price Ten Cents Copyright 1904, by Orlando K- Fitzsimmons Comprehension means ability to know; capacity to under- stand; power to receive, contain and retain ideas. It is the gauge of individual wisdom. What is your capacity? LET US REASON TOGETHER TTUMAN INTELLIGENCE is the most potent power in the worlds All things else on earth owe allegiance to it* Analytical reason is the supreme attribute of the human mind and to it man owes his present environment* "Were it not for this faculty there would he no telescope, no railroads, no boats, no telegraph, no telephone, no machinery — there would be no inventions, no progress, whatever. Long ages ago man realized that every Cause produced a responding Effect and that every Effect indicated a corresponding Cause. From these fundamental principles is builded the wonderful science of mathematics which teaches us how to take a Cause and mathematically (exactly) deduce the Effect, or to take an Effect and arrive at the Cause. All things and all conditions are the Effect of a Cause and are therefore natural, ancf whatever is natural is possible* "We are looking for men and women who have developed this logical reasoning faculty somewhat (the greater the development, the better); who can reason from Cause to Effect and from Effect to Cause; who have learned that Suspicion and Prejudice are the children of Ignorance; who can distinguish truths from mere assertions; who can rely on their own judgment, form their own conclusions and work out their own problems. To such we offer financial independence! If you are not in this class, it will be useless for you to read further. The proper course for you to pursue is to place yourself on a brain-food diet, go back to the primer class and get a new start. You are a cipher — alone, you represent nothing — and are useful only in determining the value of the other figures. 2 (university V OF o^ h EXPLANATION During the past two and one-half years we have distributed some Two Hundred Thousand Dollars ($200,000) in benefits amongst our patrons at an average profit to living members of over 200 per cent per annum. (Here is an Effect, seek the Cause. The following pages will aid you.) In view of the fact that this has been accomplished in the face of the most power- ful opposition that could be brought to bear as well as almost universal popular prejudice, the rational reasoning mind should realize that there must be something uncommonly substantial about it, for no ordinary business could exist under such con- ditions, let alone the marvelous profits returned. The opposition was vicious, venemous and unprincipled. Slanderous lies were the chief weapons used ; ordinary business greed and jealousy furnished the animus. Failures are not attacked, they are simply devoured. Our only offense to the ravenous business jackals is in being suc- cessful. The cause of the universal prejudice is the prevailing ignor- ance of what we are doing and how we are doing it. The usual contention of the mental bankrupts is that the business is "bad" because it is "too good." Some are apparently so hope- lessly inane that they can see no difference between an intelli- gent reason and a figure of speech. They are simply human phonographs and do nothing but reproduce the speech of others. You have met some of them, have you not? Some of them go into the newspaper business so that they can talk before a whole lot of people at once. No intelligent reason has ever been given in explanation of why it is "bad." Many fallacious arguments and statements are made by our opponents, however, that have deceived the thoughtless and indifferent to their own detriment. Thousands who have been asked to investigate this system thoroughly have either been to indolent or fearful to do it, or else are de- void of the faculty of reasoning from Cause to Effect and have thus lost the benefits they otherwise would have received. They have their reward! 3 Perhaps it was but natural that "everybody" who learned in a vague and crude manner that we had set out to do some- thing hastened to tell their neighbor that we were attempting to do something " impossible ' ' ; that we would ''fail"; that we were searching for "suckers/' etc. It is those who are them- selves contaminated with the inherent weakness of deceit and dishonesty who declare us frauds, tricksters and fakers, and every kindred epithet, which are words that picture the degen- erate fancies of their own minds, because we have proven that we are neither frauds nor tricksters by doing even greater things and bestowing greater benefits on others than we an- nounced we would do when we started. Therefore, if they imagine evil where none exists, is it not of and within them- selves ? We have fulfilled every promise ; we have met every obliga- tion; we do not owe any man a dollar in spite of the ranting of the poor, deluded fools who are, perhaps unwittingly, dis- honest with themselves and their friends and acquaintances when they basely condemn that of which they are utterly ig- norant. For the benefit of those who do not comprehend and who wish to obtain an idea of what this system is, we make the fol- lowing brief explanation. Our agents can furnish you other literature if you desire it. We wish at this point to call your attention to the fact that in the "ordinary business' ' plan there is 5 per cent of success to 95 per cent of failure ! The daily record of failures would appal you. Dun's, Bradstreet 's, Mulhall's or any good statis- tics will tell you that 95 per cent of the people who start in business— store, factory or farm— fail sooner or later. Think of it ! Then realize that this is an Effect of a Cause, and that this Cause has at last been traced out and we can make it so plain that any school-boy who has the reasoning faculty can see it at once. We will explain it in a pamphlet some time. Without knowing the Cause, however, logical reason will in- stantly conclude that such a plan must be very imperfect. If our business were established under that same old plan it would be subject to the same weakness, would it not? It must be different else it would be no better. Does that appeal to your intelligence as logical. In the construction of our System we have cast out the er- rors existing under the old plan and retained only that which 4 is good. When man began using electricity he was obliged to evolve a new measuring system, because the then existing stan- dards of measure, the pound, the yard, the bushel, etc., were inadequate. For the same reason, you cannot measure our sys- tem by the old plan standards, such as "earning capacity/' "earning power of money,' ' "reserve fund," "interest earn- ings (rentals)," "investments," etc. You must learn the new measuring system if you would "know all about it." The Cumulative Credit System is a system of Mutual Bene- fit to each and all of its patrons ; it is pure and practical co- operation, an "each for all and all for each" plan. It is neither Life Insurance, Building and Loan, Banking, Investment nor Mercantile business. There is nothing else like it in the world. The plan is almost directly opposite the ordinary business methods. The only essential feature common to both being Patrons and "new business." (That you may understand this last statement clearly, its analyzation is here given: All the other statements in our literature that are not clear to you will become perfectly plain if you analyze them properly. Every business in the world requires a constant influx of "money" to furnish that which must be paid out. What else is there to commercialism but taking in money and paying it out? That which flows in is "new business" from either old patrons, new patrons, or both. The only "money" that any business or individual can pay out must come from others. Did you ever get a dollar in your life that did not come from some- one else ? Others are the same in this respect. Therefore, ' ' new business" is absolutely requsite for the prosperity and per- petuity of any and all business, our own included. See also letter to Gen. Agt. Am. Ex. Co., page 27). The shortest and quickest way to explain the Cumulative Credit System is by comparing it with an established business which is also different in some respects from the ordinary busi- ness. When we speak of "ordinary business" we mean that method of gaining a livelihood by first exchanging money for something with one person and then finding another person to give us more for the thing than it cost, so that a "profit" can be made. All business is based on giving less than is received so as to "make" a "profit," and the "ordinary business" rule is "get all you can and give as little as possible." 5 About a year ago a ragged little boy gave me an illustra- tion of "profit" such as I had been seeking for a number of years. He was selling matches and came into my office with the inquiry: "Do you want to buy some matches ?" "How much are your matches a package?" "Ten cents a package." "I can go to a store and buy those matches for five cents a package," I said to him. "I know it," he replied. ' • Why do you want me to pay you ten cents a package when I can buy them for five cents?" " So I can make something off them ! ! ' His reply was truthful and was uttered with the candor of one unused to dissimulation. When he gets more experience in "business" he will learn to conceal the fact that he is seek- ing financial assistance when he asks others to "buy" some- thing from him. ' He will soon learn to call it "legitimate profit." "Profit" is merely a present you give to the other fellow when you "buy" and receive from the other fellow when you "sell." The word "profit" gives a certain respectability to the taking of the gift. Some "Captains of Industry" simply levy tribute under the guise of "legitimate profit." People are gradually awakening to the fact that it is not absolutely necessary to first exchange the money for things and back again for money in order to receive this present called "profit" from others. Take Fraternal Life Insurance, for instance. That is a wonderful business system and its patrons number millions and there have been hundreds of millions of dollars distributed in benefits without any property having been used in the trans- action. Life insurance is a comparatively new institution as com- pared with the older method mentioned above, and, in the pro- cess of evolution has pointed out the way to this new system. [It was but a short step from the sickle, short blade and one hand power, to the cradle, long blade and two hand power. The results accomplished by the sickle and one hand were more than doubled by the increased power of the cradle and two hands. (You can see Cause and Effect plainly here.) Some man discovered this truth by using intelligent reason and nat- 6 urally concluded that a still longer blade and more power would produce correspondingly greater results, and the out- come was the reaper with horses as the motive power. The same process of reasoning produced the harvester, and so on. Looking back on it all you are obliged to acknowledge the sim- plicity of it. Still it was a long time coming. You cannot, however, truthfully say that the sickle was a ' ■ failure, ' • neither was the cradle nor the reaper, although millions of "dollars" were "invested" in reapers when the harvester displaced it. The harvester, with its greater power, paid for both, however, so nothing was "lost." Man can't lose by progressing!] To make our meaning still plainer to you we call your at- tention to the fact that the real and true basis of Fraternal Life Insurance is giving instead of taking, and if every member of Fraternal Insurance Orders realized the good they were doing with their small monthly contributions for the benefit of others, there would be very little discord or criticism of that most beneficent system except with people in whom greed and selfishness are the dominating traits of character. The true spirit of Fraternalism is the spirit of benefiting others in their time of need while being thankful that our own lives are spared to enable us to make the small contributions which experience has demonstrated is requisite for the per- petuity of the order. In Fraternal Insurance the members band together and each individual member contributes a small amount each month to help create a large fund to be distributed in benefits month- ly to the beneficiaries of those members who die from month to month. The members who thus contribute to others have just as much to eat, are just as comfortable and have just as many of the so-called pleasures of life as those who do not join them in the work. If this last statement is true, then wherein does or can any member lose by making the paltry contributions called for? The jealousy, the greed, the selfishness which wantonly as- sails or even criticises such a beneficent institution should be ostracized. Such people do not deserve the benefits they, them- selves, are deriving from other people in the ordinary grabbing ("business") process. These people, as a rule, fail to appre- ciate the fact that all they have in the world, except what they actually manufactured themselves, came from other people, to whose intelligence and labor they owe everything they have. 7 What has all this to do with the Cumulative Credit System? Simply this, the Cumulative Credit System is a vast im- provement over the Fraternal Life Insurance system in every respect, in every detail. That you may be better able to comprehend the truth of this statement I here present the essential features of the two plans in parallel. Note them carefully, weigh them pro and con, reason from cause to effect and if you conclude that my statement above in reference to the superiority of the Cumu- lative Credit System over the Fraternal Life Insurance Sys- tem is erroneous, and you can give an intelligent reason there- for, I will make you a present of $100. In Fraternal Insurance the members band together and each contributes a small sum monthly for the purpose of creating a fund with which to pay the beneficiaries of the members who die from month to month. Now mark carefully: It is the death of the members that designates which policies (or con- tracts) are to be paid from month to month with the money thus contributed. When a member dies his policy lives on until it is paid or cancelled, because that is the only way to kill a con- tract calling for money. Therefore the members of a Fraternal Insurance Order contribute monthly for the purpose of creating a fund with which to kill the contracts that death designates or points out from month to month. Is this plain ? Now mark again: It is possible under that system for an old contract (or policy) and a young contract to be killed or cancelled the same month, should a member who has been contributing a number of years and a member who has contributed but a short time die during the same month. In that case one member con- tributes many times more than another for the same benefit to beneficiaries, and therein is found an element of inequity which cannot be avoided, because of the uncertainty of life. The same is true of old line insurance, and is not here used as any- thing detrimental to either system, but better to show the equity of the new plan. Under our new system the members band together for Mu- tual Benefit and contribute weekly instead of monthly, for the purpose of creating a Mutual Benefit Credit Fund to be used in killing the oldest outstanding Certificate always, and not some old ones and some young ones. The period of payment is not limited to any given period of time, any more than it is 8 in Fraternal Insurance, but is regulated by the death of the Certificate, just as the payments in Fraternal Insurance are regulated by the death of the members. The amount contributed under this new system by indi- vidual members is never less than at the rate of $500 per $1,000 in 80 weeks or less, according to the time of maturity. One Certificate entitles a patron to the privilege of paying $1.00 per week and if it is reached in the order of maturity in 50 weeks he has then contributed $50 and receives $100 ; if it takes 62 weeks to mature, his contribution is $62 and he receives $124; if it takes 70 weeks his contribution is $70 and he re- ceives $140, and so on up to and including 80 weeks, when his contributions amount to $80 and his return is $160, which is the extreme amount returned on one Certificate. (A patron can make application for as many Certificates as he desires. We have several patrons in Los Angeles carrying from 50 to 140 each!) If the Certificate should not mature in 80 weeks, he continues his contributions until such time as it does mature, and this does away with what is known as ' ' paid up ' ' contracts in the "Diamond Contract" or "Merchandise Contract" busi- ness, and which is the rock on which they are finally wrecked. This feature of the Cumulative Credit Company is a safeguard against possible commercial "panics," and is an absolute guarantee of perpetuity, because each patron thus joins hands with his brother patrons for their mutual protection and the result assures benefits to all. In the event of the payments ever exceeding the 80-week period, nothing whatever is deducted by the management for the Expense Fund on the payments made in excess of the 80th week, but all such contributions are placed in the Mutual Benefit Credit Fund, dollar for dollar, as received. In the following table of parallels, we present the essen- tial features of the two plans and a close scrutiny and analyza- tion will repay you. A mere glance at any part of this litera- ture will not repay you. In this are embodied years of study and investigation by a naturally analytical mind and the ideas are presented in simple language and pertinent illustrations. It would take a large volume to comprise all the details of this intricate subject. This is but the primer, intended to prepare you for that which is to follow. We propose to make this not only the greatest Mutual Benefit Organization in the world, but also the leading educational institution along new and advanced ideas. You have the privilege of joining if you wish. 9 Study the Parallel FRATERNAL INSURANCE CUMULATIVE CREDIT SYSTEM Contributions axe made monthly. Contributions are made weekly. Matured policies are paid monthly. Matured Certificates are paid weekly. Death matures the policies, (and The arrival of the money matures the money must be there to pay the Certificates, them). The member dies and the policy is paid. One member of the family must die in order to bestow the bene- fits on his loved ones. It is not possible under this plan to establish a perpetual income to be enjoyed by the member while living and bequeathed to his family after his death. All money contributed by the members in excess of the amount actually needed each month to pay the policies designated by the death of the members, is withheld by the management from circulation amongst the members until such time as there are a sufficient number of deaths to cause the money to be dis- tributed amongst the benefi- ciaries. Life is uncertain and, while the death of the members from month to month is regulated by the law of average, it is pos- sible that such an epidemic of deaths might occur amongst the members that the contributions provided for under the plan The Certificate dies and the mem- ber is paid. The members receive their benefits while living, thus enabling the entire family to enjoy them while they are all united. It is possible under this system for members to establish a per- # manent monthly, quarterly or yearly income to be enjoyed dur- ing their lives and bequeathed to their families after their death. No money belonging to the Mutual Benefit Credit Fund is withheld by the management, but it is distributed amongst the members in benefits weekly. We are founded on the principle that the best place for our patrons' money is in their own pockets and the Public Accountant's re- port, Jan. 2nd, 1904, showed but $16.70 on hand in the Mutual Benefit Credit Fund, the bal- ance having been distributed to patrons in accordance with the provisions in our certificates. Some ignorant or envious people proclaimed that a fault! It is the arrival of the money con- tributed by the members that sets the time of maturity and it is, therefore, an utter impossi- bility under this system to have such an epidemic of money com- ing from the members that it could not always be paid out, 10 Fraternal Insurance (Con.) would be insufficient to pay the claims, thereby causing what is known in the business world as a "failure." The prosperity and the perpetuity of this plan depends entirely upon the acquisition of new business from new people con- tinually . Under, this system there is an age limit,