I just spent a fascinating morning at the Center for Research Libraries on the University of Chicago campus. I never even knew this place existed, but it's such a comprehensive resource that the Library of Congress comes calling when it's stumped for material.
What brought me to the South Side was a quest for rare back issues of Local Agent — the predecessor of American Agent & Broker magazine. In recognition of our upcoming 80th anniversary, we're compiling material from the past for a special issue we're developing for next year. The Center was able to fill in the gap for issues from 1930 to 1947, which we don't have at our St. Louis offices.
While it's not on par with digging up a crystal skull somewhere in Peru, there is a certain excitement in leafing through ancient publications — at least for history buffs. It's interesting to see how our publication evolved from a black-and-white monthly of about 26 pages to its current ambitious format. (And I confess to finding guilty pleasure in the ads for mostly defunct insurers, some of which feature such cringe-inducing images as caricatured American Indians, Pullman train porters, dizzy dames, and, for some reason, one insurer whose mascot was a French poodle. Guess the “Mad Men” who thought that one up had one too many pre-lunch martinis that day.)
What was especially resonant about this stroll down memory lane, though, was seeing how many things have remained the same in our industry. The earliest issues, dating from June 1930, are replete with articles by agents who look like Guy Kibbee, dispensing sage advice on how to combat bad economic conditions (complete with NRA logo on the masthead).
Other evergreen issues include getting the biggest bang for your advertising buck, cross-selling unique coverages (did you know there was once something called “silverware insurance”?), improving collections (a big issue during the Depression), the need for agents act as consultants to their customers, direct-mail programs, and coverage of the National Association of Insurance Agents meetings (some things never change!).
These earliest issues of Local Agent also give us a hint of how long it took for the concept of state insurance regulation and limited antitrust exemption (in the form of the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act) to gain traction in the industry. You can see from the magazine's contents and editorial commentary how bad economic conditions gradually gave rise to legislative intervention — starting in 1933 with the Glass-Steagall Act and the creation of the FDIC, and the National Industrial Recovery Act, which established fair practice codes for specific industries, including insurance (although the NRA was struck down two years later by the Supreme Court).
Once again we find ourselves in tough times, and it's interesting to speculate on whether economic conditions, pressure from the media and political posturing will result in more legislation designed to mitigate our current woes.
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