[Released September 26, 1929. Dated September 25, 1929]
Dear Mr. Clark:
I should be indebted to you if you would express my regrets that the press of public business has prevented my acceptance of your courteous invitation to be present on this occasion. No one interested in the progress of the American people could fail to be impressed with the significant achievement which is marked by the distribution of one hundred billions of life insurance amongst them.
There is no single device in our whole economic system which is greater in its importance in safeguarding the welfare of our women and children than is this. The great institutions which have been built for this protection against disaster rank with the highest forms of our national achievements. You, the men and women who have helped to build and now carry forward this great structure, have performed a great service and one which the whole country acknowledges with pride.
Yours faithfully,
HERBERT HOOVER
[Mr. Paul F. Clark, National Life Insurance Conference, Washington, D.C.]
Note: The message was read at the morning session of the annual convention of the National Association of Life Underwriters held in Washington, D.C.
Herbert Hoover, Message to the National Life Insurance Conference. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/207025