New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-01-26
As TO TRUSTS.
neglected.

IN ~ fhtrf''
An interesting and perhaps significant circ'm-
stance in connection with the damaging report
on the New-York Life Insurance Company Is
that some Of tho persons incriminated for what
appears to be under the law breach OF trust
are surprised that upon an admitted sta.e
of facts which renders them liable to criminal
prosecution they should be considered guilty OF
having done anything unusual or not in sI1ct
accordance with business principles They are
evidently sincere in their establishment lhey
call themselves honest mon. Among their friends
and neighbOrs and business acqlialnianceS they
are 30 accepted TO say they have been dis
honest seems harsh and unfcelng. They have
been in business some Of them long time !;
have attained the reputation OF being square
and honest have paid a hundred cents on the
dollar, have acted squney in all transactions,
sometimes, perhaps when by resorting to quib-
bling or tcchnicalties they might have escaped
pccuniary obligations or in other ways made
themselves richer in short, they have achieved
tho success which attends Oh strict adherence to
the standards of honesty, honor and morality
which obtain in business communities And
they stand in widc-cyed astOnlShmcnt at an
anaignmcnt before the bar of public opinion
now and the possibility Of still another ut tho
bar of broken law, because they are not aware
that they have done anything either wrong or
unusual.
This is rather solemn circumstance when
one comes to think OF it, For it means, if it
means anything that the standards OF business
morality are sot in qllickSandS; that the general
notion Of the facrcdness Of trusts is false and
foolish in short, that underneath the whole vast
system of business commerce and trade, upon
which tho very life Of the community depends
there is nothing but rOttcnncsS; that the very
name Of trusts is miSnOmer. is this so? j.
il the habit Of persons who carry great credit
who arc looked up 10 is trllsty men in what we
call the world Of finance and in that larger
world whose sole dependence is in the sense Of
honor and uprghtness Of the world Of finance
is it their habit TO lISe trust funds III the way
the managers of this important trust have u>cd
theirs? is it 50 much habit that an objection
TO the milking OF commissions at every corner
in the handling of trust funds should excite sur
prise?
The life insurance business it is 10 be rcmcm-
bercd is based upon tho absolute confidence OF
policy holders in, not merely the financial abil-
itv. but the trustworthincSS Of the men who
manage it. The possibly rhe fc-
Hon-iS that these men will handle their invest
mcnt, as actually trust that they will not milk
them on their way ont in the form of enormous
premiums t. the agents who procure customers :
milk them in the intermediate stage while they
are in the process OF further investment; milk
them at every consecutive change; and finally
milk them in delays and technical objections
when the beneficiary becomes entitled to some
return The trustees Of life insurance com
pany arc endowed with a still higher trust. BY
the machinery of the organization they have
elf-pcrpetuatng power. They are almost ab-
solute in their control of the funds of company
whose individual members are helpless. Being
helpless, they have nothing to do when things
seem to them to be going wrong except throw
up their hands and charge to profit and loss what
they have already put into the concern. What
they do ordinarily is keep on paying premiums
and take the chances of the companys Solvcncy
OUTLYING Themselves That is what is going on
day after day and year after year. And it is
fact of large consequence for the persons
interested in the management OF life insurance
companies to take up into their Consciousness
and turn over with some care that large
proportion Of policy holders have grown out o.
the relation Of confidence in which they made
| their first investment into an attitude OF ques
| tioning and distrust.
] so the handling of this great company has be-