The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-12-23

clear that the world was in another stage
of Its history than that in which we now
live, were no other evidence forthcom-
ing.
A turning point in the history of mu-
tual life insurance in America was
reached June s, 1868, when Frederick S.
| Winston was made president of the Mu-
tusl Life Insurance Company of New
York. For the first ten years of its &C
tivity it was directed by gentleme
chiefly engaged in other commercial
business, who made it an incident of
] their work, and the amateur spirit
pervaded the management. Mr.. Wins
ton himself was at the time prominent
merchant, but had for seven years been
one of the most diligent trustees, giving
close attention to the detail work of the
committees and had formed con-
ception of its possibilities of future
growth and influence far beyond the
comprehension of most OF his colleagues.
AT the time OF his election his business
was prosperous. He had fully deter
mined to withdraw from mercantile
business and devote himself exclusively
to the company, but within avery short
time after he assumed the presidency a
mercantile panic occurred and the firm
with which he was connected failed.
Mr.. Winston Immediately resigned his
presidency, saying that although it had
been his intention to withdraw from all
other business in order to give himself
exclusively to the company, yet he
| feared that the failure would impair In
some minds the moral standing OF the
company, and he could not consent to
impose upon it in any degree the APP
parent strain of his mercantile failure.
The trustees unanimously refused to adj
NIT this argument and insisted upon his
retaining the presidency, and from that
day throughout his life he had no
connection with any other business than
that of life insurance.
His sagacity and energy soon stamped
his personality upon the entire organlza-
ton and pervaded lis work; and period
OF rapid development began, such that
when in 1885 he ceased at once to work
and to live. the institution with which
he was SO long Unidentified had become
the foremost of its class in the world.
When his presidency began its total
funds were $4,000, 649; when it ended
they were SOB, $40, 17S; an achievement
at that time unparalleled IN financial
history and largely due to the peculiar
endowments OF one great man. The
dignity, breadth of view and personal
ascendency of single character have
rarely accomplished more completely
the precise work for which he seemed to
be destined.
Mr.. Winston, tho the first, was by no
means the only individual force to
exercise a commanding influence in
shaping the new social and financial
institution of Life Insurance in America.
The first general agent Of his company
to achieve a naIlonal reputation In
spreading the principles OF mutual in
surance was Henry h. Hyde, of Boston. !
His son, trained as a clerk in the office,
showed at an early age an originality |
and energy which could not long be
satisfied in a subordinate position, and IN
1859 he founded the Equitable Life
Assurance Society of tie United States,
gathering to his support large body OF
associates of high moral, intellectual
and financial resources. This company,
in the short space of less than forty
years and while its founder is still at
its head, has become one OF the noblest
monuments of wisdom, perseverance
and permanent usefulness which modern
civilization possesses. To the phosphores-
cent genius of Henry Baldwin Hyde is
due not only its conception, not only
the unremltting, intelligent and lm-
puIsive labor with which It was establish
de. but the constant supervision OF It's
affairs throughout its history. Always
surprising by the novelty of his methods
and indomitable in the vigor and
mastery with which they were prose-
cuted. his influence has been felt upon
business at large in a degree second to
none. and the vast changes which its
entire organization and management
have undergone during the last genera
ton have resulted, in degree which
few as yet appreciate, from innovations
made by him.
From age to age some soul divinely great
Mounts DER the level of our poor estate;
And mindless of the continent tides that gave
It's grand preeminence to that GROWING wave
We mark its period and rebate old time
By the accession Of that force sublime"
If this were history instead of a.
memorandum, other memorable names
of the living and the dead might, of
course, be mentioned as of high i'm
nortance. The work of William HI.
Beers in building up the New York
Life Insurance Company from insig-
nifcant beginnings to enormous pro-
portions, and that of Elizur Wright, who
FIRST devised the curious medieval
methods by which the State Governments
now pretend politically to regulate the
most scientific and difficult branch of
finance, come at once with many others
conspicuously into our thoughts. But
the two men whose personality is most
door,lu oud most laafinplv folf in the
whole field of American Life Insurance
are unquestionably Messrs. Winston and
Hyde
The amazing growth Of life insurance
as an institution since 1848 could only be
clearly understood by comparing its
financial progress with that of other
great moneyed interests. But the fig
ures which should e1nbody this compare
son would be wearying to the general
reader. Suffice it to say that there is