New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1905-11-04

on the plea that they had participated
in your ventures, millions that right.
ly belonged to your policy holders
You have done all this things habitu
ally, yet to-day you describe the in
vestigation being conducted into your
operations as all impertinence, and
secretly you regard this inquisition
and all that pertains to it as a waste
of time and energy. You are unre-
pentant, unashamed, and defiant.
l shall take this opportunity, sir,
of reviewing our own relations during
the past year and contrasting your
position to-day with that you boasted
twelve months ago.
One year ago, in Everybody's Mag
azine, said:
1.-The officers, trustees, and officials
of the Big Three life insurance COM
panies have been and are systematical
ly robbing their policy, holders. They
are thieves contemplate
thieves -
l gave specific instances OF their
thieveries. You replied, not by hal
ing me to court, but by:
Circulating throughout the world
documents by the millions, disparag-
ing my reputation by advertisements
and news and editCrial'' state
ments from your subsidized insurance
press, denying my charges and at
lacking my character, all at the ex-
pense of hundreds of thousands of dol
lars of your policy holders money.
You libeled me in thousands OF
private letters to policy holders,
many of which came back to me.
You employed James M. Beck, ex-
Assistant Attorney General of the
United States, then and now chief at
torney for Henry H. Rogers, the
Standard Gil Company, the System
and the Mutual Life Insurance Com
pany, to ridicule my utteranoes and
asperse my honor in addresses in the
cities of Philadelphia and Boston.
You employed James H. Eckels, ex-
Comptroller of the Currency of the
United States, now president of the
Commercial Bank and representative
of the System in the West, to at
tack my arguments and distort my
motives in Chicago.
You ordered Vice. President Perkins
Of the New York Life Insurance Com
pany, to perform similar service in
Philadelphia: and
The burden of all these documents,
advertisements, and disguised ad-
and address was: Law
son is an umitigated liar and scoun-
1rel, whose sole reason for attacking
the insurance companies is that we
refused him insurance.
l replied by printing your personal
etter to me, wherein you importuned
ne to attept insurance in your COM
oany.
Again you gave me the lie, and
your letter spurious.
replied to you and your followers
~ instancing cases Of perjury, brib-
Try, and false statements.
stated that your claim that your
did not own, nor loan upon,
stocks was false, and that it was made
or the purpose of misleading and i'm
posing upon your policy holders,
,anks, trust companies, Government
and investors.
You answered this by writing a |
etter to one of the great churchmen
# America, and in it you said: 81
hedge you my word of honor this
ompany has never, since 1899, had a
lollar's interest, directly or indirect.
y, in any stock. Lawson knows this,
nd deliberately, for his own base
purpose, makes charges to contrary
which he knows to be false. -
To-day you and your fellow plum
erers stand convicted in the eyes of
he whole world not only of juggling
he moneys of the widow and the Or
han in the stock market, but of
these trust funds for the
enefit of your own pockets. To-day
he world is ghast at your perfidy and
mazed at your temerity.
notwithstanding the turpitude al
eady exposed to the people, you still
imagine you can so conduct yourself
$ to prevent the Investigators from
on you and your associates
he more desperate crimes that have
cen committed in the past-the $50
} 200 millions stolen and diverted or
sed in corruption. You know as l
o that only the very edges Of this
ational cesspool have yet been un-
overed. You know that not only
ave the ballot box and the Legisla-
ire at Albany been tempered with,
ut the law making and administer
lg machinery of other States corrupt
4, the Federal Government surround
/, and the judiciary of America de-
auched.
You believe you can keep the evil
ence of these crimes from the Amerl-
IN people by the same kind Of bluff
nd effrontery with which you met
y first charges. But you have mis-
ken the tempers of your country
EN-.
have been authorized in writing
7 over 16, 600 policy holders, carry
q over fifty-four millions of insur-