The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-12-10
HOW GREAT FTNANCIERS SHUT
OUT THE LIGHT.

had by Mr.. E. H. Hartman and HIM
self after Mr.. Ryan's purchase of the
Hyde stock in the Equitable. calls at
tention afresh to the growing need or
some stringent legislation which will
operate to put the millonaires of the
metropolis and the men in control of
large public utility corporations in
the same position as to service by the
courts and liability to testify as the
ordinary citizen. 1t is vastly more inn
portant that the man who has spe-
cial knowledge of great interests in
fiduciary relation to the public should
be amenable to process and to testi-
mony than the ordinary citizen whose
business touches small circle Yet
the intracacies of the law are such as
to permit these classes generally to
evade them at will. With public at
tention fixed upon the abolition of
graft and grafters. one of the first
means to the end is the devising of
statute which will make it impossible
for the heads of suspected corporations
or trusts to escape a proper inquiry
into their business and methods.
So far as Mr.. Ryan is concerned he
was perhaps in the particular instance
within his legal rights in refusing to
answer the questions asked. Techni-
cally, they would seem to have been
incompetent to the enquiry, aimed as
they were to elicit what had been said
+i,,1a q
occasion of futile effort by the lat
ter to purchase a portion of the Hyde
stock bought by Mr.. Ryan. Legally
considered. Mr.. Ryan doubtless had
the right to take the ground that since
he had not accepted the proposition.
what Mr.. Hartman may have said to
him in making it was immaterial to
the investigation SO far as he was con-
cerned. 1t is the spirit of holding
something back which is unbecoming
in Mr.. Ryan. Mr.. Hartman had
for years exerted a practical con-
troll of the funds of the Equi.
table society. 1t is popularity
supposed that he led Hyde about
with a string. hypnotized him with
his superior intellect, showed him how
to jug"le the funds of the trust so that
Trey might be apparently managed
i'm good faith and yet yield their Eer-
sonal return. In every way is Mr. Har-
riman pertinent to the Equitable in,
vestigation The very submarines
with which he turned Hyde out of the
boards of control of his railroads af-
ter the latters. resignation showed
that it was the Ecuitabie ana not its
youngster Vive-Presdent in whom the
wizard Hartman was interested. Now,
is it the pose of Mr.. Ryan, that he
came into the Equitable to save and
reform it, His spectacular appoint
ment of goodness as Il Board of Trus-
tess was somewhat dashed by the shift
ing of a railroad rebater to new realms
of insurance manipulation, but Mr..
Ryan is still firm in his attitude of
rescue towards rotten institution of
trust. WHY. then, should we wish to
shield Mr.. Hartman by refusing to
testify as to threats said to have been
BILE doors were closed in his face in
the a tempt tc secure the old seat al
ter reform which he held before?
Should not Mr.. Ryan. as guardian CT
the policy-holders wish to turn on ali
the light, as to Mr.. Hartman and ev-
cry other interest connected with the
Equitable scandal? Or does Mr.. Ryan.
having installed Mr. Morgan or some
one else in the position of business
principles trustee in place of Mr.. Har-
riman. wish to shield the latter and
the latters methods for the purposes
of his own campaign?
Whether or not District Attorney
Jerome and the Courts shall find that
Mr.. Ryan is compelled to answer the
questions put, his refusal to do so is
another blow to the shaky public con-
fidence in the sincerity of his proposed
reform and an additional evidence of
the need for the continuance of the
most searching investigation.
But hard as it is to get the men who
know to speak out on the witness
stand, it is still harder to get them
there at all. When a suit is brought
against them or the interests they
represent, they are as transitory AS
butterfly, as intangible as dream.
They fit hither and yon like false
fire on a marsh. They are here today
and gone tomorrow" Florida calls
and they fly. At home their brown
stone palaces swallow them up and
their automobiles whisk them past the
officers of the law so fast as almost
to extract the latters' breath by the
suction of their passage. Proc ,ts
serving, in the State where it is most
needful that it be simple and effective.
is hedged about with technicalities
which make hunt for millionaire
witness almost as complicated pro-
ceeding as an evolutionary invasion
of the Soudan. An idea of the diff
ficulties involved may be gathered IN
the following from the New York
World:
"Rockefeller, Flagler and a dozen
other rich men connected with the