The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-16
MIR. HYDE SPEAKS OUT
CAN NO LONGER KEEP SILENT UN-
 DER MISREPREsENTATIO
Equitnble's vfce-President Tells of Ger tain Underwriting Syndicate Operations in Which He Was
 Interested,

press matters covered by your pro
 posed investigation, and 1t has beei
 impressed upon all of us that the dail!
 publication of scandal may gravely in
 jure the Society's business. I have ab
 solutely kept faith in this matter, bu
 will no longer suffer the concession
 which I have made for the beneft O
 the policyholders and the Society ant the steps which I have voluntaril!
 taken to be misrepresented and dis
 torted in the public press by those wh'
 have not kept faith and who will neve'
 keep faith.
 | This mornings papers contained cer' tain statements about me which ar'
 designedly misleading and essentiall, false. I, therefore, propose to make the facts known. They are as follows
 At the outset of the present Equitable
 controversy I was charged with hay ing been a party to various underWrlt' ling syndicates known as James ii lHyde and associates, where participa- Itions have been taken and where, It was claimed, the underwriters had made a profit by the use Of funds or the Equitable Society.
 No such profit had. in fact, been made by the use of the funds of the Equitable but there had been syn dicate known as James H. Hyde ana associates, including James w. Alexan- der. President of the Socitey, twhose participation was always equal to my I aan1 and this syndicate had been un- | derwriters of a number Of pankins IS | sues of securities and the Equltabie i, Society purchased in some instances | in the ordinary course of business, ee- | curities which had been underwrltten by this syndicate. ,, | At the outset of this controversy MT James w. Alexander and l were poth | hal a syndicate transactions in which any or fcers of the Equitable Society had been | interested. a full statement should De made up and laid before the Board ot Directors and whatever law and justice reonired regarding them should be done by the officers concerned.
 Following the advice referred 10 l examined all these syndicate trahsae tions and deposited my check for S0l,- 446 e2 with the treasurer of the society as trustee This amount represented my entire profits from syndicate trans actions of the character above mem tioned with 6 per cent interest up 10 the date of such deposit. This deposit was accompanied by the statement that I made it because l preferred to nave any question about this matter settled with the money under the control of the society and this deposit was made for the benefit of the society, if the Board of Directors thought the money should be retained by 1t or returned to me, if it should be determined that was entitled to it.
 In other words, this money was de- posted to be disposed of as the pro- priety of these transactions might be finally determined. I made no restitu- tion I admitted no wrong doing. l admit none now. I merely put the so- ciety in the position to make itself good so far as l was concerned if It should be determined by the proper authority that transactions of mine, in nocently made. made with the sanction of universal precedent made with the approval and following the example of the president of the society; made without the concealment of any facts and made without intent to injure the society and with no such injury as their result, raised a situation either tech nically or substantially entitling the society to profits to which l supposed and now believe were legitimately mine My concessions have been deliberately misconstrued, my silence has been mis- represented and the self-seeking per sons who have prepared the present trouble and who. masking as friends of the policyholders, are striving to deprive me of my property and to se cure for themselves continued control of the society. persist in violating faith and in publishing and conniving at the publication of attacks on me support ed by garbled extracts from the re- cords of the society. including the cor respondence of the president, to which these persons have been or are given access.
 I shall do all in my power to carry out the amended charter giving the policyholders the selecting of the ma jority of the board. Beyond this I will make no further concession from my legal rights and I shall defend as well as I may the rights which I have reserved.
 You shall have my earnest co-opera- tion in making your investigation searching and it's results full and hon. est. But you must protect me from these infamous daily attacks in the | newspapers or put me at liberty to | make my own defense in my own way |
 I have to request that you cause | this communication to be published l Otherwise I shall be compelled to se- cure its publication. I am.
 Very respectfully,
 (Signed) James H. Hyde.
 President James w. Alexander of the Equitable Life Assurance Society when shown the letter of MT. Hyde at his home tonight gave out the following answer in writing:
 MT. ftyOe s statement on the subject of alleged syndicate participations by me is untrue. On receipt a few weeks ago of letter from Mir. Hyde accom- panying the checks to which he refers, l stated to him that the matter was one that ought to be fully sifted and I requested that I be furnished at once with a complete statement from him on the subject. This request has not yet been complied with. No disclos- ures as to MT. Hydes acts have got into print through me. I may say that many statements intended to be injurious to me have been given to the press by those interested in defeating the movement set in motion by me for the benefit of the policyholders. The ] have traced to press bu- -eaus identified with MT. Hyde. but I nave preferred to suffer these baseless attacks upon my conduct and motives rather than resort to suca methods in contest for principles which regard sd as vital and in the discharge of du- .ies which are more grave and onerous han any which I have ever been com 1elled to perform.
 TAKE A BOAT RIDE TODAY