Los Angeles herald., 1905-07-02
FEDERAL CONTROL
OF LIFE INSURANCE
RYANs CAPTURE OF EQUITABLE
A STEP ON THE WAY
Big Companies Either Desire II or
VIII Aoqulesee-Roosevelt ls for
It-Rysn and His huge Strength
IN Finance

ob0Cihi 10 lHe fteTAlos
NEW YORK, July 1.-President
Roosevelt's proposition, embodied in
his letter to Paul Morton, the new
chairman of the Equitable Insurance
society, to place the insurance business
of the country under federal super
vision has been more generally ap-
proved in financial circles than was to
be expected, considering the existing
prejudices of business men against de-
parture towards paternalism in gov
ernment. 1t is already apparent, al
though the presidents views have been
publicly known only two weeks, that
Wall street does not intend to oppose
federal supervision Of insurance when
the president gets ready to establish it.
John A. Mccall president of the New
York Life, is on record as favoring the
presidents proposed new policy. Nc
Call is a Democrat who supported Mr..
| Roosevelt in the last campaign.
Thomas F. Ryan of the Equitable
doubtless knew that federal supervision
is inevitable when he selected Morton,
the presidents friend, to be head Of
that society. The strong men of the
Mutual, the Metropolitan, the Pru-
Dental and the principal Connecticut
and western companies are talking re-
signedly, If not contentedly, of the idea.
| All this is due to both the acknowl-
| edged necessity for reform in the rela-
tions between insurance companies and
| financial, commercial and industrial
institutions, and the reputation which
President Roosevelt has of doing
things which he proposes to do. Fear
of paternalsm, too, which excited the
quasi-public corporations last year,
| has yielded to the steadiness Of the
presidents course in the Santa Fe case
and the assurances of Secretary Taft
that the Republican party will never
commit itself to the policy of govern
ment ownership of interstate CONNER
cial utilities.
Remembering the issue to which the
president brought the Northern Securi-
| ties case and the anthracite coal strike,
the big men Of Wall street expect him
quickly to follow up the declaration of
his letter to Morton.
Ryan has tremendous difficulties,
many of which the Hendricks report
passed upon, to overcome. His Equi-
table coup goes far to justify the presi-
dents unofficial judgment of him as
factor in the large financial affairs of
the country When he purchased the
Hyde holdings he defeated the scheme
of half Wall street, which sought,
under cover of the Hyde-Alexander
| row, to control the great property for
purposes of manipulation rather than
| to revive its old successes achieved
under Henry B. Hyde. What Ryan
may succeed in doing cannot be fore
cast at this time, but 1t is conceded
| that he will have the decks well cleared
for action when the serious struggle
for insurance supremacy of the world
begins.
| Wall street now understands that it
is Ryan's intention to make the Equi-
table the greatest insurance company
in the world. Just how strong the
Ryan resources are may be seen at a
glance. They include the American
Surety company, the American Tobacco
company and its constituent corpora
tions; the Consolidated Gas company
and subsidiary concerns; the Bethle-
hem Steel company; the Hooking Val
ley Railroad company; the Industrial
Trust company; the Metropolitan Sc
curities company, owning the surface
street car lines of New York; the Ma
tional Bank of Commerce; the Sea-
Board Air Line railway; the Union Ele-
waited of Chicago; the United Lead
company; the Washington Life Insur-
ance company; and the Morton Trust
company.
This chain links in close relationship
the Morton Trust company, the Mutual