The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1905-12-09
Purchaser Of Hyde's tquit.
able Stock Testilies.
DOING PUBLIC SERVICE
Gave 81. 100000 10 Avert Worst
Financial Panic Country Had
Ever Known.

NIM lhAha NV ~ A""sA"" y
RYAN put himself in con,emp, 81 the
legislative Insurance COMMITTEE. BY To-
flslns. on the advice of counsel. % an
.wcr all questions bearing upon con
vcr~aiion had with Edward n. Hari'
man when Hartman sought TO brcak
into n shar. % the Ryan purchase Of
Equitable stock.
Tho rommiticc has all the powers Of
cou'. In fact. Il represents the high
cat a. ~ In the state.
und r protest Ryan admitted that q
few ,'ys or the day after he had pur'
chase Iyde's Equitable stock Harri-
man had asked 20 share In the owner
ship
Il declined" said Ryan. Il didn't
want Mr.. Hartman or any one else
who had anything 10 do with IN. big
insurance companies In any way 10 be-
In this matter with me-
Hughes pressed for the reasons which
Hartman advanced TO be permitted to
become n partner Of Ryan.
Ryan said he didn't think he should
he asked 10 repeat = private conversa'
ton.
Paul u. Cravath. Ryan's personal
counsel. advised the witness not 10 an
swer unless he wished 10 do 50.
why did you invest s2,5oo.Oco In
stock which you Immediately handed
over TO trustees and from which you
could get no more than per centT'
asked Hughes.
Il thought was doing n great public
service" answered Ryan slowly. Il
believed AZ the time and believe now
that II the Equitable had gone into the
hands Of receiver this country would
have seen a most tremendous panic.
the worst Il had ever known
Ryan described the conditions OBJ
tanning at the time he bought the Equi.
table by saying that he had great inter.
ests nj stake which might have been
sacrificed.
The Hyde stock. added It's present
master. was paid for by his check for
S2.50O.O00.
And here follows the examination:
"Will you state. Mr.. Ryan, what led
you to make the purchaser"
Il had very large interests that were
sure to be affected seriously by any
disturbance in the financial situation
or confidence In New York or any dis.
aster that might come. saw In the
virtual certainty Of receivership OF
the Equitable Life such q disaster i'm
pending unless the factional differences
in the company among the directors
and the mana cement OF the company
should be radically changed. To avert
this and to prevent the frightful losses
that would occur from the violent
breaking up Of the Equitable, not only
to the policy holders, but to the finan-
cial community ut large-myself AZ
WE'LL thought that some one ought to
undertake the business. My theory
about success In America is that q
man is not judged so much by what he
has as he is by what he does, and this
seemed to me to be thing worth do
ing. My first idea was to get together
number or policy holders who would
take this company out of the hands In
which it was going to destruction and
give 1t clean management, economical
and efficient, and restore its prosperity
for the benefit Of all honest interests.
soon concluded that the amounts that
could be obtained from dlsinterested
people-people who had no axes to
grind-would be very small, so l con-
cluded to do it myself"
1t is said that District Attorney Je-
rome is to be requested by the legisla-
tive investigating committee to insti-
tute proceedings to punish Mr.. Ryan
for his refusal to answer questions ad-
dressed to him by Mr.. Hughes, counsel
for the committee.