The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-15
Wanted Him Made French Am- bassador and Put Out
 of the Way
HYDE PAID S212,5OO ID
 SAVE COMPLAINTS CREDIT
Sensational Testimony Is Presented By the Former Equitable Vice Pres ident Before the Armstrong
 Investigating Committee.

New York November 14.-James n. Hyde. former vice president of the Equit- able Life Assurance society, whose res ipnation followed the sensational disclos- ures in that company last spring which led to the investigation of insurance com many methods by the Armstrong commit- tees of the legislature, the man whose presence as a witness before this coin- mittee has been looked forward to in the expectation that 1t would produce the greatest sensation of the investigation, appeared before the committee today
 MT. Hyde's manner on the stand was one of composure and dehoerauon' anu his replies to questions from counsel were calm and deliberate, and oftimes stuoleo. He was fortified with stalls and data' ana was very frank in his explanations Ere ouently he would become bitter In re1er- ence to some of his associates, and whle his entire testimony was of deep interest and cleared up many points that nave heretofore remained in the dark, 1t was not until late in the day that the sen sational feature of his testimony was developed.
 On the Stand All Day.
 Mir Hyde was called to the stand short ,v after the session opened this morning, and he was under examination all day ,,rtu a few minutes before adjournment wasf 1ken. In anticipation of his pres ence as a witness there was greater crowd than has attended the sessions or the committee heretofore.
 MT Hyde cleared up the matter of the sss5 ooo loan of the Mercantile Trust com pany which appeared on the books or inc Eouitable Life under the caption of "The ]. w. Alexander No. Account Tho account subsequently, under investi- cation on several occasions has been very confusing, none of the witnesses here tofore examined having been able to ex- plain it.
 MT Hyde first heard of this account in the fall of 1902, when it was called to bis attention by President Alexander, who said that he and MT. Jordan had in- curred the loan to take up stock that was being bid up to fictitious values, to the detriment of the company, to settle suits that were hampering the business of the society. and for campaign con tributions This contribution was the one to the last campaign, and was asked for by MT Prick, who suggested 1t for inc benefit of the society. To procure this money MT. Alexander had MT. Hyde write letter to the president of the Mer- camille Trust company, and this letter practically placed him in the position of . guarantor.
 Hyde Paid the Balance.
 Later. when the settlement of the loan was forced, MT. Alexander and MT. Jor- dan raised all they could toward 1t. The stock purchased with part of the loan was sold to Thomas F. Ryan for s2l2,ooo and the balance $2l2, ,5O0 MT Hyde paid personally. He did this because he un- derstood that MT. Alexander was finan- cialy embarrassed. and in bitter tone said:
 Notwithstanding the strained relations with these two gentlemen (Alexander and Jordan), felt bound to see that the debt was liquidated by reason of the letter Mir Alexander extracted from me-
 MT Hyde presented a statement show ing that in the seven years of his con- nection with the Equitable and the allied corporations, his averag ge income had been only A little more than $3S, 900 year. This was figured on seven years salary from the Equitable amounting to s4350O0, from which he deducted his losses in syndicate transactions amounting to $2S645, and the s2l2.5O0 paid on the s6S5000 loan which left a balance of s193,SS4, or an average annual income of s27, ,697 to which was added the average income from his offices in the trust companies of s10,5O0. Witness said he gave this statement to show that he had been misrepresented. The nstruc- tions of MT. Jordan and A c. Fields, the Legislative generalissmo, as MT Hughes referred to him today, MT. Hyde knew nothing about. He said he never consulted with MT. Jordan about legis- lative matters, and that none of the leg islative measures affected him or his in- terests in any way.
 Hartman Instigated Pool.
 Of the s5o00o.o0O Union Pacific pool, MT. Hyde said MT. Hartman instigated it, and explained it to be a holding syndicate for five years. It was under stood that this was for the purpose of controlling the Union Pacific. Mrs Hyde signed the syndicate argreementsat Mir Harriman's suggestion and conferred only with MT. Hartman on the subject The executive committee was not informed of his operation. as MT. Hyde said that MT Alexander did not think 1t necessary and that MT. Hartman requested that the committee be not informed of it.
 Fclipsing all this sensat tional testimony however were the statements of MT Hyde concerning former Governor Odell and MT Hartman relative to the settlement of the shipbuilding company suit by the Mer- cantile Trust company.
 MT. Hyde said that MT. Hartman came to him and advised the settlement ot Odells suit as he feared that powerful influence at Albany would be invoked IT retaliatory measures. MT. Hartman sug. rested as one of these measures the re. vocation of the charter of the Mercantile Trust company. MT. Hyde knew of nc actual steps that were taken, nor of any bill that was introduced, but he was beset with rumors that such steps were about to be taken by legislation The Equitable
 
 fcontfnued oa Seventh Panel