Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1905-06-21
AS TO 100000 SALARIES.
[By d. w. Norris, of Grinnell.]

If Lawson had done nothing else bu
expose the manner in which the life
| insurance trust is handled in Wal
street, he would have earned the graft
| tude Of the American people. TEE
| Equitable expose makes shocking read
ing. In all the history of finance there
has been nothing more disgraceful
For many years there has been a sus-
picion among we'll informed men that
the Equitable and New York Life were
| given to questionable practices, but IL
was rot believed that the Mutual Life
and the Prudential We're manipulated
| by the Wall street pirates, until Law
| son told the story of the composite di-
rectorate and how two hundred mill
| ions were kept ready to make and I'M
make millionaires. 1t is quite certain
| that the men who founded these So
cieties never intended that these funds
should be used to bull or bear stocks
or float securities to cheat the public
and it is also quite certain that moth
ing could be farther from the proper
use of trust funds.
Life insurance is a legitimate busl-
ness. The funds intrusted to the keep
ing of the life companies are trust
funds, and there is no trust more sac
red. The men in charge of these funds
must be honest and they must use
their trust for the sole benefit of the
heneficiaries. or the whole business Is
discredited. The life insurance policy
ought to be ones most valuable and
valued asset, and when the public
II hn nfficprS and directors
of three of the greatest companies in
the world were banded together IN
conspiracy about as unholy and scoua-
drely as human ingenuity could invent
for the purpose of enrlch1ng them-
selves, it gave life insurance DO"
from which it will take many years
to recover.
If the damage wrought were conhned
to the members of the Equitable alone,
IT would not be so bad, but every one
interested in life insurance suffers from
this exposure All life insurance COM
panies are indirectly involved IN TINS
disaster Their expenses go right on.
Each company has an army OF men
in the field. The management may pc
superb, the dividends to policy holders
large. the funds safe, and yet they are
doing no business. The proVldehl
man. whose first thought ought 10
be and is, protection for the VIE ana
children. is stunned. II the fmlas ol
the companies controlled by Standard
al, moraIists, and Standard Oh morals
are so used, why, he asks, may not tne
funds of the company in winch ne 10
insured be used in the same way
The writer of this article Is now
YEARLY 60 wears of age. He took out
b;s first policy at the age OF "a; ne
has made life insurance more or less
of a study ever since, ana u Is ~,
conclusion that notwithstanding an
the disgraceful things that nave oc-
Cured, his funds are absolutely saie.
If he were without life insurance TO-
day. he would seek it, but he Woulo not
seek it in any company doing business
in New York City. And in spite OF all
disclosures. 1 now say that no funds
on earth are managed generally win
more faithfulness than life insurance
funds. Because one bank fails, one
does not Withdraw his deposit and hlde
1T in the oven. The loss by bank 1all-
ure is infinitisimal as compared with
the billions than are faithfully guard
ed Because one life insurance COM
pany fails is no reason for cancelllns
policies or failing to protect your Wiie
and children and creditors. for the
loss by the failure of life insurance
companies has been so small In COM
parison that it would take long row
of decimals to express it. But no life
insurance comany has failed IN re-
cent years, and we have no reason 10
think that any one of them is ABOUT
to fail. The Equitable has not falled
and it is not going to fail. Inc gang
in control of the company had no no.
ton of letting it fail. 1t was hen that
laid a great big golden egg, every ume
that Alexander of Hyde or Hartman
or any other one of these rascals set 1t
on the table and told 1t to cackle.
Your policy in the Equitable is worth
100 cents on the dollar and will remain
so. 1t is probably costing you many
dollars annually more than the same
policy would cost you in any Of the
well managed companies outside Of
New York And why? Because the
officials have been Systematically rob-
bling you all these years. If there are
100000 policy holders in the Equitable,
and each has paid excessive premiums
of S25 per annum, it means $15,000,000
a year to the rapacious crew that has
been milking the public. The Equit-
able is a stock company; when this
objection was urged you were told that
the stock dividends were limited by
charter to Z per cent annually, and you
were further told that aside fr pm this
expense all the surplus earnings were
applied to the payment of d!1'dends.
and that in pr: ctice the Equitable was
a rlutual company. This was nlaas-
ible statement. If the organizers put
100000 into the treasury to starr tie
company no reasonable person would
object to per cont return on shs:t
money. This was the theory. What is
the fact?
Out of the earnings of this company.
earnings that ought to have been paid
out to policy holders every year as di-
vidends the officials have Withheld a
sum that now amounts to eighty mil
lions This sum they claim, belongs to
the stockholders and yet the charter
limits the stockholders to Z per cent.
If this man Hyde holds fifty-one per
cent of the stock then his share of this
steal amounts to over $40 600 600 Tho