The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-07-14


@ a perusal of the testimony taken y,
by Superintendent Hendricks in
the case OF the Equitable Life Assurance
society is simply disheartening.
That the greed of gain and plain dis
honesty lies at the basis of the detee-
tive administration of public affairs mas
been shown in recent scandals, national
state and municipal-the latest being the
betrayal of his trust by Mr.. Holmes or
the department of agriculture, in selling
the secrets of his office to spectators
in cotton.
In the causes of recent bank failures
the same lack of moral sense, the same
dregard of the obligations by r. ees
have been brought to light and IN the
Equitable case 1t Is the same story in
exaggerated form. The damning state
ment published by Superintendent Hem
bricks three weeks ago was issued as
a preliminary report and the testimony
shows that the expected supplementary
report should make an even wo-7H exhip-
1t of the actions of men who have been
regarded by the community as eminent
citizens and wealthy and reputable men
of affairs. 1t is plain that the whole
shameful story has not even yet been
told.
When 1t Is remembered that the execu-
tive officers of this company were trns-
tees of the funds of prospective widows
and orphans, their actions as narrated
by themselves to the superintendent OF in
surance and their apparent unconscious
ness of the heinous character OF these
actions afford astounding revelaticns or
moral obliquity. What is the thought or
millionaire directors who obtain great
loan of trust funds to promote an en-
terprise for their personal profit and
who ultimately become guarantees of the
Indebtedness and when their scheme has
failed take advantage of legal technical
tiles and contend that their guarantee is
not legally binding?
What of the man who for years has
drawn an enormous salary from the SO
ciety for his advice as an experienced
and presumably astute lawyer and imam
cier who participates in this transaction
who as a member of the executive COM
mittee votes for that loan to l'---elf
and associates and now holds that his
guarantee was not guarantee in fact
and who pleads 1.-THE baby act as to the
entire transaction? And this man. be-
cause of his presumed wisdom and ex-
perience, is director in more than three
score of corporations What comr:sn-
tary upon directorates which do IL
rect!
Here we have one of the banker direc-
tors of the Equitable fatty declaring that
his firm never sold to the society certain
securities which the record of the latter
shows that he bought from him. What
does that suggest? Simply that the oper-
atoms of the Syndicate composed of
officials of the Equitable company were
vastly more numerous and extensive than
indicated by the report of the Prick COM
mittee or that of superintendent Hen
bricks. The syndicate operations men,
toned by them--and the profits of which
they demand shall be turned over to the
society-are confined to those in which
the Equitable was concerned as partic-
ipant or as ultimate buyer of the securi-
ties at higher prices from the syndicate.
But how about the syndicate operations
in which the Equitable does not figure
as a matter of record? With the known
fact that they had the Equitable treas
ury behind them and could If necessary
turn the securities over to 1T the MEM
bers of such syndicate would have UNI
limited credit to participate in underwrit-
ings and in the rising markets of re-
cent years the securities thus underwrit-
ten could in nearly all instances have
been sold in the market at enormous
profit They would be unloaded on the
Equitable only in case they declined or
the profit proved to be insignificant. How
many syndcates there were besides the
few that became matter of record in
the Equitable books? superintendent