The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1905-07-19

in New York of the directors or the
Equitable Life Assurance society read
reply 10 the charges made by Fran.
els Hendricks. New York state super
intendent of insurance, in his report
against Mr.. Hyde and his father, Hen
nv r. Hyde. At the outset Mr.. Hyde
said that he wished to place on record
his indignant protest" against that
part of the Hendricks report that re-
fected upon the elder Hyde Refer
ring to his father he said:
The fact that this society exists is
due to him. It's success is in the main
due to his efforts Superintendent Hen
bricks would not have said what he
did, and, more, he would not have i'm
piled what he did, if he had informed
himself of all the facts before reach
ing his announced conclusions"
Mr.. Hyde defended the safe deposit
company leases, which he said were
entered into by his father "at great
pecuniary risk to him in the effort to
avert a serious loss to the society
alton Of the safe deposit companies
and declared that las a result Of these
transactions the Equitable Life Assur-
ance society now holds stock of the
Mercantile Trust company valued in
the market at about $11 100000, in
stead of having lost the sum of about
S1,1O1 900, which represented approx
in
1875; so that the Equitable Life Assur-
ance society now has profit of So
9O9, 900 resulting directly from the or
SANITATION and purchase of these three
safe deposit companies by my father
and from the personal pecuniary risk
which he took in order to save the
Mercantile Trust company He con
tinued:
I'm short, at great pecuniary per
sonal risk to himself my father took
ND these safe deposit company bust
nesses, then an asset considered OF lit
tie or no value and in which neither
the society nor the Mercantile Trust
company nor any Of their directors
or stockholders were willing to in
vest, thereby producing a profit of
about S9,9O9.000 to the Equitable Life
Assurance society and incidentally
erecting the safe deposit business
from an experiment into an establish
ed success
I'm view of these facts, | maintain,
and | think it cannot be gainsaid, that
no lust criticism can be made of my
father for these transactions, obvious
.Iy entered into not for the purpose of
personal gain to himself, but for the
purpose of benefting the society at
his own personal risk. ] further call
attention to the fact that those leases
complained of were made either before
| was born or during my childhood.
They have been a part of the records
of the society and open to the inspec-
ton of every superintendent Of insur-
ance for from twenty to thirty years
past. during the greater part of which
time my father and the directors who
voted for these leases were alive and
could have explained the fact% but, so
far as | know, these TRANSACTIONS dur
ing all this time have remained I'M
challenged"
Referring to the Commercial Trust
company of Philadelphia Mr.. Hyde
says:
The superintendent of insurance
reaches the conclusion that the Equi-
table Life Assurance society has lost
a substaRtial sum of money by reason
OF It's transactions with the trust COM
pany, which conclusion, as | under
stand it. is based mainly upon the
proposition that the trust company re
ceived per cent on the amounts ad-
vanced by it on agents balances, while
it paid to the society only per cent on
the society's deposits with it. In reach
ing this conclusion the superintendent
seems to have overlooked the fact that
the society itself collects 5 per cent
on these very agents balances and re-
ceives also 8 per cent on its deposits
with the trust company so that it sus-
tains no loss by reason Of this transac-
ton. while on the other hand, as the SUI
perintendent points out. it receives its
share of the profits of the Commercial
Trust company in the form of divi-
dends on the stock of the trust COM
pany which it owns"
In his report Superintendent Hen
bricks called attention to the fact that
when the capital stock of the Equita
bic Trust company was increased in
1902 from 100000 to $1O00000 the
Equitable Life Assurance society was
entitled to take 1885 shares Of new
stock of this increase and that it only
took G65 shares out of the 1885, and
that 1910 shares. which it had a right
90 take and did not take. were distrib-
uted in the Hyde family.
Mr. Hyde's reply to this was;
AT the time when this increase Of
stock was made the Equitable Trust
company was by no means an assured
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