The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1905-07-13
RYAN A VERY BAD
Man SAYS LAWSON
Part OF aFrenzied Finance" Au.
thor's Speech Is Devoted
to Mr.. Ryan.
HE ALSO FLAWS MORTON
Ryan Is Declared to Be a skinfint o.
the Worst Order Who Is Not
Particular How He Makes
and Keeps Money.

Ottawa, Kan, July 12.-One Of the
greatest features Of Thomas w. Law
SOM speech here Saturday was his
bitter attack on Thomas F. Ryan, head
ciety. and Paul Morton, chairman OF
the board of directors. He said:
You all know I hollered thief so
loudly in my. story "Frenzied Finance"
that the officers and directors of the,
Equitable Life Insurance got
alarmed, and two factions began grab
bling for the control of the institution
50 as to put the evidence of past rob
closed in on them. They made such a
rumpus in their fighting tina the author
tiles were compelled to take cognizance
such a condition Of r%ottenness was I'M
covered hat something had to be done
to straighten out the muddle. 1t was one
tenn is sometimes unexpectedly confront-
ed with. and something had to be don
quickly to appease you American people
whose $500. 600, 900 of savings were involved.
How did they deal with this terrific stu
ation-their bars all down, Wall street at
g standstill, the people of the country
rising in their wrath? Did they go out
and select some man Of unquestioaed
probity and character to rehabilitate the
devastated Institution? No hurriedly they
met at night and next morning it was an
nounced to the world that the whole af-
fair had been properly, fairly and squarely
settled, and that the people need have
no further fear for the safety of their
surplus for one Thomas F.. Ryan had pur-
chased from the dicredited Hyde five hun
dred and two shares of the Equitable
stock for two and one-half million dollars
got away with the hundreds OF millions
of your savings which the great 1Iquit-
able ompany holds. You must know that
these five hundred and two shares for
which Ryan was willing to pay two and
a half million are only entitled, legally,
to receive $500 per annum; in dividends,
more than $10o, 900. AS his representative,
Mr.. Ryan appointed Mr.. Paul Morton,
the rebate-giving vice-president of the
A latinn ma Iai III to manage the corpo,
holders are given a square deal. Who are
these two men to whom you are asked to
trust the support of your wives and chill
dren and mothers in cases of your death?
Personally l know neither of them, and
In their individual capacity l am told they
are good fellows. Mr.. Ryan, they say, is
a generous and Whole-souled gentleman,
who gives back to the people in charity,
just as other good fellows do a mill on
each OF the dollars he takes from the peo-
pie In business.
You may nave read what a certain Bal
fimore banker OF high reputation and
standing, John Shelton Williams. presi-
dent OF the Seaboard air line. has been
telling about the manner in which he OBJ
tanned control of this important railway
system for a comparatively small sum Of
money, and how, since, in defiance of
promises and agreements and other pied
ges he had held on to it. bleeding it to the
1 ton.
It is not 50 many years ago that this
Thomas F. Ryan, soon after putting to-
gether the various s~ub-conlpanies which
form the tobacco trust, had been baked
IN Hoatllg some hundred odd millions of
bonds and stocks on the public at three or
four times their real value, and was
p1nched for ready money. At about this
time a New York bank examiner bounced
down suddenly on one of his trust COM
panles. Among the securities of this cor
poratlon, the State Trust mpan was
a note signed by one Dan Shea for s., co.,
ooCo. AS it was a criminal offense for the
trust company to loan on any one name,
never mind how good the collateral, over
a sn1ali traction Of the amount of this
note, the examiner called in the officers
ana directors and gave them a choice Of
telling what they knew about Mr.. Shea
or summoning them before the grand jury.
lnereupon Mr., Ryan boldly announced
that Shea was his 14-year-old office boy on
$3.50 a week. This is the same Thomas +.
Ryan who has been called in as the savior
or the 100000 policyholders of the Equitable
with it's S4o, O0O,0W odd of null ted
funds.
AS for Paul Morton, you of the west
KNOW more about his morals and methods
than do, for he ran your Atchison road,
and when he was testifying before the in
terState commerce commission as to the
rebate evil, calmly admitted it was a bad
practice, but he allowed it because he had
TO DO as the Romans did. I don't know
myself Just what Romans do, but as 7 said
before. President Roosevelt said Morton
was all right. and that's good enough for
me, but whether the president meant that
Was all right enough to run the 600, 600
Equitable policy holders 412 millions as
tleutenanf for the frenziediest of all
lfcnzled ilnanciers in the home of ''fren-
zled finance" is something must leave
10 our good president to answer.