The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1905-10-18
LIVELY TIMES
FOR M'CURDY
Is Jeered at by Crowd Present
Turing His Examination
But LIARS GAN FIGURE
EVEN IF FIGURES DON'T LIE
FAcETioUsLY RESPONDED
WITNESS TO All iNTERRO-
CATION BY HUGHES.

New York, Oct. 17.-Testimony in
the insurance investigation, which
was resumed today was most exciting
throughout the entire day, and only
the repeated threats of Senator Arm
strong, chairman of the committee to
clear the room prevented violent dem
onstratons Of disappr0bation Of the
witness, who was Richard A.McCurdy-
president AZ tne Mutual Life Insurance
Company
Ais il wa however, there We're Jeers
at several periods Of the days testi,
mony. These came when Hughes,
counsel for the committee, asked ques'
tions that McCurdy was reluctant to
answer or evaded, and were made
by he crowd that stood al The back OF
the room
In McCurdy's testimony to-day a fea
ture entirely new was disclosed, aud
this was that the Mutual Life employ
ed a literary burea an to send our TO the
press Of the country news matter chat
Was of benefit to the company. This
information was eicued turing the
probing Of the The "lesal expenses
account Two items Of $2500 eacn
were hown. payments beng made 20
Joseph Howard Jg, who McCuIdy said
was the newspaper correspondent who
syndicated news stories
During the earlier session II Inc day
an attempt was made to obtain from
McCurdy, the reason for reducing the
dividends on pOiicies as the bu. mess
increased and assets piled mp. The
question was prompted BY the large
number OF Letters reca we'd from policy
holders by the committee and cited
facts and examples. These letters
came from all over The country,
Hughes explained, but he read mum
ber from policy holders who lived In
the city. The examples cited were ten
year payment life plan One in partic
uar for $4,000 that in 1878 drew a
dividend Of $55.7G had been gradually
cut until in 1904 it received only 81.
The writer inclosed the tables and
statements from the company's reports
and said that this was in the face of
the reserve increasing year after year.
To all questions ON this matter the
witnc said he was not fortified with
the information required; that these
were actuarial matters; and when
pressed fer his opinion, replied that
he refused to discuss the question or
10 enter any discussion. He would
proifer a wtnes, his actIary, whose
blsiness II was TO know these things,
but as for himself he would not dis
cuss the question" McCurdy's demea1
or was so insistent, and at times de
fiant. that the spectators bent forward
20 catch every word and stood on tip
toe. expecting every moment TO hear
him directed by counsel TO answer the
question His proffer of another wit
ness was all that prevented steps he
ing taken toward his Indictment.
After taking up the questions of re
duction Of dividends Hughes read a
long list Of policy numbers with the
amounts of the face of the policy
what had been paid in, and the diyi-
dends received by policy holders.
Asked what he had 10 say to these,
McCurdy said figures don't lie. hut
liars can figure ne then hastily eX
plancd chat he meant that facetiously
aud that he would be glad to verify
the figures. That only explanation for
p speciic instance Of the reduction Of
dividends McCurdy gave was that he
supposed the policy holder had a re.
duced rate policy.
During the examination into ex-
pensea today Hughes showed McCurdy
a voucher for the payment Of $4,000 10
William A. Fricke formerly insurance
commissioner OF Wisconsin. and a let
ter from Charlton r. Lewis. an attor-
ney Of Madison. Wis. The letter
stated that Fricke would accept a re
tainer TO see that the interests Of the
Mutual Life should come 10 no harm
the voucher but could not rem mber
the details. Mr. McCurdy said:
Lewis told me he had spent one
winter in educating the minds Of the
legislators Of Michigan. Wisconsin and
Ohio with regard 10 certain legislation
affecting insurance companies.
lie went to Washington and spent
some weeks gseting acquainted with
The senator's and eongressmen from
that state. He got on friendly footing
with them so that he might speak %
them OF the damage legislation wouid
do the insurance business and got let
ters from them back to the legisla-
tors in the state assembly. For this
received $4,000 for bis own services
and expenses for travelling and employ
ing men. but not one dollar except for
legislative purposes
Various fteme Of expense were gone
into. among them oue Of ten thousand
dollar. pad Thomas # BoWIes. for
me-iy the company general aFenI ar