The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1905-10-26
MUTUAL AGAIN EXPOSED
Corrupt Business Methods and Po-
Iiticai Deals Shown Up.
OWNED A HOUSE AT ALBANY

Dwelling For Lobbyists at State Capital
Paid For by the Policy Holders-PNr-
jury i'm Frauds AlleGed-witnesses
"Forget'' Many Fast Happenlnss-Mc-
Curdy Continues ON Stand.
New York City.-The trail of dollars
leading from the yellow dog" fund
Of the Mutual Life Insurance Company
supply department to the Albany
illegal expenses" has been thoroughly
exposed. The Legislative Insurance
Committee listened to the amazing
declaration Of a Mutual Life witness
that for the last ten years that COM
pany had maintained a houses at Albany
during the legislative sessions for the
mysterious and missing A. G. Fields,
legislative agent; that the bills of the
cook and the butler, the janitor and the
caretaker, had been paid by the policy
holders of the Mutual and had been
hidden from view under blind charges
in the supply department accounts. In
this house, while legislators, the wit
ness said, had lived Appraisal Commits
Sioner Charles p. McClelland, of West
chester, a State Senator and member
Of the Insurance Committee, and ex-
Senator Graney, of the same county,
who was at first an ASSembfyman.
Whether the Mutual also paid their
expenses was not disclosed. Such well
known legislative agents as Gene
Woods and Moe Dinkelspiel were not
i~nfrequent visitors at the house.
Nor did the revelations pause here.
The former partner of Fields in a
Dobbs Ferry livery stable was shown
in the new role of IN examiner of the
State Insurance Department, and he
admitted that for no apparent reason
he was accustomed to drop in" on
Fields at his Mutual Life Office. But
the saddest phase of the proceedings
was that involving the testimony of
an unfortunate telephone boy, also an
employe of the Mutual, who swore
that a signature on a voucher for
$950.15 was not his, and then twice
wrote his signature, which was so alb
Solutely like the one on the voucher
that the attention Of District Attorney
Jerome vas called to the apparent
perjury. The case of the boy, George
Plunkitt, is now under Amusement by
Assistant District Attorney Rand, who
came to the committee room and ex-
amined the signature. A case of
perjury or forgery was certainly shown
in this case, and criminal action of
some sort will soon follow.
But Plunkitt's testimony was not the
only surprising instance of fOrgetful-
ness on the part of a witness. Edgar
w. Rogers, President Of the Globe
Printing Company, a dummy concern,
aoD4uolIaI hr- xe0oIo, Wy O.
Co., through which a portion of the
100000 printing business done by
Lawrence for the Mutual was trans
acted, and q clerk in the Lawrence
firm, suffered an absolute failure of
memory when confronted with a
voucher signed with his name, and,
like the Plunkitt voucher, bearing the
Endorsement of A. G. Fields. Equally
amazing was the sworn testimony of
Frank B. Jordan, a son of Thomas d.
Jordan, the missing controller Of the
Equitable, who was dismissed by Pres
ident Paul Morton for refusing to sup
ply information regarding the $685., 900
"yellow-dog" fund of the Equitable,
that he had no knowledge as to the
whereabouts of his father. Three con-
Secutive exhibitions of such mental
atrophy have not been seen at the in
quiry hitherto.
Still another remarkable feature of
this session was the effort of James
NJ. Beck, attorney for the Mutual, to
convict Mr.. Hughes of unfairness in his
treatment Of witnesses. Mr.. Beck has
had several earlier encounters with
Mr.. Hughes, faring badly each time.
but on this occasion he was ever more
unfortunate. for when his attack was
ended Mr.. Hughes made a brief,
straightforward statement of his con-
slant effort to be fair to witnesses and
his frequent self-repression in the face
of their evasive tactics. This was
greeted by a burst of applause more
vigorous than any hat has yet broken
the orderly proceedings of the session,
and when it ended Richard A. Nc
Curdy, President of the Mutual, who
was then on the stand, arose and in a
few words expressed his personal ap-
probation and approval Of Mr.. Hughes
courtesy toward him. This left Mr..
Beck entirely stranded, and he sat for
several minutes ~nervously toying with
a piece of string. He made no further
effort to- interrupt Mr.. Hughes.
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