Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-08-05
HIDDEN EQUITABLE LOAN.
Mercantile Trust Carried It in Elder
Hvde's Name

The big loan that the Mercantile Trust
Company carried quietly for James w. AL
exander and Thomas D. Jordan as trus-
tees, from 1899, until Superintendent of In
surance Hendricks made his investigation
| Of Equitable Life affairs. dates back to the
| days of the late Henry B. Hines, founder
of the Equitable. according to authoritative
| information obtained yesterday in New
York
In the form in which It was discovered
and finally taken up for $685., 900 on July
20 last, nomnally for the trustee account.
1t ran back only to the death of the elder
Mr. Hyde. But 1t. appears now that the
loan-or rather its predecessor-was in the
Mercantile Trust for some years before the
Equitable's fouder died. standing in his
own name. and was transferred upon his
death to the trustee account.
Its purposes during it's earlier existence
are. understood to have been those for
which mainly 1t utilized in the past
six >years-the settlement of uncomfortable
litigation or threatened litigation, and the
purchase of Equitable shares that might
have fallen into the hands of undesirable"
persons. 1t is recalled that on one occa-
sion at least an effort was made to wrest
the, control of the Equitable from Henry
B. Hyde. In that instance the once famous
Napoleon Ives. gathered together a con-
siderable amount of Equitable stock for The
purpose of a contest, and it was the lesson
majority stock under the voting trust that
was to expire in June, 1906, when James
II. Hyde will be thirty years old.
1t became known, also yesterday that
pressure will be exerted upon the legisIa-
tive investigators of insurance conditions
to inquire the exact terms under which the
majority Equitable stock was purchased by
Thomas F. Ryan The fact is that directly
after the sale eminent counsel who had
previously acted for the management of
the Equitable were asked to pass upon the
question whether or not. in view of the
will of the late Henry B. Hyde and the
original deed of trust. the stock could lie
sold outright before the expiration of the
trust agreement.
These counsel were unanim Dusty of the
opinion that absolute title to it could not
pass, although in the absence of definite
information they did not doubt that an ar
rangement had been entered inc by which
the actual transfer of the TIE would be
made when James H. Hyde became thirty
years old and the deed of rust expired.
Several Interesting facts about the events
or the days just preceding the transfer of
the stock to Thomas F. Ryan have be-
come public from various sources recently.
One of these explains that portion of the
speech James II. Hyde made in the meet
ing of the board at which the Prick COM
mittee's report was turned down, which
refers to an extremely low offer for the
majority stock by Mr.. Hartman in the
face of the severe attack that the Prick
committee made upon him.
1t appears that the night before the Frlck
report was read to the board Mr. Harrt-
man and another director who stood with
him in the meeting the next day, advised
Mr.. Hyde that If he would only move it's
adoption everything would be taken care
of nicely. This, Mr.. Hyde, upon the ad-
vice of counsel declined to- do somewhat
emphatically. inasmuch as the contents of
the report had not been disclosed to him IT
that time.
Shortly thereafter Mr.. Hartman and H.
c. Prick allowed Mr.. Hyde to read the re-
port, the purport Of which was that he
must get out of the Equitable. and when
the reading concluded offered 800 O0O
for the controlling stock of the society.
The Hartman offer for the stock when the
controversy in the Equitable began was in
the netghborhood of S.. OG0. 600 and Thomas
F. Ryan bought 1t eventually for 81. 500 900
This circumstance Is taken as partly ex-
planning the vehemence of the attack which
James H. Hyde made upon Mr.. Hartman
and his associates in the board when the
report was. spread before the directors the
next day.