Arizona republican., 1905-04-08
PHoENIx. ARIz.. APRIL s. 1905.
A Fight for Four Hundred r1nions.

The sensational contest over the naturalization" of the Equitable m surance company has resulted-on pa per-in a victory for the faction which has insisted that the policy holders must have a voice in the management of the stupendous concern. To what extent the scheme for naturalization may be carried remains to he seen but in any case it is safe to say that the business of the company will be carried on as hitherto-that is, small group of men in New York will re- main :n actual control.
 There are three great "old line life insurance companies-the New York Life. the New York Mutual, and the Equitable. The New York Life and the Mutual are purely mutual concerns; the Equitable is a "close corporation with a capital stock of only S100,0OO, and it's fifty directors are elected by the stockholders; the policy holders have no voice in the management, and most of the directors are merely "dum- mics"
 And yet, in practice. there is sub stantiaHy no difference in the methods by which these three companies are managed. Ostensibly the officers of the mutual companies are chosen by the policy holders. In actual practice the policy holders give proxies to the president of their company, and he votes the proxies in accordance with his own judgment. Probably not one policy holder in a hundred appreciates the fact that he has even a technical right to a voice in the management of the company in which his life is in sured. He is solely concerned with the fact that his life $ insured, for the benefit of his family. in a company which is undoubtedly sound. Wheth- CT it be the stock company or the two mutual companies. the financial affairs thereof are managed and absolutely dictated by a small number of wealthy men in New York Each of these won derfuI companies has assets approxi- mating the sum of 400 million dollars The human mind cannot comprehend the vastness of these assets. Acting together as these three companies ire quently do in financing a great pro ject. like the reorganization of rail- road. for instance, they absolutely dom mate the money market of the Unit ed States.
 It is easy to see, therefore, why the fight for control of the Equitable has become a battle of enormous propor- tions Owing to the surplus accumu- lated since that company was organ ized by the late Henry B. Hyde with a paItry capital of s1OO.O0O. the hun dred thousand dollars worth of shares have reached a value of more than sSO. .OOO, 900. In addition to that, the con- trol of the shares gives control of the assets of 400 millions. The great bank ing houses which make a business of underwriting financial projects of large scope are careful to keep on good terms with the managers of the insurance companies. Indeed, the di- rectors of the insurance companies are quite likely to be found as directors oi the banks and trust companies.
 The opportunity for a change in the management of the Equitable company was presented when the social doings of young James H. Hyde, president ot the company, became a matter of na- tional gossip. Mir. Hyde is president of the company by virtue of the shares he inherited from his father. He gets a salary of $1OO,OOO a year from his company He is not thirty years old His enemies alleged that he was not only unfit to be the president and au- tocrat of such a vast cOnccrn-a com pany in which the welfare of 60O,O0C policy holders and 3.OOO,OOO of their relatives was bound up-but that he was dominated by F. H. Hartman anC his associates-a group of gentlemen engaged in watering the securities O transcontinental railroad companie and in selling these securities to tn, insurance company.
 In order to overthrow the Hartman Hyde party. the effort to convert th' Equitable into a mutual company Wal undertaken. The success of this eff fort must be largely on paper, fo reasons pointed out by a correspond ent of the New York Sun:
 ''In the naturalization of the Equit able there should be a provision tha all votes of policy holders must b offered in person. Otherwise the com pany will only be 'mutualized' in name In a properly organized mutual If insurance company the directors ar elected by the policy holders, and tn directors elect the officers systen has grown up by which the reverse C