The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1905-10-23
LAWSON And
HIS CRITICS
AN OPEN LETTER TO John a. Nc.
CALL, PRESIDENT NEW YORK
LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY.

Sir: It is time your attention was
called to the moral sense Of the Amer,
lean people. It is time some one
dragged you out of the Wall street
conservatory and set you IN the plain
white light Of daily life. y It's time
you were shown yourself as you are
to-day seen by the millions yaf your
countrymen who. a month ago, be-
lieved you to be a great and honorable
man. z
In spite OF the terrible exposures of
the past few weeks. in spite of the
pitiless reyealment of yourself and
your directors as tricksters, in spite
OF the unwilling of the jugglery, graft
ing and corruption OF your administra-
tion Of the most sacred trust. that can
be confided to man, you remain uncon-
WINGED of your fall and unpenetrated
by your shame. Fortified by the SYM
pathy OF your fellow sinners, you i'm
agine your audacious buster and your
sly eyasions before the Investigating
Committee of the State OF New York
represented shrewd generalsLip and
able strategy. forgetting that the en-
envy against whom your maneuvers
were directed was the American peo-
pie and that, in this inquisition, your
character and reputation We're as alb
solutely before the bar as though YOU
had been indicted for sequestration OF
the funds of some dead friends wife.
Throughout this broad country OF
ours are good Americans who have
shaved and toiled to gather up the hun.
dreds Of dollars which you have exact
ed from them yearly as the price of
the future livelihood of their wives
end children, or as the provision for
their own old age. You have made
yourself the custodian of these funds
under sacred pledge of fair dealing
and safe and honest administration.
You have made yourself the national
executor, the great depository of the
moneys of the widow and the orphan.
You have cried your virtue and honor
ableness from the housetops, and, IN.
der the stress of your pleadings, hun
1 dreds of millions of dollars have been
confided to you annually-scorss OF
millions of the nation have been turn.
ed into your cefferss all BECAUSE you
insisted that youswere honest beyond
all other mem anu that the--dear ones
left behind might rely on your generos.
ity and integrity for their Support.
And 1t is with the moneys that
might at any time have been claimed
ty these widows and orphans tia, yo,,
have been rigging syndicates, debauch
y ing legislatures. manipulating stock
markets and doing other things which
will be proven later. Instead of en-.
ploying the vast powe. and the i'm.
niense wealth intrusted to you to con.
: serve the interests of your policy-hold
ers, you have made yourself part OF
the cruel robbing. machine. which the
System. has createdS to deprive the
American people of their savings. I'm.
der the pretense, ofsseeking profitable
Investment. your corporation with
your own children and relatives. and
their relatives, and conferred on their
Z great salaries out of which they have
grown rich. You have pail ont tc
friends and associates, on various
pleas, enormous sums that rightly be
longed to your policyholders. YOU
have done all these things hahitually
yet to-day You describe the investiga
ton being conducted into your opera
Lions as s,i impertinen:e. and secretly
you regard this inquis't.oh and al
that pertains to it as waste of time