The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-07-03
HIDES DEFENSE OF HIS
 FATHER IS ATTACKED
STATEMENT ISSUED BY INFEST1- GATING ATTORNEY FOR
 SUPE HENDRICKS.

from It's Treasury to His Pochet-Hs
 Loved Money and Being in Control
 the Society stood Little show in Hsss.
 Transactions.
 Syracuse, N. T., July 2.-Before leav- ing for the west to join Secretary Tafta party to the Philippines, Congressman M. E. Driscoll, who was the investigat- ing attorney for Superintendent of In~ surance Hendricks in the Equitable in vestigation, made statement on the letter of James H. Hyde to the board of directors of the Equitable Life AssurA lance society some days ago. Tn his statement Congressman Driscoll said
 IIyde's protest against the refec~ tions on his fathers memory is quito patural and if his arguments were based on facts and common sense it would appeal very strongly to human sympathy and even prejudieess but ac- cording to my opinion his defense in the form of special pleading only verlaes and strengthens the charge preferred n the Hendricks report Out of his own mouth he convicts his father of reapiuR large profits during during many years at the expense of the trust which 1t was his solemn obligation to protect
 He states some of the early history l of the Mercantile Trust company and the Mercantile Safe Deposit company that the Eqnitable society in about the year 1872, purchased controlling in- Iterest in the Mercantile Trust company. and in 1873 increased its capital stock from $5e0,O0 to $1,000O00 and in 1875 | IA and that the Equitable society had al- ways owned a controlling interest ia 1 the Mercantile Trust company. He f0r-s ther states that a part of the businessr | of the Mercantile Trust company in. about the year 1875 was safe deposil business but in that year after a fulk discussion among the directors andk lstockholders it was determined that thse
 Mercantile Trust company should sel lout the safe deposit company busIr \ to another company. Ii order 1.-the Mercantile Safe DeLosH itsSist Sl Twas organized with a capital aiI
 sSAA HAa lioised was then in existence aiis
 assigned to and assumed by the Mer2 cantile Safe Deposit company upon it's Organization.
 Tn that statement think he errs,
 because the lease now in existence is dated in 1883. Perhaps there was lprior lease He says the books were
 open for all directors in the Mercantile Trust company and the Equitable so1 ciety to subscribe for this stock in the new corporation, the Mercantile Safe Deposit company; that others did n0S ltake 1t very promptly, and his father ltook most of it and paid $2OO,Q00 in cash to the Mercantile Trust company
 for its lease of the safe deposit conpa iny's vaults, and the remaining $1oO.000
 were paid to the treasury of the Mer-
 cantfle Safe Deposit company.
 Right here let me ask, why was it that $2O0,00O in cash was paid to the Mercantile Trust company for the lease
 of the safe deposit company's vaults; unless it was one-sided lease sub- stantially like the present one? Why l was such one-sided lease made by { lthe Equitable society to the Mercan- I tile Trust company? Simply because Mir Henry B. Hyde dominated the lEquitable society absolutely and made Ia jughandled lease with the Mercantile lSafe Deposit company, in which he had stock, and could profit thereby. But IWhy was this profitable lease sold for $200, 1000 in cash? Because the Equits- l ble society owned a majority of the lstoek of the Mercantile Trust company land would indirectly receive a large part of the profits of this very profita- ible lease. That was not profitable
 enough for Mir Henry B. Hyde. He
 therefore created the new organization
 and named it the Mercantile Safe De- Iposit company, got all the stock, and
 therefore, got all the prodts, and the I society suffered all the loss.
 Again, he says that ). $ $ ffsstsiler f s,lbz
 sequently offered this stock to the Equitable society at cost to him, and
 this offer was declined.
 Think of this argument. His father,
 as owner of all or practically all of the lstoclS in the Mercantile Safe Deposit company, offered 1t to the Equitable lsoeiety, which his father absolutely dominated, and because the society. lcontrolled as it was by his father, de- lclined this offer, he nas the nerve to suggest that was fair dealing with the l policyholders.
 Again, all the directors of the society and all the directors of the Mercan- I tile Trust company, and all inc direct l ors of the two safe deposit companies,
 were invited to subscribe for the stock | of this new Missouri Safe Deposit con~ lpany and they declined, and Henry E.
 Hyde, the philanthropist. took all the stock, or practically all, at his own
 great risk, and all for the benefit of
 the society inorder that it might get
 $100 a year rent, whilethe safe deposit \ company which ne owned got $20,000. This self-sacrifice on the part of MT. Hyde was altruistic.
 The fact remains that since the year lof 1876 to the present time Henry B.
 Hyde and associates during his life-
 time, and since his death James H. I Hyde and associates, have been realiz- ] ing anywhera from $23 ,879.57 to $46,-
 5S6.O4 a year, all at the loss of the I Equitable society, through the MercanE tile Safe Deposit company. Since the
 year 1877 they have realized $46S, ,2S5.26
 through the Security Safe Deposit com