Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-02
INSURANCE MENCALLED
ARMSTRONG COMMITTEE SENDS
OUT MANY sUBPoENAs.
General Subjects Will Be Taken Up,
but Personal Transactions
Will Be Looked Into.

Subpoenas to appear before the Arm
strong insurance committee in New York
have been served on nearly all the officers
| of the Equitable, the New York Life, the
Mutual, the Metropolitan and the Mutual
Reserve.
This Is merely a beginning. There are
forty insurance companies doing business
| in that state, and according to the state
ment of one of the investigating committee
yesterday all of them will probably be
called before the committee before the In
| quiry is ended. Thus far no attempts have
| been made to evade the process servers
The committee in pursuing the inquiry
does not intend to take up the examination
of each company separately. Witnesses will
be called from the companies indiscrimi-
nately from time to time to testify regard
| ing certain general subjects, but the idea
that the committee is going to deal with
general conditions, to the utter exclusion
| of all inquiry into personal transactions.
| u.s. It was declared yesterday. entirely with
out foundation.
The $685., 900 blind loan account supposed
to have been used for paying lobbying fees,
| campaign contributions and other I'M
| proper expenditures, will be looked into
thoroughly and the men to whom payments
| were made will be summoned to the stand.
Senator Armstrong. chairman of the COM
| mittee, has told persons close to him that
| If necessary Cornelius N. Bliss and B. B..
| Odell, jr., will be subpoenaed before the
| committee to tell what they know about
this loan account.
| Senator Armstrong and the other out-of-
town committeeman left for their homes
| last night. They will not return until next
Tuesday. The first hearing will be held on
Wednesday and the inquiry will be con-
tinued then. five days each week, until prob
ably the first of January. The committees
counsel has its plans all ready for the open
Ing of the investigation. but will not dis
close them.
Still Open to Inquiry.
Several members of the committee gave
it as their opinion yesterday that the pay
| ment of the Depew loan by no means re-
moved that transaction from the field of
| inquiry and the statement was made that
| this matter would be taken up by the COM
mittee along with the senator's $40, 900 a
year retainer and the question of his In
| surance policies, which are said to aggre-
gate 100000 and are all carried In COM
panies other than the Equitable.
| None of the persons concerned in the re-
| organfza ton of the Depew Improvement
| Company and in the wiping out of the
| Equitable obligation would say anything
yesterday as to who the persons were who
put up the $685. coo cash. Senator Depew
was quoted having said at Briar Cliff
Lodge, on the Hudson, where he is stopping
| now that the reorganization committee had
| raised the money.
| The senator added that the Equitable was
perfectly satisfied with the settlement, and
that, moreover, he considered himself safe
| in saying that the society's management
was convinced that from the beginning he
had done everything a man could do to pro-
| tect the company. Mr.. Depew said he had
| been working twelve hours a day on the
settlement matter since his return from Eu-
| rope; that the public may have wondered
! why he had nothing to say to them, but
| that now that they have read his statement
| they would understand.
The recovery of the $500, 900 from the De-
pew Improvement Company brings the
amount which President Paul Morton has
| saved for the policy holders since he as
| sumed control of the society up to more
than 81 800 goo. His cut in salaries and gen.
| eral retrenchment in the management OF the
society, including the decrease and disallow-
ance of pensions, the discontinuance of Sen
| ator Depew's retainer of $4,000 and of
| David B. Hills 5000 and the saving in the
! matter of agents balances, alone VIII
| amount to 100000 or more a year.
| 1t has been said authoritatiyely that Mr..
| Morton at the end of his first years incum-
| bency will have decreased the annual ex-
penses of the Equitable by Sl.50O.0O0. In
/ addition to the above $700,U00, the new man
! agement has saved for the policy holders
| S6S5 600, the amount of the blind loan made
| by James w. Alexander and Thomas d.
! Jordan. Mr.. Morton, when called on by the
| department of insurance to take up this
| loan, repudiated the obligation, and 1t was
| paid by parties whose names have not been
| disclosed There is also $63 900 refunded to
| the society by James W. Alexander on &C
| count of syndicate transactions: also show
1 by H. c. Deming and So 600 by A. w. krech
| on the same account.
| James II. Hyde made restitution to the
extent of $1,000 for the Cambon dinner,
| and S63, 600 deposited by Mr.. Hyde with the
| cashier of the Equitable and representing
| syndicate profits Is now the subject OF lltl-
| CATION.