Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-04-23

even remotely in danger of insolvency
and had surplus of tens of millions?
Under such circumstances what was
there to worry about? 1t was we'll
understood among business men that
directors of corporations we're not ex-
pected to direct: they simply ratified.
But it was otherwise with President
Alexander. At first he reproached
young Hyde for his escapades, Gliding
him like father and explaining the
peril of his course. The youth would
confess his errors, express his regret
and promise to reform. But, as time
| went on, his usurpations Of the presi-
dents authority grew more frequent
and more gross. Controlled by his
sense of loyalty to the trust imposed
upon him by the elder Hyde, Mr..
,, Alexander weakly lent his name and
the sanction of his office to each fresh
breach made by the STRIPPING vice.
president in the regular order OF
things. 80. !.
It was when Mr.. Alexander realized
that young Hyde's personal henchmen
were going about in the money
markets advertising the fact that Mr..
Hyde 7 was the real power in the
Equitable, that the president and all
others were to be ignored, and that
those who wanted to raise money,
those who were to have any hope of
advancement, must go direct to the
young man with the fancy Waistcoat
and the violets in his buttonhole-it
was then that change came over the
amiable and easy president of the
Equitable. nE,-&.E +v-.z.-z
1t is hard to say just what is was
that first put the thought of war in
the breast of Mr.. Alexander. No
doubt wounded pride, and the insol-
ence of the young man who respected
neither his office nor his white hairs,
fred his blood to the point of revolt.
Some time. in January, 1905, the
venerable president, then in his sixty
sixth year, and suffering from a
chronic and painful illness, went to
Mr.. Colby, his personal counsel and
partner of his son, and said substanti-
ally, with trembling of the lips and a
gesture of utter WEAKNESS: 49,. T.
COLBY, 1 cannot keep this thing up
any longer; cannot endure this stu
alton; am too tired and too sick. It
is futile to attempt an open fight
against Mr.: Hyde. / shall resign from
the Equitable society now ~
The lawyer begged him not to take
such a step without further advice.
1t meant the immediate abandonment
of the Equitable and. its nearly $780,
100000 assets to the men who had
Hyde under their control. At that
time the country was flooded with
stories of Hyde's wild sextravagances
and eccentric splurgings. The agents
OF the other life insurance companies
were making deadly use OF these
stories. = { .ss
| Mr.. Alexander went to the highest
officers Of the company and spoke to
them, sometimes singly and some
times in groups; and he asked them
one question, "Am +, considering my
age and health and the extraordinary
situation created by Mr.. Hyde, justi-
fed in resigning and leaving matters
as they stand p " y, 5I .sfssSs5
Without a single exception the Off
GERS he consulted told him that he
could not honorably abandon his post
without a struggle against the new
order of things. After nearly forty
years service as an officer In the
society he owed it to his own name
not to desert the policy holders at
such critical time. = a>. .5i;s 5:s.
Then Mr.. Alexander went to several
of the directors whom he believed to
| be. free from Mr.. Hyde's influence,
among them John A. Stewart, Charles
Stewart Smith and d. O. Mills.
IF / were thinking only of your
interests, Mr.. Alexander" said Mr..
Stewart gravely, II would advise you
to get out at once; but under the
circumstances cannot see how yo,,
can honorably do anything but stick
Now Mr.. Alexander sat down with
his lawyers and mapped out a plan
of campaign. The root of the evil
was MIR. Hyde's stock control Of the
Equitable. That control must be sur
rendered to the policy holders the
company must be nll1tualized
"A council OF distinguished lawyers
was called. Men like william # b
Hornblower, Charles. e. Hughes, who
twas afterward to strip the life insur
lance gnafters naked before the Arm
tstrong committee, Mr. Joline, and
3other veterans. were asked To advise
Mr.. Alexander on his course. They
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