Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1906-04-23
TRAGEDIES OF E SYSTEM by JAMES CREELbN IN PEARSON MAGAZINE

When they said that William Henry
Beers looked like Socrates. the blue
eyed President of the New York Life
Insurance company used to laugh and
shake his bald white head; for he
loathed poverty, loved worldly sue
cess, lived in princely luxury, gloried
in the power OF the hundred and odd
millions Of dollars amassed by his,
company and. save for q curious like
ness to certain yelloWed marble por-
traits. could hardly have been. more
unlike the shoeIess and penniless
Athenian. sS.# s.4.$ ID.
Yet the time was to come when he,
too, would be accused Of 8 denying the
gods such inyisib Utilities as control
men In an age given over to the Wor-
ship OF money-and be made to drink
a deathsdraught, bitter as ever was
brewed. 5a.. :ss5
In the large upthrust Of the life In
surance movement Mr.. Beers had
achieved notable position ii New
York, had q long train of courtiers and
parasites and was counted among the
successful and powerful. Ess5$!
man OF moderate height, erect,
white-b bearded, always In Wellcut I'M
maculate black, with an oldfashio
white tie at his throat and a fine
diamond sparkling in his plated shirt
bosom ]; shreWd, anal tical, close
mouthed In his Scotch Dutch way, he
typifed In his person the rise of life
insurance from the picturesque and
petty methods of the sewing machine
and lightningrod propagandas, into
!. an institution Of such august proper
lions. measured BY millions, that q
money-mad ciyi lization was aWed into
y an attitude of reverence.
Like the other great captains OF life
insurance. Mr. Beers had emerged
!, from an early environment OF con-
q centrated religious influence. Mr..
Winston had organized the strength
of the Mutual Life Insurance company
/. in the exalted social atmosphere Of
the Episcopal church. Henry 81
Hyde had gathered power for the
/ Equitable Life Assurance society by
invoking the prestige Of the sternIy
conservative Presbyt terrain community,
4 and Mr.. Beers had gathered enthus-
iasn and the proselyt izing spirit ia
\ the aggressive Method list organization.
There Is q clear ingredient. Of truth
in the recent claim Of President Nc
Curdy, Of the Mutual company, that
tlle original argument for life insur-
ance was made III the spirit Of q
ssbenefcent missionary enterprise Z
although such claim, made to the
armstrong legislative iIiVestig ators by
that comic table financial pasha, who
Mved daily iii an atno sphere OF
nepotism and corruption, with dis feet
upon d three-t llolsan ollar rug, paid
Tor by the trust funds Of widows and
orphans, excited only derisiYe and
contempt uous laughter.
But In lS9U ne one OF tne Leading
\ life insurance men IN New York had
changed; II was now frankly secular,
almost pagan. So tremendp us were
the accumulated funds Of the principal
companies inst they we're regarded by
the slowly conc ntrating financial AZ
terests Of America Az q certain future
balance of power ii bic speculative
money market, promising greater
posi- ilities than national bond issues
or well Timed deposits Of government
funds
The combined assets Of the MUTUAL,
[ Equitable ana New York Life com,
j pansas had reached the enormous total
\ OF $ss7s 076, 0ssl The resou of Tie
other companies were trivial pr com.
pariscn,