The Penn's Grove record., 1906-03-23
JUDGE" HAMILTON AT BAY
Denounces N. Y. Life Trustees
Before Legislature.
GUILT IS THEIRS, NOT HIS

Interrupts Albany Hearing to Make a
Heated Attack on the Insurance
Cempany's Managers - They Knew,
lie Declares, of Every Dollar He
Spent-Defends John A. Mccall.
Albany, N. Y.-Of all the sensations
developed before the Armstrong Com
mittee, nor approached in dramatic
fetce the sudden and unexpected ap-
pearance in the Assembly chamber Of
Judge" Andrew Hamilton, the legisla-
tive agent who handled $1,347,000 of
the New York Life's money.
For months, when the Armstrong In
surance Committee was holding it's ses-
sions, efforts to get Hamilton to appear
as a witness were %unavailing. He was
classed as a fugitive, too cowardly to
come forward and face the inquisition.
With the courage of a bulldog he ap-
peared before the Senate and Assembly
sitting as Committee of the Whole on
reform insurance legislation, demand
ing his right to be heard. Officers of
the New York Life tried to dissuade
him. Even John G. Mccall, secretary
of the man whose name Hamilton was
determined to clear, led the Judge"
aside and talked earnestly, almost
pleaded with him, but it was of no
use. Hamilton had made up his mind.
Senators and Assemblymen filled the
nearest rows of chairs, and back Of
them sat the officers and lawyers of
thirty-odd insurance companies. There
Were also committees and lawyers rep
%resenting policyholders and life insur-
ance agents, making a gathering that
filled to the utmost the seating capac-
ity Of the chamber.
To the left of the chamber in the
fourth row of seats sat a group Of New
York Life officers. John G. Mccall,
secretary of the company, On the aisle
seat, next to him Second Vice-Presi-
dent Thomas A. Buckner, then First
Vice-President Darwin P. Kingsley.
son-in-law of the late John A. Mccall,
next to Mr.. Kinsley sat J. H. McIn-
tosh, general solicitor of the company.
A few minutes after Hamilton started
speaking Rufus w. Weeks. vice-presi-
dent and chief a~ctuary of the COM
pany, entered the chamber and sat in
the aisle next to Mr.. Mccall.
Several times while speaking Hamil-
ton pointed derisively at the group Of
New York Life e Hamilton'S
speech bore out in complete detail the
truth Of charges to be made by Hamil-
ton.
He made a bitter attack on the truS-
tees of the New York Life Insurance
Company, declaring that they had
driven John A. Mccall to his grave and
asserting that the board knew of every
dollar which he had spent and of the
purpose for which it had been in
trusted to him.
In brief he charged that every pay
nent made to him, even from the Paris
office and the $59,310 of steel syndicate
profits diverted from the company to
the legislative agent by J. P. Morgan
e Co., was reported to the Auditing
Committee, passed upon and thereby
sanctioned by that body.
Hamilton, with an emotion bordering
upon hysteria, his hands trembling and
his whole body shaking beyond control
begged the Armstrong Committee tc
oust the whole board of trustees of the
New York Life at the earliest possible
lay.
At no time did he mention any of the
trustees by name. His only personal
reference was to a "Pecksniff of three
administrations who thinks that he is
to be the Talleyrand Of the present
one" Those at the hearing who were
familiar with the history of the New
York Life knew that he meant William
B. Hornblower.
"The great interest of two billion dol
lars of life insurance and four hundred
millions of assets can never be safely
entrusted to the hands and administra.
ton of a lot of curs." was his closing
broadside.
That Hamilton's disclosures must
surely result in suits for recovery
against other trustees of the New York
Life is the common opinion here.
Judge Hamilton's attack upon the
trustees of the New York Life was
made only the more drastic by the fact
that he Immediately followed j. II.
Mcintosh, general solicitor of that com
pany, who had been e~ulogiZing the
members of that board and challeng-
ing any man to give reasons why they
should be removed from Office, as con-
templated by the pending legislation.