The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-04-12
ANDREW HAM1LToN,s APOLOGIZE

For the moment the recrudescen,
Of Andrew Hamilton. his dramatic ap
pearance before the Armstrong Insur
ance Committee. and his scathing de
nunciation of the New York Life trus
tees as "curs." are the chief topics O
interest Of the American press" say.
The Digest. Those trustees, think thu
New York Times. are left by Hamil
ton In "a distressing situation" There
is nothing uncertain about Hamilton's
language. He was indeed lobbyist
he confesses,. but the trustees knew
that well enough when they passed
upon his vouchers. To quote from his
speech:
'They sat there weekly cashing the
emoluments that come to them for the
performance of their duty, with the
vouchers there under their noses, and
II they took them and looked at them
why then they approved what was
done and | STAND approved. If they
did not take them and look at them
then they deceived me into the as
sumption that they performed their
| duty and that they were satisfied with
the manner and rendition of my ac-
| counts"
Never dollar passed through his
put his John Hancock" for all to see.
II any adverse legislation was heard
of. 1t was at once Send for the Judge"
The Judge proceeded to "agitate."
Here is the Judges" own version:
Why. if there was trouble and an
agent would write from Il far off coun-
try and say. If this bill passes it is
going to kill our business out here,
they would rush in. you Knowto the
President and say, We'll. now, here is
this agents letter. For heavens sake!
we will lose all our business out
there
"'Well. send for the Judge,
"'All right, the Judge will come
sit down: we'll. what is the
trouble?'
"'Well. heavens! if this bill passes
we might us we'll get out Of that
State
We'll, all right. We will have to
see what the objections are to it,. and
will have TO agitate. We will have the
press do something. We will have to
have the politicians do something. We
will have to have the agents do some
thing. We will have to have The
policy-holders do something. We will
get men of influence to go ahead and
see IL we can not beat it,
And we would beat it, Then the
word would come in, 1t is beaten And
they would come in and pat NE on the
back. the men that would not know
me now would come and pat me on the
back and say You did it,"
Willingly the Judge" accepts his
sobriquet OF yellow dog" but he
| would have us know "thc yellow dog
is dog OF courage and loyalty" He
went on:
But the ours who stood around this
funeral that has occurred, and the ours
VINO knew OF these transactions ann
shrunk into their shoes, they are the
ours, and that is the reason that
come to speak before you and say the
great interest OF two billion dollars OF
life insurance and four hundred million
dollars OF assets can never be safely
entrusted 10 the hands aud admins
tration of a lot OF ours
Truth, thinks the New York Press,
sis written all over the statement
Andy Hamilton made" and The Press
already sees visions OF Hamilton aiding
District-Attorney Jerome and emsrs-
ing from this business with not less
than the credit which is due to a
States witness" The Philadelphia
Ledger and the New York Globe, both.
| think the trustees knew. or ought TO
have known, how money collected
| irom policyholders was spenG" The
public has ceased to nave confidence
in them, adds The Globe. In any
event, Hamilton's statement ENSURES
the passage Of the Armstrong bills"
thinks the New York World The
strong opposition OF the insurance
people assembled in Albany previously
made this doubtful.
In commenting upon Hamilton's
apparent Indifference to any obloquy
attending lobbying as profession. the
| New York American quotes his NOM
| entous definition oil the higher law"
| He said:
"The insurance world to day is the
| greitest financial proposition in the
| United States. And it commands a
| higher law. In defending it's rights
and its property. you can not stop to
! kick every cur that comes along and
| barks: and if you can sweep them ou,
| in other, perhaps mysterious but
| honest, ways, you are defending and
| asserting the higher law which great
enterprises have right to command"
Hamilton has spent SO many years
in criminal atmosphere that he has
lost memory of the existence of pure
air." adds The American. And the
New York Evening Post observes:
| Pretty words can not conceal the
ugly deed. Not only insurance COM
panies, but our public and semipublic
corporations generally, have cody as
sumed that they are amenable to a
higher law than that which binds the
rest of us puny beings. Hamilton has
described the very things which our
mighty and reckless captains of in
dustry have been thinking and doing
and has done it with a naivete which
is as exquisite as convincing. His
anger is directed not at the system OF
which he was part, but at the men
who have failed to stand by it, the
poltroons who have shifted to its
shoulders and those of the late John
A. Mccall the blame of his honest and
necessary enterprises. He has played
the game according to the rules, but
they have stacked the cards, and
WEIGHED on their bets /"
But what the New York Herald
wants to know it, who got the money:
And the Journal of Commerce can not
forget that there are two sides to
this matter of the secret and corrupt
use of funds" Hamilton's chance
that paper points out, lies in fur.
nishing evidence against betrayers o
public trust The Brooklyn Eagle
alone thinks what Hamilton said is