Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1906-01-06
CHANGES IN THE NEW YORK
LIFE.
New York SUM

Mr.. George w. Perkins resigned yes.
terday as vice president and chairman
OF the finance committee of the New
YORK Life Insurance Company. This
act had been long foreshadowed as the
natural outcome of conditions in life
insurance for which no business man,
nor any impartial observer can hold
Mr.. Perkins individually responsible.
Mr.. Perkins has been the victim of
methods which have grown to be uni.
Nersal In the business of life insur
ance, methods which have been un.
concealed without becoming common
knowledge, but methods which are de.
plorable and of which the tendency.
rad II continued. must inevitably have
proved destructive
The disclosures which have for
months filled the public mind were
preCipitated without design or inten.
ton by the domestic quarrel OF 20
group OF gentlemen who were engaged
in plundering the policyholders OF one
of the companies. The ensuing legis.
lative investigation led in turn to the
most extraordinary revelations as to
the conditions under which the bust
ness of lie insurance was being car
ried on; revelations for which neither
the public nor those engaged in life in.
surance were in the least prepared.
Out of 1t all there stand out most
ConspicuOusly certain well defined feO.
lures which concern the whole public.
The first and most important in the
general acceptance is that which re.
yeals the individual dishonesty of men
invested with sacred trusts. The sec
ond, and In many respects the more Sc.
rlous, is that which discloses the Leg.
islature of the State, and indeed the
Legislatures of many States, as en-;
gagged in the systematic and elaborate
| blackmail Of insurance corporations.
| This Infamous system of plumber had
! grown to such dimensions that no In.
surance company escaped its opera
tons ana all yielded to II in greater
or less degree and apparently had no
thought OF how IL might be evaded,
but only OF how its eXtortions might be
minimized.
There has been little consideration
on the part OF the public for the per.
sonnet OF the insurance companies in
this matter, almost as little as was
shown for them by the chartered buc.
cancers OF the various States in which
they did business. Il is no defence Of
them that they we're forced to submit
to blackmail, but II would be fairer to
them were Il borne In mind what their
alternative was. They had to submit
to II or go out Of business, and In our
commercial life man who allows
himself TO be driven out OF business,
who sacrifices his material self. FOR a
principle, is brutally and ruthlessly
classified as fool. II very deeply af.
tects the public welfare that this con.
dition should cease. An aroused opin.
ion will not tolerate that the peoples
representatives in the government OF
g great State should degenerate into
an organization of blackmailers and
thieves, and that all business, but es,
Fpecially that kind OF business which is
of the most intimate common concern
should be the prey .of a system OF rob
berry and eXtortion sanctioned ana
chartered by the very people itself.
Many men have emerged from this
inquiry blasted in their regulations
ruined and Inundated In their private
lives, and even doubtful of their per,
sonal liberty. This Is because, unlike
the retiring vice president of the New
York Life, II was shown that they had
violated their trust anu sought to con.
trive II to their own personal aggran'
dizement. In Mr. Perkins case II has
been shown that the most scrupulous
honor has determined his official con.
duct and that no dollar Of illicit gain
ever reached him. What he has to
bear and what like others he may not
escape is the imputation that he was
part, a living and responsible part, OF
q deplorable system which neither he
nor any one else had the power or the
opportunity to resist. II will not do
to forget that the things which are be.
Ing changed, which are being cured,