school and state, and through the power gained by evil methods are destroying respect for law while oppressing and exploiting the people.

The advance of the communism of corrupt wealth has of late been so rapid, the stream of gold diverted to the pockets of the criminals has become so great in volume, the corrupt practices of the beneficiaries have become so flagrant and insolently offensive and their assumptions of invincibility so obvious, that he must be dead to all the sentiments of noble patriotism, of justice and of common honesty who can be blind to the fact that we have reached a point where the people must choose between freedom and slavery; between democracy and the despotism of the criminal rich; between sound morality and a sordid materialism that flouts ethical idealism and all sentiments of civic duty and moral rectitude.

Fortunately for the nation, official investigations of the past year have laid bare the true condition of affairs among the great officials of the insurance world, fully establishing the grave and almost incredible charges that had been made of colossal criminal action carried on systematically for years by men who have posed as leaders in the world of Wall street and American business life. Since the commencement of the Armstrong investigation the curtain has been lifted from time to time, affording vivid glimpses of the criminal rich at work behind the scenes, and the spectacle has been so amazing and alarming in character that had not the facts been established under oath men would have been justified in regarding them with incredulity.

Now, however, since the investigation of the insurance companies is over, the harpies of Wall street are seeking to gloss over the crimes, to hush up the scandals and to reestablish the old order after pretended reformation. This must not be permitted. Less than ever must the people allow themselves to be lulled to sleep

at the present time. Only by a determined and sustained battle for the overthrow of corrupt wealth and the reënthronement of honesty and rectitude in political and business life can we be saved from a despotism of the corrupt rich which could only be overthrown by the shock, the waste and the ruin of a forcible revolution. To save the Republic to the people and to avert a revolution of bloodshed is the high duty of all true-minded patriots.

In the presence of the irrepressible conflict that is now pending perhaps nothing is so important as for the people to have brought clearly before them the picture of the criminal rich behind their breastworks, that they may see not only the methods and practices of the enemies of the Republic but also that they may appreciate how grave is the danger and solemn duty that confronts awakened patriotism.

The recent battle between an honest and incorruptible member of the investigating committee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York and the frightened officials in control of the company, who shrank in apparent terror from an honest investigation, offers so striking and illuminating an illustration of the methods of modern high finance that I desire to present a somewhat circumstantial account of how the powers representing the present "system" strove, first, to prevent an investigation that might incriminate some of their own number and that would render impossible the continued maintenance of the insurance company for the enormous enrichment of Wall-street gamblers, and secondly, how they strove to destroy the business career of the man who could not be silenced. The story of the abortive attempt at investigation by the Truesdale Committee after the election of Mr. Peabody to the presidency of the company affords a vivid glimpse of the methods of those who represent the "system" that must be destroyed.

Under oath it was shown that the beneficent safeguards which once protected the policy-holders in the insurance world were broken down that the management of the companies might have full license to gamble with, appropriate and waste the funds of the most sacred of all trusts. Step by step the "Big Three" insurance companies advanced in political sway, and with that advance the bars that protected the money of the insured were lowered, while bills demanded for the best interests and protection of the policyholders were summarily killed through political influence exerted by the insurance companies and by their lobbies. A typical example of this character is found in the strangling of the bill framed to compel the companies to print the whole contract with the insured in the policy. This provision, so eminently fair and just, would have occasioned no opposition if the insurance companies had been operated on the insurance basis instead of being the spoil of Wall-street gamblers and criminals.

The crowning infamy, however, of insurance legislation inimical to the interests of the policy-holders was found in the passage of the famous act known as Section 56, which cleared the way for the looters and the criminal band so long as complacent attorneys-general could be chosen who would be as wax in the hands of the insurance chieftains. It is a startling commentary on the power and character of boss and machine-rule in the Empire State that no district-attorney since the passage of that infamous measure, and no insurance superintendent since the faithless officials of the "Big Three" companies became dominant powers in politics, disturbed the peace of the criminal rich in their riot of lawlessness, corruption and crime.

It does not appear that in the early days the Mutual Company was as much in evidence in seeking to reduce the political or the law-making and governing machinery of New York to complete subjugation to the interests and desires

of the criminals who managed the great companies as were the Equitable and the New York Life, but later it seemed bent on distancing all its competitors in its record of shame. Its pernicious activity in this respect indicated that the master-minds at the helm did not propose that the policyholders or the friends or the honor of the State should have any chance whatsoever for success through any measure that thwarted the selfish ends of the great money lords of the Street who had seized upon the vast treasures of insurance wealth.

From 1895 the Mutual maintained a house at Albany popularly known as the "House of Mirth." It was the headquarters of the Mutual at the State capital. Here open house was kept for the legislators. Here, too, was the headquarters of Andrew C. Fields of unsavory reputation, who controlled vast sums for the Mutual and who conveniently disappeared when the Armstrong committee desired his presence. Fields was the legislative Man Friday of the Mutual Life, as Hamilton was the prince of lobbyists for the New York Life.

In the year 1904 the books of the Mutual showed expenses charged to advertising, printing, postage and stationery amounting to $1,134,833. Nearly all this enormous sum was expended in Mr. Fields' department. The care-taker of the "House of Mirth" was one Michael E. Mellaney, who receipted for many vouchers. Some were unquestionably for expenses of the house. Others appear as 'for legal expenses." During the investigation of Mr. Mellaney Mr. Hughes asked the question:

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penses and some for services as carecaretaker. "Legal expenses," like postage, stationery, advertising and printing, appear to have been made by the inner circle or active officials of the Mutual the convenient cover for expenditures the character of which they did not dare to confess by honest entry on the books.

At this "House of Mirth" maintained by the Mutual at Albany, the influence of which could not be other than subversive of the interests of the policy-holders and demoralizing to the people's representatives, there resided, free of cost to the individuals, at least two of the people's legislators. One was Senator Charles P. McClelland, who prior to his election to the State Senate had been for six years the hired attorney of the Mutual Life Company, retained at $3,000 a year. It was after he was elected to the Senate that he enjoyed a free berth at the Mutual's headquarters.

We get a hint of the kind of men that the insurance companies foisted on the people as law-makers in the following illuminating bit of testimony brought out by Mr. Hughes when Mr. McClelland was on the witness-stand:

"Q. Were you ever employed by the Equitable Life?'

"A. 'I was never employed by the Equitable Life.'

'Q. 'You don't mean that, Senator, do you?'

"A. 'I was never employed by the Equitable Life or any insurance company other than the Mutual.'

"Mr. Hughes stared steadily at the witness for a moment or two, and then, handing him a piece of paper, asked quietly:

"Is that your signature?'

"The witness looked at it for some time, turned it over, shifted about in his chair, and then said:

"It is.'

"I'll read this upon the record,' said Mr. Hughes.

"The paper was a voucher represent

ing a payment to McClelland by the Equitable Life of $3,500 on May 2, 1898. The body of the receipt was in McClelland's handwriting, a fact which he admitted. There was a blue stamp on the voucher, which in the Equitable office is used to indicate payments made in cash. On the corner of the voucher were written the words, 'F. Water Account.'

"Q. Are you prepared now to say positively you were never retained by the Equitable Life?'

"A. "I have no recollection whatever of this payment or of doing anything for the Equitable Life.'

"Q. 'What is the meaning of “Water Account"?'

"A. "I do not know.'

"Q. 'Is n't this whole voucher in your own handwriting?'

"A. 'It is; the whole thing.""

The New York World in an editorial published October 11, 1905, after referring to the policy-holders' money wrongthus referred to the even more dangerous fully contributed to campaign funds, methods of debauching political life and corrupting the people's servants employed by the insurance companies, which were known to and apparently approved by

the acting directors who were cognizant of what was going on:

"But these contributions are insignificant compared with the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually paid for secret purposes and charged to the advertising, stationery and legal-expense funds.

"These payments were for corrupt purposes. The men who made them were ashamed to enter them truthfully on their books. The men who took them gave no receipts and rendered no services of record.

"Mr. Olyphant's testimony discloses a depth of degradation beyond the Hamilton or the Thummel or the Maine disclosures. Mr. Olyphant is a man of wealth, respectability and high social and business standing. He is President of the Albany and Susquehanna Railroad,