their selfish wishes irrespective of the rights or interests of others. The dividends to policy-holders in the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York had been liberal far back in the seventies, in the days which preceded the complete insurance control of the political situation, but these dividends rapidly fell as the riot of graft progressed which came in the wake of irresponsible control. President Richard A. McCurdy, basking in the favor of Messrs. Rogers and Baker—“ my trustees"-and finding not only the "inner circle" but all those engaged in the company responsive to his wish, was soon enjoying a salary of $150,000 a year, or three times that received by the President of the Republic. Notwithstanding the fact that he swore on the witness-stand to such astounding ignorance in regard to every important fact relating to the operations of the company that, did he swear truly, his own testimony would have convicted him of a degree of ignorance inexcusable in a feeble-minded individual whose brain capacity would not entitle him to a salary of ten dollars a week, there were some facts which he was forced to admit, and among these it was developed that thirty years ago large dividends were paid to the policy-holders of the Mutual, but that with the steadily increasing salaries and lavish expenditures on the part of the officials and favored employés there was a steady decrease in returns to the policyholders. One case cited will prove illustrative. On one five-thousand-dollar policy the dividend decreased from $149.96 in 1872 to $110 in 1889, $50 in 1893, $22 in 1903, and $7 in 1904! While the policy-holders of the Mutual were being thus defrauded of their dividends, the McCurdy family income soared skyward. Thus it was shown that since 1884 Richard A. McCurdy had drawn in salary from the company $1,841,666. Since 1886 his son, Robert H. McCurdy, had drawn in salary and commissions $1,759,622; while since 1892 his son-inlaw, Louis A. Thebaud, had received from the company $932,831, making a grand total of $4,534,119 paid the three members of the McCurdy family within twenty-one years! Some idea of the magnitude of the graft enjoyed by these three guardians of the trust funds may be gained by calling to mind a fact pointed out at the time of the investigation: that the twenty-five presidents of the United States, from Washington to Roosevelt inclusive, during a period of 116 years received $900,000 less than the amount paid to the McCurdys within a little more than a score of years. The McCurdy incomes were typical of the wanton waste of the policy-holders' money that marked the administration of the company. In mattered not in what direction Mr. Hughes turned, he was sure at every step to come upon amazing exhibitions of wastefulness, corruption and criminality. As in the Equitable, so in the Mutual, syndicates were formed so that insiders could reap rich profits without risk. Thus we find Frederic Cromwell, treasurer of the Mutual and member of the finance committee, personally reaped $26,371.52 from fifteen syndicates. In many instances Mr. Cromwell did not put up a cent of money or buy a bond. The following questions by Mr. Hughes and answers by Mr. Cromwell tell this story: "Q. You participated in this syndicate?' York World, the editor calls the attention of the Governor to these facts: "Directors of the Mutual Life bought two old charters, for one of which they paid $30,000 and for the other $50,000. This money was their own. They used these charters to organize two trust companies, issuing stock at a price of $150 per share. They sold about one-third of the stock to the Mutual at from five to six times par. "The trustees of the Mutual Life deposited its money at a low rate of interest in banks and trust companies in which they owned stock. "They also formed syndicates and with the use of the policy-holders' money made more valuable their individual syndicate shares. They turned their trust funds over to subsidiary companies and made themselves beneficiaries at the policy-holders' expense." As the revelations of insurance corruption by which the great companies became masters of the political situation as it related to the control of the insurance situation in the Empire State afforded a concrete example of the nation-wide effort of corporate or privileged wealth to gain control of city, state and nation, so the revelations of the inside workings of the great insurance companies of New York afforded a startling illustration of the prevailing methods among Wall-street gamblers and grafters-the prevailing practices of our criminal rich. On October 8th the New York World thus concisely summed up some of the facts that had been established during the Armstrong investigation: "Taking their own testimony, often in the form of written statements, it appears that the highest officials of the great life insurance companies have been guilty of violating not only the moral law and the ethical law of the community, but the insurance law and the penal code of the State of New York, both of which statutes are speedily enforced against small offenders. "It has been confessed: "1. That the three great life insurance companies, the New York Life, the Mutual and the Equitable, jointly maintained a lobby fund for the corrupt influencing of legislation and the Insurance Departments of the various states; that John A. McCall supervised the expenditure of this fund through his man Andrew Hamilton; that the policy-holders' money was used to pay lobbymen without legal warrant and in violation of the penal code. "2. That the money of the policyholders was given to political committees, which, as Governor Folk says, is embezzlement. "3. That false books of account were kept in which these illegal payments did not appear. The falsifying of books of account is forgery. "4. That officers of the companies, Mr. Perkins in particular, acted as trustees in dealing with themselves as individuals to their personal profit at the expense of the trust funds in their keeping. This is a flagrant violation of law. "5. That subsidiary corporations were formed at the expense of the policy-holders, and that the trustees as stockholders in the parasite corporations used trust funds for their own benefit. "6. That the McCurdys, the McCalls, the Hydes and the Alexanders paid themselves vast sums of the policy-holders' money and paid over other vast sums to their relatives; that even the bare forms of voting this money to themselves were not always complied with. "7. That annual statements were made to the Insurance Superintendent which were not true, the making of which is a crime and the certification of which by the Superintendent was official misconduct. "8. That money due the old policyholders as dividends earned was taken to make up deficiencies on the new business caused by extravagant expenditure. "9. That officials, John A. McCall among others, borrowed money from lifeinsurance companies of which they were officers, in violation of the insurance law. "10. That leading officials were guilty of forgery, of obtaining money under false pretenses, of embezzlement, of perjury, of issuing false statements and of official corporate misconduct. "It is not disputed that all these have been done, and more." It is not strange that these revelations checked the golden stream that had been pouring into the treasuries of the insurance companies, while they aroused the indignation of every lover of justice and honesty throughout the nation. Something had to be done in order to restore the confidence of the people and to prevent fundamental or drastic legislation which would bring the insurance companies back to the insurance basis and prevent their treasuries from continuing the spoil of the Rogerses, the Ryans and the Morgans. Hence house-cleaning committees composed of members of the various insurance companies were in order. III. in the face of facts that should have been presumptive evidence of the theft of millions, and there can be little doubt but what the report of these prominent business men would have secured a lengthened term of official power for the great criminals had not the Times obtained and published the irrefutable proof of the theft of millions. In passing it should be observed that later it was discovered that these highly respectable New York business men were having their taxes remitted by the Ring. Since that time, whenever criminality and moral turpitude on the part of influential political bosses, officials in important positions, or master-spirits of Wall street and the great corporations have been so well established that the public refuses to dismiss the charges against the criminals as irresponsible accusations of sensation-mongers, officials enjoying the confidence of the public or business men's committees have been called into requisition to allay the growing clamor for an honest outside investigation of the charges and the reports of these examiners who WHY THE CRIMINAL RICH FEAR enjoy the confidence of the people have LITTLE FROM HOUSE-CLEANING COM MITTEES COMPOSED OF BUSI NESS MAGNATES. very It will be remembered that on the eve of the New York Times' publication of the official records that established the stupendous criminality of the Tweed Ring and its leading members, the great thieves secured a vindicating report from a committee of leading New York business men whose probity or integrity had never been questioned, and these gentlemen declared in so many words, as the result of their personal investigations, that: "We have come to the conclusion and certify that the financial affairs of the city under the charge of the Comptroller are administered in a correct and faithful manner." So high was the standing of the men who composed this committee that the critics of the Ring were discredited, even served to confuse the public mind and throw dust in the eyes of the masses, under cover of which the accused have been able to beat a successful retreat until new sensations and disclosures have diverted the attention of the public from their criminality. Not unfrequently they have even dared to pose as martyrs before the public. Often these reports of honored public officials or of whitewashing committees composed of business men enjoying the confidence of the public have occasioned perplexity and amazement on the part of many thoughtful people. They have overlooked certain all-important facts without the consideration of which the actions that have discredited so many socalled investigations by people of eminent respectability are inexplicable. Since the rise of the political boss and the perfecting of the partisan machine, officials who enjoy the confidence of the public have been placed largely at the mercy of the boss and the great interests which control him and are the secret of his strength. To oppose the interests of either the so-called boss or his real masters means political destruction, while to be complacent to the interests and blind to facts means political security and adSo, even in a greater degree, vancement. commercial brigands, feel little dread of house-cleaning committees composed of members of the corporations under fire. It is important to bear in mind these facts as they explain and illustrate many things that have been perplexing the general public and are very germane to the subject under consideration. COME THE ORDER OF THE DAY. are prominent men of Wall street and the IV. HOUSE-CLEANING COMMITTEES Again, the great business interests, the public-service corporations, the trusts, monopolies and banks, are all inextricably bound together. Their interests not only overlap and intertwine, but the criminal rich in certain great and lawless trusts and corporations have reached a point where their word is law in many places where their influence is little dreamed of by the public. And lastly, none know better than the prominent men in the financial and business world what it means to seriously antagonize the Standard Oil Company or the Harriman, Morgan and Ryan interests. He who stands for old-time honesty and justice when such stand threatens the great dominant influences in Wall street, courts business destruction. And thus it is that the master-spirits of the Street no less than the criminal rich who systematically corrupt the people's servants and defy laws enacted to protect the public from the rapacity of the great BE Early in October the investigation conducted by the Armstrong committee had progressed far enough to show the criminal rich that they were in the hands of a political committee quite unlike the ordinary whitewashing committees which from time to time cover up scandals that are brought to light through the press and other agencies. Mr. Hughes had created consternation in the ranks by his searching methods and it was apparent that he could not be bullied or bribed to swerve from the path of duty. The developments also disclosed such a carnival of criminality in the great insurance companies under investigation that the master-spirits-not only those most conspicuous in the insurance world, but also the great Wall-street gamblers and heads of certain powerful corporations which had long directly or indirectly fattened off of the vast funds contributed by the policyholders-became thoroughly alarmed. The public had been aroused to a dangerous pass. The hour had passed when the exposures and revelations could be sneered at or denounced as sensational lies and malicious slander. A general demand had gone forth for the punishment of the great criminals and for the taking of the insurance corporations out of the hands of the criminal rich and the Wall-street gamblers and so safeguarding them that hereafter they would be conducted on an insurance and not a Wallstreet basis. To the perturbed spirits of the Street who had failed in preventing a legislative investigation, it was evident that some thing must be promptly done to allay the public clamor no less than to restore the confidence of the people in the insurance companies. Hence Mr. Ryan's unique plan for personal mastery of the Equitable behind an imposing front of respectability; hence the widely trumpeted acquisition of Grover Cleveland as a twelve-thousanddollar-a-year "harmonizer" with headquarters in the quiet town of Princeton; hence the house-cleaning committees appointed by the New York Life and the Mutual Life. It is with the Mutual that we are at present concerned. Conditions had reached a point where it was imperative that the members who composed the committee should stand high in public esteem and not be under the suspicion of being the tools of the McCurdys. The committee originally appointed consisted of William H. Truesdale, president of one of the great coal railroads, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western; John W. Auchincloss, a wealthy cotton-broker; and Effingham B. Morris, a Philadelphia banker. Mr. Morris refused to serve and Mr. Stuyvesant Fish was chosen to fill the vacancy. Mr. Fish accepted the position only on condition that it should be agreed that faith should be kept with the people and that the committee be empowered to make a searching, thorough and honest investigation. He refused to become a party to a scheme to deceive the public or to whitewash those guilty of indefensible conduct and criminal acts. These conditions were agreed to. Soon after the committee began its investigation the criminal element began to grow uneasy. It appeared that the same spirit that animated Mr. Hughes also dominated the committee. First it became apparent that the McCurdys were in danger. The sworn testimony touching this family, brought out at the Armstrong investigation, was of so damning a character that the more cautious of their friends in the Mutual early became convinced that it might become a disagreeable necessity to make them the scapegoats for the sins of the company in order to retain the Mutual in the grasp of the Wallstreet contingent. But difficulties were in the way. There was some doubt as to how the McCurdys would take the proposition that they become the sacrificial goats or lambs for the guilty of the Mutual household. It was idle to imagine that the public would accept claims that the “inner circle" and the financial and auditing committees and various others who had been very active in Mutual affairs were in blissful ignorance of the riot of corruption that had long marked the management of the McCurdys' "missionary society," if the President and his son refused to be dumbly offered up and should insist on revealing all they knew. Then again, the wrathful condemnation by the public of District-Attorney Jerome for his inexplicable refusal to move against the McCurdys might become so strong as to force his action, and then ugly facts and revelations might easily be brought out under examination that would be painful to the feelings and perilous to the freedom of parties high in insurance affairs. Among those who advised the committee during its early meetings was Mr. Julian T. Davies, a director of the Mutual who served with Mr. Rogers on the agency committee and who was a little later appointed general solicitor for the Mutual. Mr. Davies as adviser of the committee in its early sessions strongly urged the advisability of at once compromising with Richard A. McCurdy, Robert H. McCurdy, and Charles H. Raymond & Company. But the members of the committee were in no mood to discredit themselves and add to the bad repute of the Mutual by attempting any such a task as the whitewashing of men whose wrongdoing was so clearly established. It appears that the McCurdys, who had been so brazen and defiant, at length became alarmed as the character of the |