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Show I THE INSURANCE SITUATION. I We are amazed to learn upon good H authority that there havo developed H two phases of tho lnsuranco situation which' seriously reflect upon tho hard H sense of a good many presumably In- telllgent Amorlcans. (1) Hundreds, H even-thousands, are .permitting thcli H policies to lapse, This Is so stapled H as .to be, from tho 'standpoint of puro H solMn(ere3t, almost criminal. There H Is no question and has been and can H bo no question of tho solvency of tho companies. Enough has developed to provo beyond tho shadow of doubt that tho total of moneys wasted and not earned that might havo been earned Is a bagatcllo in proportion to tho enormous assets. Every dollar of Insurance outstanding is good as gola whether n. new policy over bo written or .not. It Is tho uttermost folly, therefore, for any ono to sacrifice the slightest, portion of what ho has paid In. To continuo the payment of pro- fl miunis ahd demand restitution and reform Is the only sano policy. (2) Thousands 'of policy-holders aro send-Ing send-Ing their proxies to Thomas W. Law-son. Law-son. They would better send them to the devil, himself. If tho wit of man wore exercised to find a way to wreck, If possible, a solvent concern, ono mpro effective than this could not bo devised. No right-thinking person can cqhdbne proven oifonscs, but such a jump as this "would bo from the fry-Ing-pan, not into tho flro, but into tho bottomless pit. That sano beings to any- number likely to provo adequato to his piirposo should Intrust their property and tho futuro sustonance of their beneficiaries to a profession al(y. unscrupulous speculator seems Incredible. And yet tho danger is said to. be' real and imminent. Wo hope and believe It is magnified by unwarranted boastfulncss on the one hand and by distorted Imagination on the other. But tho interests involved are so vast and so widespread that no patriotic citizen should spare any pos-slblo pos-slblo effort to savo credulous thou-sands thou-sands from tho inevitable conse-quences conse-quences of their own rash action. II it ))Q possibly truo that insurance ofll-clnlfl ofll-clnlfl have become so discredited as to be Impotent in withstanding tho force of a wave of Insanity, it is high time for the formation of a national vigilance comnilttco In tho interest of the whole people. Mr. James Hazcn Hyde, lately vice-president vice-president of tho Equitnblo Life, did well by himself and by tho comrnun-lty.in comrnun-lty.in his testimony on November 14. before tho Armstrong committee. As a witness he was candla, calm, and sweet-tempered, ahd ho gavo, with apparent' willingness, a groat deal ot valuable information. No single por-tlon por-tlon of his testimony exceeded in Im-portance Im-portance his disclosures about tho settlement of tho lawsuit brought by Benjamin Odcll, whllo still governor of New York, to receovor losses mado in a Bpcculattvo Investment In ship-building ship-building securities. In 1903 tho gov- H ernor bought some bonds of tho Unlt- cd States Shipbuilding company. In-stead In-stead of going up, as ho expected, they went down. Ho brought suit against tho Mercantile Trust com-pany com-pany to recover his loss on them. ' There was nothing immediately Im- proper In that. But Mr. Hydo testl-fled testl-fled that tho Mercantile Trust com-pany, com-pany, under advice of counsel, settled tho governor's suit' by paying him $75,000, and that tho consideration which induced this courso was not tho merits of his case, but a threat that tho Legislature would tako away tho Mercantile Trust company's charter. char-ter. Tho evidence that tho threat had a substantial basis appears in tho record that on March 3, 1904, Senator Ambler, of Columbia county, Governor Gover-nor Odell's personal friend, introduced intro-duced In tho Legislature a bill to repeal re-peal tho act of incorporation (passed In 18G8) under which tho Mercantile Trust company does business. Tho trust company paid tho governor ?75,000; tho governor took tho money and kept his bonds, and tho Ambler bill never got out of tho Judiciary commltteo of tho New York Stato Scnato to which It had been referred. Mr. Hydo's testimony puts on record a story which has long been widely known, Tho unavoidable inference from it is that Governor Odell used tho Legislature of Now York as his tool to compel the Mercantile Trust company to make good to him his losses In a Wall street speculation. Harper's Weekly. |