THE INSURANCE INVESTIGATION 461 



against the world, now lies he there and none so poor to do him 

 reverence." And I think you need have no fear that any 

 official will find an Anthony to stir "y° ur hearts and minds 

 to mutiny and rage" in his behalf. 



But it will profit the policy holder little that recreant 

 officials are deposed or even imprisoned, if the system is con- 

 tinued in which is inherent the evils which now stand revealed. 

 We must deal with conditions, not with men. We may very 

 properly ask the question, How much did they get? and the 

 present insurance investigation is engaged in trying to answer 

 that question. But the more important question is, How did 

 they get it? Once we know just how they got it, we can easily 

 see to it that they get no more in the same way. In telling 

 how the insurance officials got it I shall merely relate the story 

 of life insurance as it is found in the history of those companies 

 thus far more completely investigated, known as the big three, 

 namely, the Mutual Life, the Equitable Life association and 

 the New York Life. These may safely be taken as types of all 

 and serve as illustrations for our present purpose. 



The Mutual Life Insurance company was incorporated by 

 a special act of the New York legislature April 12, 1842, and 

 began business in February, 1843. The New York Life Insur- 

 ance company was the outgrowth of the Nautilus Insurance 

 company, which was organized by a special act of the New 

 York legislature, passed May 21, 1841. The Nautilus company 

 was really organized to do a fire and marine business. The act 

 of 1841 was amended by a special act in 1843, so as to permit 

 the doing of life insurance business, and in 1845 the New York 

 Life Insurance company was organized under the amendment 

 and began writing life insurance policies in April of that year. 

 The Equitable Life Insurance association was organized in 

 1859 under the general insurance law of New York of 1853. 

 The Equitable Life differs somewhat in the form of its organi- 

 zation from the Mutual and New York Life, in that it has a 

 capital stock of $100,000, divided into one thousand shares of 

 $100 each. 



Upon its stock the Equitable is authorized by article III 

 of its charter or articles of association to pay a semi-annual 

 dividend not to exceed three and one half per cent. Article 



