52-' 



The Revieiv ot Hevtews. 



June 1, 1906. 



Mr. John D Rockefeller. 



Founder of the Staii-iunl Oil Company. 



A sketch from life in IHOS. From Miss Tarhell's "History of 

 the Standard Oil Company." 



method of the modern financier. The public is in 

 for a gamble. It never has any chance of seeing 

 what k buys for its money, and the Standard Oil 

 crowd can rig the market as they please. 



Mr. Lawson's exposition of the methods employed 

 by the System is plain-spoken. He says : — 



The *■ System's " fortunes have been won by means of 

 marked cards and cogged dice, crooked wheels and bribed 

 umpires — in other words, by the corruption of legislatures, 

 the undermining of competitors, the evasion of railway 

 rates, the wrongful manipulation of stocks, the perversion 

 of justice, by intrigue, graft a-nd foul play. 



THE CORRUPTION OF LEGISLATURES. 



When the lawmakers are corrupt the law becomes, 

 not a terror to evil-doers, but their most effective 

 instrument for forwarding their sinister designs. Mr. 

 Lawson hails from Boston, and his account of the 

 legislature of the State of Ma.ssachusetts is enough 

 to make the Pilgrim Fathers turn in their graves. 

 He says : — 



Massachusetts Senators and representatives were not only 

 bought and sold as sausaces or fish are in the markets, 

 but there existed a regular quotation schedule for their 

 votes. Many of the nroniinent lawyers of the State were 

 traffickers in legislation, and earned large fees engineering 

 the repeal of old laws and the passage of new ones. . . . 

 The largest, wealthiest and most prominent corporations 

 in New England, whose affairs are conducted by our most 

 representative citizens, habitually corrupt the Massachusetts 

 Legislature, and the man of wealth connected with such 

 corporation %vho would enter protest against the iniquity 

 would be looked on as^a "class anarchist." 



THE INSURANCE SCANDALS. 



From the story of the Amalgamated Copper Mr. 

 Lawson turns to the scandal of the Insurance Com- 

 panies. Here is a description of the immense wealth 

 and resources of the three great New York Insur- 



ance Companies whose busine.ss in this country the 

 recent disclosures have paralysed: — 



The Equitable, the New York Life, and Mutual Life In- 

 surance Companies, and their affiliated institutions and 

 individuals, are to-day by all odds the greatest power in 

 ihe world, greater by all odds than any power can possibly 

 be gatheied together from ou;side themselves, a power so 

 great that the etfort of no mau nor party ot men outside 

 themselves can possibly prevail against their wishes. 



First, the three companies I have named have absolute 

 possession of property and money in the form of asset-s of 

 o\ei- l.Oju.UUU.UOO dols. more than half the combined assets 

 of all the insurance companies of Ameiica— and indirectly, 

 through their affiliated institutions, ot" an additional sum, 

 the aggregate of which is much greater than the assets of 

 all the national banks of America and the great financial 

 institutions of Europe, such as the Banks of England, 

 France and Germany. The three have a ready cash sur- 

 plus of almost 200,000,000 dols.. which is greater than the 

 combined capital of the four greatest institutions of Europe 

 —the Banks of England, Russia. France and Germany. The 

 income of these three companies is, each year, luu.000.000 

 dols., greater than the combined capitals of the Banks of 

 Englanu, Russia, France and Germany— or about 250.000,000 

 dols., 200.000.iX)0 of which is taken each year from their 

 policy-holders in the form of premiums. Yet out of this 

 income there is returned to their policy-holders each year 

 in dividenils less than 15.OCO.000 dols., and in total payments 

 of all kinds not over 100,000.000 dols. And yet these three 

 companies pay out each year in what they call expenses 

 to keep the concerns running 50.000,030 dols., paying to the 

 officers of the companies 5.000.000 dols. in salaries, almost 

 1,000,000 , dols. to their lawyers, and a number of millions 

 in various forms of advertising. 



HOW THE INSURANCE COMPANIES AUG CONTROLLED. 



The three companies are absolutely steered and con- 

 trolled from n. common centre, and the men who do the 

 steering and controlling are the " System's " foremost 

 votaries. Henry H. Rogers. William Rockefeller. James 

 Stillman. and J. Pierpont Morgan through George W. 

 Perkins, a partner in J. Pierpont Morean and Oo. Mr. 

 Rogers, vice-president of the Standard Oil Company, is a 

 trus'.ee of the Mutual Life, and a director in one of the 

 largest trust companies owned by the three great insur- 

 ance companiesT the Guaranty Trust Company of New 

 York. AVilliam Rockefeller, vice-president of the Standard 

 Oil Company, is a trustee of the Mutual Life and director 

 in the National City— the "Standard Oil "—Bank. James 

 Stillman is a trustee of the New York Life and president 

 of the National City— the "Standard Oil"— B ink. of New 

 York. George W. Perkins, partner of J. Pierpont Morgan 

 and Co., is vice-president and trustee of the New York Life 



New York Herald.2 



Giving him the Glad 



Long Hand.' 



