Review of Hevietcs, 1/6/06. 



The Book of the Month. 



523 



and a director in the National City — the " Standard Oil " 

 —Bank; while John A. McCall, the president ot the New 



York Life, is a director in the National City — the ' Stan- 

 dard Oil —Bank. 



These great institutions own a majority of the capital 

 stock or have absolute control of a number of the leading 

 banks and trust companies of New York and elsewhere; 

 and such ownership shows conclusively tlie linking together 

 of the three great insurance companies. 



Therefore you will see that I fully comprehend that this 

 power, which you claim to be. and which undoubtedly is, 

 the greatest on earth, is absolutely, for all practical 

 purposes, in the iiands of three men. and that anyone else 

 who attempts to do anything contrary to what tliis power 

 allows will find himself opposed bv practically unlimited 

 mone.y. wiiich can be used first to corrupt all sources of 

 help, including State insurance-law enforcers, and then to 

 keep such corruptions from the policy-holdeis bv subsiaising 

 the press. 



THE CRIllES OF THE INSURANCE COMPANIES. 



Mr. Lawson thus summarises the crimes of which 

 these companies have been guilty: — 



1. The policy-holders in the great companies have yearly 

 paid into their company scores of millions more than neces- 

 sary. 



Mr. James Stillman, 

 ■ New York Life " and " National City Bank." 



2. The policy-holders have been robbed of scores of mil- 

 Kons. 



3. The vast funds now on hand have been habituallv used 

 b.v the grafters now in control of them in the rankest kind 

 of stock-gambling. 



4. These funds have been used to corrupt the ballot-box 

 a«d the law-makers of the country 



Absolute proof of all this has been made public. 



THE HEINOUSNESS OF THE OFFENCE. 



Mr. Lawson is a ver}- vigorous writer, and he does 

 not hesitate to call a spade a spade: — 



Infinitely more depraved than tie sneak-thief is the 

 high-placed functionary presiding over a great institution 

 built up out of the savings of millions of people, paid an 

 immense salary for his import:tnt services, trusted with 

 vast funds because of his reputation for integrity and busi- 

 ness sagacity, who vet uses hi.'^ splendid place to line hie 

 . own pockel. Of all fiduciary institutions, life-insurance 

 should be the most sacred. Its chief functidn is to 

 care for the widow, the orphan, and the helpless. The 

 millions of revenue paid annually into the life insurance 



companies of this country represent the blood and tears 

 and sweat of millions ot Americans, who thus provide for 

 the caie of their dear ones tor the time when death shall 

 have put an end to their own income-earning abilities. 

 The administrator of a trust so solemn and exalted should 

 devote himself to its sale-guarding as a priest dedicates 

 himself to the service of his Maker. 



THE CRIMINALS UNMASKED. 



Mr. Lawson naturally indulges in a gloat over 

 the retribution that has befallen the Insurance Com- 

 panies. He says : — 



The otficers. trustees and hirelings of these great com- 

 panies laughed to scorn my statements and called me a liar 

 and a scoimdrel. . . . But the great God, who seldom 

 allows His children to remain lone deceived to their un- 

 doing, l;eard these loud-mouthed protestations, and to-day 

 the world is listening to exposures of low. mean thefts and 

 contemptible crimes far worse than any to which I had 

 pointed. . . . To-day you and your fellow-plunderers stand 

 convicted in the eyes of the whole world, not only juggling 

 the moneys of the widow and the orphan in the stock- 

 market, but of manipulating these trust funds for the 

 benefit of .vour own pockets. To-day the world is aghast at 

 .your perfidity and amazed at your temerity. You know as 



Mr. William Rockefeller, 

 "Mutual Life" and "Standard Oil Company." 



I do that only the very edges 01 mis national cesspool 

 have yet hieen uncovered. 



MR. LAWSON AS HE IS. 



Mr. Lawson as he is self-portrayed in this book is 

 a magnified edition of Labouchere, Chamberlain, 

 and Dr. Parker rolled into one. He roars at you 

 through a megaphone, and his style is fashioned 

 upon the scareheads of American newspapers. A 

 man of indomitable pluck, of splendid nerve, and 

 bulldog tenacity. Here are a couple of pen-portraits 

 of the latter-day David who hss gone forth to do 

 battle against the Goliath of the Wall Street Gath. 

 The first is from the pen of Mr. McKwen : — 



He is handsome, tall, broad-shouldered, strong, well-knit 

 and irraceful — still almost youthful physically, despite his 

 forty-five years, and the beginning of greyness in (he dark 

 wavy hair which covers his large, finely-arched and well- 



