tem's" hirelings throughout the land are clamorously agitating the
passage of some such measure. It behooves the public to scrutinize
carefully the form of reform which these patriots approve. It may be
taken for granted that they will initiate nothing that will interfere
with their grip on the millions of the policy-holders or will divert fat
pickings and commissions from their own pockets. Once I asked a leading
votary of the "System":

"What would you do if by any chance the Government decided to get into
the railway business, and took a railway or so to see how government
control would work?"

"Oh," was the reply, "we'd manage that all right! As soon as we saw it
coming, the stocks and bonds of the roads wanted would go up, so that by
the time Uncle Sam got ready to buy, it would be the fattest sale we
could possibly make. After that it would not be difficult to disgust the
Government with its bargain, and before long the people would be glad to
sell the property back to us, and we'd find a way to get it at slaughter
prices."

The reformation of the big insurance companies is sadly needed, but
reformation of a more drastic kind than they'll be willing to administer
to themselves. To begin with, there should be a relentless probing of
their stock transactions of the last fifteen years, followed by the
passage of some simple laws regulating their investments. The
relationship between these institutions and the "System" would then at
once of necessity terminate, and we could say good-by to the _regime_
under which the expenses of the Big Three have enormously increased and
their dividends to policy-holders have steadily declined while during
the same period the private fortunes of their officers and controllers
have flourished amazingly.

I have been repeatedly asked to define the conditions that make it
possible for these immense private fortunes to be gathered, within the
law. An examination of the figures that follow will reveal the
far-reaching possibilities that reside in the direction of the billion
of assets of the great insurance companies.

The last issued New York report (1903) shows that the three leading
companies had in uninvested funds, all told, $70,212,453. Of this sum
total there was "deposited in trust companies and banks drawing
interest"--at the _close_ of the year:

Equitable $25,617,668
Mutual 22,439,396
New York 17,731,710