Watcher got?

Charles A. Peabody, president of Mutual Life, and Alexander E. Orr, president of New York Life, play poker with Samuel Untermeyer. Each is holding a handful of “Proxies” in one hand and a pistol in the other. Caption: A quiet game of freeze-out in life insurance gulch.

comments and context

Comments and Context

In the aftermath of the lengthy, detailed, and juicy investigations into the insurance industry in 1905, undertaken by the New York State Assembly and eventually managed by attorney Charles Evans Hughes, the practices of Big Insurance in America were a hot topic, and would be for years to come.

No insurance executive or any of the surprising numbers and names of politicians in unholy alliances ever went to jail. However, many insurance executives resigned their management and board positions and many careers were ruined.

Insurance in America was then of enormous importance — specifically, the management of insurance companies, which had more assets, and therefore more influence, than banks or railroads or oil or steel trusts

Because of the investigations and muckraking exposes, the major insurance companies experienced shake-ups and brought in new executives and board members. The gaze of reporters and public was hotter.

In keeping with the transparency, elections to the boards of directors were scrutinized. In 1906 such elections were due. Of the three largest insurance companies, comprising the majority of the industry — Equitable Life Assurance, New York Life Insurance Company, and Mutual Life — only the latter two had board elections; Equitable was a private company, although its heir James Hazen Hyde had just resigned his board seat and moved to France in disgrace.

At New York Life and Mutual Life their elections were held about the same time in 1906 and, in what today would be called hostile takeover campaigns, there were rival slates promoted heavily by the same man: Samuel Untermyer. The fights were bitterly contested in the public glare.

Alexander Ector Orr, president of New York Life, and Charles A. Peabody, president of Mutual Life Insurance, had felt secure after at their changes after the scandals’ dust settled, but Untermyer (whose name was misspelled by Keppler) came prepared with well-financed plans for his proxies to fight the rivals’ proxies. He lost, but the gambits shook Wall Street.

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1906-10-03

Creator(s)

Keppler, Udo J., 1872-1956

Period

U.S. President – 2nd Term (March 1905-February 1909)

Repository

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Page Count

1

Record Type

Image

Resource Type

Cartoon

Rights

These images are presented through a cooperative effort between the Library of Congress and Dickinson State University. No known restrictions on publication.

Citation