Your TR Source
Three masts on a boat—”presidential ticket,” “New York state ticket,” and “congressional ticket”—were thrown off due to the “Roosevelt hurricane.” Charles A. Peabody and Patrick Henry McCarren hold onto the bottom of the New York state ticket mast by the “Democratic party” hold. Thomas Taggart, Alton B. Parker, and David B. Hill are in another hold.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-11-09
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.
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.
President Roosevelt will speak personally with Representative William Henry Flack. He asks Elizabeth Snowden Nichols Watrous to find a few local people who will write not only to Flack, but also to Representatives Lucius Nathan Littauer and William H. Draper. Roosevelt suggests getting someone to prepare the bill for Flack, and he will then help Flack “press the bill.” He also suggests getting Carl Schurz and Charles A. Peabody interested, who both have homes on Lake George.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-01-22