“The first thing that I have to ask you,” continued the Judge, “is that, whether you care to take the case or not, you will consider my own intervention in the matter absolutely entre nous. My position is simply this: I have protested at the meetings of the directors of the company against what I consider an unwise policy—and my protests have been ignored. And when my friend asked me for advice, I gave it to him; but at the same time I am not in a position to be publicly quoted in connexion with the matter. You follow me?”
“Perfectly,” said the other. “I will agree to what you ask.”
“Very good. Now then, the condition is, in brief, this: the companies are accumulating an enormous surplus, which, under the law, belongs to the policy-holders; but the administrations of the various companies are withholding these dividends, for the sake of the banking-power which these accumulated funds afford to them and their associates. This is, as I hold, a very manifest injustice, and a most dangerous condition of affairs.”
“I should say so!” responded Montague. He was amazed at such a statement, coming from such a source. “How could this continue?” he asked.
“It has continued for a long time,” the Judge answered.
“But why is it not known?”
“It is perfectly well known to every one in the insurance business,” was the answer. “The matter has never been taken up or published, simply because the interests involved have such enormous and widely extended power that no one has ever dared to attack them.”
Montague sat forward, with his eyes riveted upon the Judge. “Go on,” he said.
“The situation is simply this,” said the other. “My friend, Mr. Hasbrook, wishes to bring a suit against the Fidelity Company to compel it to pay to him his proper share of its surplus. He wishes the suit pressed, and followed to the court of last resort.”
“And do you mean to tell me,” asked Montague, “that you would have any difficulty to find a lawyer in New York to undertake such a case?”