The purpose of this study was to examine the causes and historical impact of the Armstrong investigation into the practices of the life insurance industry. As a long-time admirer of Charles Evans Hughes, and a serious student of the history of insurance, I found the opportunity of looking into an important part of Hughes's early career and the most significant event in the annals of insurance history to be especially compelling, particularly as my research came to show the need to re-assess much of what previously has been written about the episode.In addition to basic resource materials available at Bracken Library, I found that extensive use of contemporary newspaper accounts, principally those in the Chicago Tribune andNew York Times, revealed the vivid images that caught so well the attention and imagination of the American public in 1905. I also have made valuable use of James Hazen Hyde's personal papers in the archival section of Baker Library at Harvard University. This important collection of private correspondence and records has been largely overlooked by insurance historians writing about the period. Those who have written about the New York Times also have ignored the Hyde material, most significantly the items linking the financial condition of the New York Times with the Equitable Life Assurance Society, the principal firm in the great financial scandal. That embarrassing link explains the newspaper's restrained and even bland reporting and editorials concerning the unfolding events.Little mention is given the Armstrong investigation in the insurance textbooks used in American colleges and universities. The occasional references to the most important public investigative body of its time are limited to phrases beginning with "because of" or "prior to" and rarely provide more than a minimal amount of background explanation. Certainly more of the history of insurance needs to be taught.While institutions of higher learning offer students the opportunity to study the history of many subjects, such as art, music, medicine, law, and economics, none of the more than two hundred universities in the country offering insurance courses includes study of the history of insurance. Of the many rich and intriguing events in the realm of insurance, the story of the Armstrong investigation, with its startling findings and resulting widespread reform legislation, should serve well as the nucleus of an insurance history text. Completion of such a textbook indeed will finish the work started by this thesis. / Department of History
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/183832 |
| Date | January 1989 |
| Creators | Stelzer, Donald R. |
| Contributors | Ball State University. Dept. of History., Wires, Richard |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | v, 89 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
| Coverage | n-us--- |
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