The Mutual Life Insurance Scandal: Making Public Opinion

ABSTRACT This study explores a 1905 New York Legislature investigation of life insurance company practices, including the widespread use of press agents to shape newspaper content. The principal targets of the so-called Armstrong Committee hearings were Mutual Life Insurance Co., Equitable Life Assurance Society, and New York Life Insurance Co. Committee hearings found that company executives made low interest loans to each other, funded political campaigns, used corporate money to buy controlling interests in other companies, and received inflated salaries while policyholder dividends dwindled. They also purchased favorable publicity from newspapers and magazines while the committee hearing was in session. Allan Forman, editor and publisher of the Journalist, was among prominent newsmen tainted by their involvement in the public relations effort. This and other discoveries ignited a debate about what constituted legitimate public relations practices and their relationship to news organizations.