Existing comment:
"At The Insurance Investigation," 1905
T.[homas] E. Powers for the Evening World, published September 22, 1905
In 1905, Charles Evans Hughes was a quiet, prosperous 43-year-old lawyer in New York City with no apparent political ambitions. That year, however, the state hired him as a lead investigator, first into New York City's gas utility companies and then of the major New York-based life insurance companies. Hughes' ability to quickly digest mountains of paperwork and his cool, relentless questioning helped him to expose corruption, political payoffs, and excessive profits in both industries, and by the end of the year these successes had made him a nationally-known figure.
This cartoon is one of the earliest depictions of Hughes as a public figure, and shows him interrogating New York Life Insurance Vice President George W. Perkins during the insurance investigation. Although the interrogation involves both Perkins and Hughes, Perkins blends in with the simple figures around him. Hughes, meanwhile, has been fully defined with a shaded frock coat and dark shock of a beard, and thus stands out as the single most striking person in the room. |