The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-09-11
Harrison's Gin 10 the BANKS.

others or his party to do so
he is open to the charge of per-
sonal dishonesty. Either the president,
or his party, or personal friends of his
are profting very largely by the enormous
government deposits now and for some
time past carried by national banks.
These deposits amount TO about fifty mil
lion dollars. Six per cent. on 100000
is 100000 a year, which these deposits
are worth to the favored banks. II a
democratic administration had done this,
the republicans in congress would have
moved the impeachment of the president.
The interest on these deposits amounts to
S250,000 a month. This is a gift to the
banks. Out of it they can well afford to
make large donation to the republican
campaign funds. They could well afford
to cash the presidents check for $4,000,
and nothing in his character or ante
cedents forbids the supposition that he
would accept that favor. His professions
OF personal honesty are entitled to no more
weight than his civil-service reform profess
ions We Judge men by their acts and
their lives, not by their professions. a
president who has shown himself to be
thoroughly unscrupulous and untrust-
worthy in politics has no right to complain
if, under suspicious circumstances, his
personal honesty is questioned. Ii the
president is directly or indirectly party
to the transaction by which favored banks
are profting to the extent of 100000 a
year by these enormous deposits of gov
eminent funds, he is personally dishonest.
A man of his habits and loose principles,
who Las brought himself to believe that
his reelection is necessary to the welfare
of the country, could very easily go a step
further and justify himself in accepting
campaign donation of $4,000. to be made
in his name, by banks that were profiting
by his generosity with the public money.
The above is the substance of an edi-
torial article which appeared in the Indi-
annapolis Journal on the 18th of last Oc-
tober. Its publication occurred immedi-
ately after Mr. BLAINE's visit to this city
and was understood at the time to
have been the result of a conference be-
tween Mr.. BLAINE, Mr.. HARRISON and the
editor of the Journal, and present private
secretary of the president. We reprint
the article without material change, ex-
cept 10 substitute the name of HARRISON
for that of CLEVELAND, and to transpose
the words democrat" and republican"
We reproduce this article Tor the pur-
pose OF inviting attention to the wicked
demagogism and assassination of charac-
ter resorted to by Messrs. HARRISON and
BLAINE and their newspaper organs in the
last campaign as emphasized in the light
of the record which the present admins
tration is making.
When Messrs. BLAINE and HARRISON
began their indecent crusade against the
Cleveland administration for depositing
portion of the treasury surplus in ma
tional banks throughout the country, they
were well aware that this policy had been
adopted under protest, and because it was
literally forced upon the administration by
the refusal of the republican senate to
consent to a reduction of taxes. In his
last message President CLEVELAND had
said:
THE proposition to deposit the money
held by the government in banks through
out the country. for use by the people, is,
it seems to me, exceedingly Objectionable,
in principle, as establishing too close a re-
lationship between the operations of the
government treasury and the business of
the country, and too extensive a
commingling of their money, thus
fostering an unnatural reliance
in private business upon public funds.
If this scheme should be adopted, it
should be done only as temporary ex-
pedient to meet an urgent necessity.
Legislative and executive effort should
generally be in the opposite direction, and
should have a tendency to divorce, as
much and as fast as it can safely be done,
the treasury department from private en-
terprise."
Yet BLAINE, HARRISON and their Great
ures not only denounced Mr.. CLEVELAND
for placing the public money in banks,
but charged, as above, that he was
actuated by corrupt motives in so doing
that the banks divided the profits OF these
deposits with him. When they did this
their miserable campaign of fraud, forgery,
false pretenses and Doodle touched per-
haps its honest level.
HARRISON, in his letter accepting the
Chicago nomination, said:
The surplus now in the treasury should be
used in the purchase of bonds. The law au-
thorizes this use of it. and, if il is not now
needed for current or deficiency appropria-
tons the people, and not The banks IN achich 10
has been deposited, should have the advantage
OF its use by stopping interest on the public
debt
In his memorable financial deliverance
from his front door-steps for the edifica-
ton of visiting Sunday-school he ex-
planned that this is exactly what every
merchant does" when he discounts his
own paper out of the profits of successful
trade. During the last sixty days OF the
campaign the changes were rung, by all
the republican spell-binders from jim
BLAINE down TO GRIFFITHs, and by the
organs from the New York Tribune down to
the New Castle Courier, upon the cry of
corrupt government favoritism to the ma
tional banks.
II is now six months since BENJAMIN
HARRISON became president. And he has
a