The record-union., 1896-02-27
tiles to be loaned out to bankers or

mites to be loaned out to bankers or
any others?
If banks need to borrow from the
State, or the county, or the city, why
cannot they equally as well draw upon
the surplus millions idle in the country
and offering for fair security? Why is
it necessary at this late day to take
community funds into the banking risk ?
1t has been said to us that to permit the
banks to use public funds is accommo-
dation to the merchants, who are thus
enabled to carry" the farmer, and
hence all are benefited. But that is
reasoning in a circle. If there is any
thing in it, it would be wiser for the
State, the city or the county to leave
the tax money in its original form in
the hands Of the merchants and farmers
subject to call only as needed. There
would at least be some beneficence in
that and it would work the elimination
of a middle man.
But we occupy the broad ground
that it is gross malfeasance to put any
treasuery money out of the actual pos
session of the lawful custodian; that
where it is now done in defiance of the
law it is criminal action, and the Of
tenders, no matter who they are, or
what excuses they offer, should be pun
ished relentlessly, because they are
doing evil after warning and official
mandate to refrain from their malfeas-
ance
The use of public money for the capi-
talization of private business produces
dangerous and unhealthful contests
and struggles among banking institu-
tions. It carries them into the political
field and puts them to wading in the
foulest of political mire 1t subordinates
issues which should be passed upon at
the polls coolly and calmly to the greed
of money changers and the rivalry of
counting-rooms. 1t breeds corruption
of officers, the fiat buying and selling
spoils, the handling of official stations,
the determination of policies for gov
ernments and administrations. 1t may
result, as was the effect at Tacoma, in
the erection of banking institutions
Matched of greed for the sole purpose
of trafficking in the use of public funds
for private ends, the outcome being
prostitution of the government to the
lust of private speculation.
If for a moment it is granted that it
is wise to take from the official custody
the funds placed there by the people for
purposes other than those for which
collected, then let them be loaned out
to counties or cities upon absolutely per-
feet bonded security, as is now done
under the law with certain funds that
are not subject to immediate demands.
But obviously that cannot be done with
current treasury funds, subject to daily
call. But the proposition to make
Treasurers fgureheads, while the funds
they are chosen to care for are scattered
from pillar to post and distributed in
Oe-A10S OA Gill OAdC1SB lIAdl SuCn
tions may conduct private business up
on public capital, is bad clear through.
Even if the banks are made to pay a
reward for the use of the funds the evil
is not atoned for or the danger removed
both are actually intensified The
banks will still be in politics for revenue
only; the greed and rapacity of money
handlers will still be the springs and
fountains of public economy, and gov
ernment will be practically turned over
to the money changers.
If the current use of public treasury
funds for private banking purposes is
eommendable under any circumstances
for a city, it would be likewise for a
county, a State, and naturally for the
Nation. Thus we would be brought by
descending steps through dangers and
evils Of augmenting proportions, as the
greater funds and wider fields were ap-
preached, to a condition in which the po-
litical system of the whole country
would be at the mercy Of and under
the control of the banks of the land.
The truth is that no one has any right
to bank upon the money of the tax
payers collected for the sole purpose of
meeting the necessary expenses of gov
ernment. If a Legislature attempts to
invest any one with such a right, it will
do it in fraud of the rights of the people
written into a system older than
statutes and more sacred than Acts of
f11Yo