The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-12-29

Since the recent "scare" in Wall street
the secretary of the United States treas
Ury has been busy in explaining his con-
duct in using the internal revenue de-
posts Of the government in bringing that
trouble to an end. The exception is not
taken to the matter of the secretary's
use Of the funds so much as to the man.
ner of his use of them. He has essayed
to make public explanation of his action,
but the explanation does not, we fear.
prevent even the most conservative citi-
zen who acquaints himself with the facts
and the law in the matter from regarding
Mr. Gage and his conduct at least with
extreme surprise.
It is a very serious matter under any
circumstances to impute official NAL
feasouce to any public officer. In the
case of the highest financial officer of our
government any imputation of the kind
would be made by no person with even
the faintest understanding of personal re-
sponsibility unless the proof at his dis
posal were absolutely convincing.
1t cannot be said that the proof ad-
vanced of conscious wrong doing on the
part of Secretary Gage is Of just this
character, and the G l 0 b e is not pre-
pared to say that it believes the case
stated against the federal secretary of
the treasury has been fully made out
But 1t feels perfectly at liberty to say
on all the evidence, including Mr. Gage 8
own explanation, that his conduct places
him in very questionable light to the
minds of men who possess any true I'M
derstanding of the sacredness of public
trust.
These facts are made plain beyond dis
pute: Mr.. Gage used the funds of the
treasury to help out banks which had
loaned their moneys to those whose spec
ulative undertakings brought about the
recent panic. He had a short time pre-
viously refused to do what he then did,
declaring that If the government depos-
its in New York banks were thus in
creased he would lay himself open to
the charge of favoritism. This state
ment was made in a letter to the former
comptroller of New York, six weeks be-
fore the panic took place. Since then he
has announced a plan whereby he pro-
poses to deposit each day with the Ma
tional City Bank of New York, through
which he largely operated in allaying
the scare" $780, 900 to $1,0OO,OOO daily Of
the governments internal revenue colIec-
lions. The bank named is controlled
by the Rockefellers and other large capt.
talists, whose immense contributions to
the campaign of Mckinley are a matter of
public notoriety. This is the same bank
which handled the $4,000 600 paid to Spain
in the Philippine transaction. By, as al
legged, private arrangement it recently
purchased from the treasury department
the most available site in the city of
New York for a financial institution, the
old New York custom house on Wall
street. for s., 265, 900, when fair appraisal
Of the property could not have placed ita
value a dollar below 100000. 1t has
within a brief time arranged for a
doubling of its capital stock 1t is the
New York correspondent of Mr.. Cages
own Chicago bank and the latter is of
course its Chicago correspondent Or bust
ness agent.
What does Mr.. Gage say in explana-
ton of his relations as secretary to the
National City bank and of his purpose,
which, We believe, is now in the course
Of daily fulfllment, of depositing in that
bank something like $500 OOO,O 900 a year of
the governments funds, right on the
heels OF his refusal to do so for fear of
being charged with favoritism? Before
answering the question 1t is worth while
to point out that, whereas Secretary
Gage believed six weeks before that he
might be chargeable with favoritism If
he did deposit the moneys as he has
done, he is now at white heat of wrath
because such a charge is made and re-
CARDS it is the vilest insult
well. Mr. Gage has answered the
charge of favoritism by saying:
The reason we took the National CITY
bank was because it had already a good