Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-01-11
SECRETARY GAGE REPLIES BUT
DOESN'T ANSWER.

OASD
At last the long-looked-for reply of
Secretary Gage to the Congressional
resolution of inquiry into his dealings
with the Standard Oil bank is at hand.
Since Secretary Gage has had twenty
extra typewriters engaged or this re-
ply for a week it has been expected
naturally enough that it would conclu-
sively answer something. On the con-
trary it answers none of the charges
brought and leaves Mr.. Gage where he
was before, except that he has shown
he has no valid defense to offer.
Mr.. Gage enters into a lengthy de-
Tense of the general policy of deposit
ing government money in National
Banks, which policy has not been at
tackled by any one in the present in
stance. The severest critic of this pol
icy, by the way, was William McKin-
ley, when that shifty gentleman was
a Congressman. We have quoted his
scathing attack in Congress in 1888 on
Secretary Fairchild and the Cleveland
administration for depositing in sew
eral national banks-'pet banks" Mr..
Mckinley then called them-LESS
THAN HALF the amount Mr.. McKin-
ley now has so deposited-not to men
ton Mr.. McKinley's scheme to give
to ONE bank-the Standard Oil con
cern-the entire $500, 900, 900 annual in
ternal evenue receipts of the govern
ment for distributation!
Mr.. Gage contents himself with a
general denial that any favoritism has
been shown for the Standard Oil Bank
and pleads his former excuse that that
bank got in first with it's deposit of
bonds, which he holds to be sufficient
excuse for making this concern-which
by a remarkable coincidence, is owned
by the very men who footed Mr.. Nc
Kinley's campaign expenses the gov
ernment's sole agent in handling these
vast sums of the peoples money!
3hI. 1d5C PlCddo ChoL IL ID hlOlO NOh
venient to do the distributing through
one bank. Possibly this is true, but
does that constitute a valid excuse
why all the internal revenue collec
lions from as far away as San Fran
cisco and New Orleans should be
shipped to New York in order that
they may be sent out again to these
same distant quarters for distribu-
ton? Such a contention is manifest
folly. If this distribution must be done
by a bank instead of by the Treasury
as heretofore. would it not be still
more convenient to have a distribut-
ing centre in each section of the coun-
try, rather than one on the extreme
edge Of one section for the whole
country?
Mr.. Gage is again very unsatisfac-
tory in his explanation of why he
rushed so often to Wall street with de-
posts of public funds. He reiterates
the familiar plea that it was done to
relieve the financial s%tringency of the
business world. Now. it has been
shown co~nclusively on the publicly
given testimony of Comptroller Dawes,
Director Of the Mint Roberts, Presi-
dent Hill of the American Bankers
Association and scores of other reput-
able financial authorities that the
"stringency" Mr.. Gage alludes to was
simply a gamblers panic and wholly
confined to Wall street. these same
authorities denying that this furry
was indicative of a real stringency in
New York or elsewhere, or that it had
anything to do with the business of
the country.
AS to the scandal of the sale of the
Custom House property for a ridicu-
lousy low sum to the Standard Oil
Bank, Mr.. Gage says the bank had the
option Of paying In cash all of the pur-
chase money at any time or any part