Willmar tribune., 1900-01-10
DEFY the LAWS.

The Standard Oil Company, not
content with the enormous profits of
its regular channel of business, has
gone into the banking business, and
us usual it has found means of ac-
quirjng enormous profits without cost
The following from the New York
World chronicles one of the most gi-
gantic bunco games ever played:
''The United States government ON
July last sold to the National City
Bank of New York the old Custom
House property in New York for
S3, 265, 600.
The sale was made under provisions
of a special act of Congress providing
that the purchaser of the old Custom
House should permit the Government
to continue to occupy it until the new
Custom House was completed, the
government to pay as tenant Of the
old building per cent. upon the pur-
chase price. ur about $130, 1000 a year.
The day after the sale James Still
man, preside Mt of the National City
Bank, went to Washington, taking
with him certified check, drawn on
his own bank, for 3,225, ,35O-all but
$40, 600 of the full price agreed upon.
This check Mr.. Stillman personally
handed to Secretary Gage, who imme-
diately handed it back to Pres ldent
Sti|lman to be deposited without inter-
est in the National City Bank.
In other words, none Of the three
and a quarter millions of dollars
which the National City Standard Oil
Bank paid the government for the
United States CustOm-House six
months ago has ever for one hour
passed out of the banks control
The bank has had not only the use of
the money every day since to loan out
at interest for its own profit, but it
has at the same time been receiving
rent from the government for the Gus
tom House. The old proverb that one
cannot eat a cake and keep it is thus
set at defiance, for the National City
Bank owns the Custom-House aud yet
retains the money it paid for the Gus
tom-House.
Secretary Gage has never turned the
proceeds into the treasury, as required
by section i of chapter 337, under the
terms of which the sale was made.
The $40, 900 S'held back' was for an
other purpose. The deeds of the Gus
tom-House are still in the Treasury
Department at Washington: The title
to the property has not therefore pas
sed to the National City Bank, and
the city of New York can collect no
taxes upon the land, as it is nominalIy
government property, although the
National City Bank owns and receives
rent for it. The $40, 900 held back was
therefore merely a legal excuse for
not proving the title, and for evading
tax atiOn.'
The law expressly provides that
money received for sale of u. S. pro-
perty "shall be covered into the Treas
ury of the United States. and shall
not be withdrawn or applied except in
consequences of subsequent appropri-
alton made by law" and fixes as
punishment for violating this law "im-
prisonment for not less than six
months nor more than ten years, and
a fine equal to the amount so en-
bezzled." Gage has violated the law
and helped the Standard Oil CON-
pany's bank to the following unwar-
ranted favors:
l. The use of So, 225, 900 from July
2, 1899, free of charge. The profits &C.
cruing to the bank during the panicky
conditions these last months mus: haye
been enormous.
2. The government has paid during
these six months about $65, 900 to the
bank for the use of the Custom House
that the hank has not paid cent for.
3. The government has enabled the
bank to evade taxes on SO, 265, 900
worth of property.
Did the aud acity of the money power
and their plant tool, the Secretary
of the Treasury, ever reach such mon.
umental proportions before? It seems
almost impossible that the governmen,
should dare to trample right and law
under foot so openly. But what car
we expect better when we have beer
told that the business between the
banks and the government is "pri.
vate matter' and ''does not concern
the public"
1t is to be hoped however, that these
infamous transactions will wake the
people to a realization of how com.
plete]y the money power rules the Nc
Kinley administration, and rise ir
their might to show that the manage
ment of the public funds DOES concern
the public. It is high time to stop this
unwarranted assumption of absolute
power by those who should really bf
the servants of the people.