Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-01-22

that the bank might not be liable for
taxes, it remaining government prop
erty until the title had passed. MI.
Richardson r~e-clinched his argument
and created the sensation Of the ses-
sion. Mr.. Hopkins insisted that the
bank became liable for taxes when it
purchased and took possession of the
property. "How else could it leave
it," he asked. The Democratic leader
quickly replied:
eff the statement you make is true,
then the Secretary of the Treasury is
liable to impeachment by this House
and the country because he says he
did not agree to pay the bank 4 per
cent on the purchase price from the
date of the sale. IF WHAT YOU SAY
is TRUE. HE HAS DONE SOME
THING UNLAWFUL, AND FOR
WHICH HE CAN BE IMPEACHED."
In the midst of the applause on the
Democratic side, many Republican
members left their seats in high dis
gust with the situation. muttering
their disapproval of the Treasury De-
partment's share in this scandal.
Meanwhile, not even Republican or
gans have the temerity to defend
Cages acts in connection with the
Standard Oil Bank, while Independent
Republican newspapers, such as the
Chicago Tribune. which, though the
leading Republican paper of the
west, declines to keep its mouth shut
on the subject of this scandal, open
ly denounce Gage. Speaking, among
other things in this connection. of
Bank President Stillman's plea to
Gage to permit the Central Pacific
millions to remain a while longer in
the Standard Oil Banks possession,
because, forsooth, the bank had $685.
600, 900 loaned out at enormous rates
of interest in Wall street to force
liquidation in industrial stocks. as
Stillman explained to Gage in his let
ter, the Chicago Tribune says:
cit WAS OPTIONAL WITH THE
SECRETARY TO REFUSE OR CON-
SENT. HE CONSENTED.
There is scarcely a banker in Chicago
who will justify that action. 1t is doubt
full whether there is one in New York who
will do SO unless he is a representative of
the National City Bank.
Furthermore, it is difficult to explain
univ tho Caoratorr nf }ha Trno n cbo1,1d
have made, of his own motion, the propo-
sition that Mr.. Stillman, Mr.. Pierpont
Morgan, or any other gentleman whom
you may NAME should go to a clandestine
meeting with him at the Walton Hotel, in
Philadelphia, at Ills p. m. on Thursday,
December %, 1897. Why should the Secre-
tary of the Treasury prefer to meet those
gentlemen, or any of them. privately at
Philadelphia, instead of at the Treasury
Department in Washington, where the
Secretary of the Treasury is supposed to
transact public business?
"What was the business which the peo-
pies Secretary of the Treasury deemed it
necessary to conceal from the people? Why
were the relations between Mr.. Stillman
and Mr.. Pierpont Morgan so much more
intimate than those between the Secretary
and the people of the United States, whom
he represents, and who are entitled to
now about transactions relating to the
financial affairs of the Government? Has
it come to a point where Wall Street and
the Treasury Department have in common
secrets the nature of which the people
must not be allowed to suspect?
These are some of the questions which
the organs of the Standard Oil Company
i+r o~rao hooo,,ca fhavy mo or uyiSh tn ha
under obligations to it-would do well to
consider and
nun nDoAn mInE VIM