The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-25
NAOF7MAN O NLEN 1L1- ~==%+="

day approcal Is uustinted, and Messrs. Morgan and Company especially haXa asked me to convey to you their an preciation of your acton"
 So It goes on for page after nape settIhg money Into the bank. deferring payments out. and MT. Gage was aI- ways as obliging as he could be And 1t was most of it ordinary. nroner business; but it all goes to show an eagerness for public money which might make sharp biddings among the banks for national deposits. My high treas lry official says not, but he Is a banker and not a very proadmirded banker at that. Another high mem per or the Administrator told me that SnaW was the only man Tn the Cabinet who held to the theory that govern men was neant to help business And ne seems to me to nave a hrror of the government making any money If there's a profit in anything, some bus mess man should get it.
 Well. l don't care anything about the government making money; it isn't the measly interest that I am thinking Of. It is the effect something for nothing" has upon those that get it. l dont believe the citizens, of Cincin- nati cared that their bankers made A little profit on their county funds. but the effect on those bankers of their graft was appalling. IL rendered them towards. Because they had this wretched graft. they wouldn't help a. reform movement; they backed their boss and one of the worst rings in the municipal history of the United States. and. as we see now, they paid bribes, or as they prefer to call them, gratituities to one of their despised bosses That's the effect graft. or a governmental favor or privilege seems to have on all men, even bankers, even pig New fork bankers. even on James
 Oh, know Wall Street men hate to have James Stillman taken as a type or them all; and 1t is hard on some of them to do so. But Stillman is the keenest man among them all for fa- vors, especially national government tavors. And he gets more than any of them out of the government treasury. What is the effect on him? Would he help a reform movement? No indeed. He backs the regular organization. The only me Secretary Gage denied him anything he appealed over his head to sen1tor Platt. Listen to him:
 My dear Mir. Senator: I trust you will pardon me for trespassiug upon your valuable time. but if, in view of recent events, 1t be found expedient to make change in the depository of the postoffice funds. or that of any of the other Government departments in this city, I would be pleased to have this bank considered, etc."
 Platt sent this bid to Secretary Gage who replied rather coldly to The Pres ident of the National City Bank. Sir" etc. that the postal funds are under the control of the Postmaster General who had given this business to the Seventh National Besides. says Mir. Gage. thare is the New York sub-treas- ury; the law forbids "a disbursing &C., count to be kept with a bank in the same city with an assistant treas urer."
 My belief is that So far. as our Gov err ment is bad the evil thereof Is chargeable, not to particular bad men, but to the good citizens: and that not alone their neglect. but their (often unconsciCus) participation in some form of (often unidentified graft. keeps them "apathetie. Bankers call them selves good citizens; l know three or four who are. I should like 10 have the others ask themselves why they are leaving reform to what they call 80 ciaIists' Isn't it because they are not only bus. but in on the graft some where? Louis SteftenA