Evening star., 1915-05-20

flesh and blood-as red hot as that of
my brilliant young friend here. or as
cool as that Of my imperturbable friend
over here-are entitled to do the favors
which they have to do for their friends
| rather than for the other side
National City Bank.
But, II your honor please, what sig
nificance has all that in this case? The
| National City Bank is not a party
plaintiff here. The City Bank owns no
stock in the Riggs National Bank. 1t
has absolutely no more to do with the
trial and decision of this case than
has any other correspondent bank of
the National City Bank or Of the Riggs
National Bank. Yet. for some reason
which l can only surmise, Mr.. unter-
sion of the relations Of the National
City Bank to the government Of the
United States. and emphasized In his
speech, as Secretary McAdoo did In his
answer. that episode known as the
Lotta Taylor incident.
Just why SO much Importance has
been given to that passes my compre-
hensfon. Here was young woman OF
excellent character striving to earn a
living for herself. receiving the mag
| nificent salary of $40 a year to per-
form the almost menial service of
counting the worn and mutilated notes
of the National City Bank. The Secre-
tary of the Treasury attaches SO much
! importance to the further fact that she
| was supplementing the meager salary
of $540 as a counter Of worn and mutt
| lated notes by small additional sum
| received for making out an abstract of
the reports of banks.
"She swears what not only Is not con-
| tradicted in this record, but there IL no
pretense in public statements, no pre-
tense In the statement which the Secre-
| tary embodied in his statement to the
| country. that she was doing anything ex-
cept tabulating for the use Of the National
| City Bank and its correspondent banks
| information which had been made public
through the prints under the absolute re-
quirement Of the law from one to fifteen
days before that time. And yet, because
that woman was thus engaged, they turn
her from the Treasury.
Miss Taylor's Work.
II have no objection to that She
says she did not have a desk set aside
for her there. and I take her sworr
| statement. She says she only wen,
into that room after each genera.
! statement of condition had been made
| and then merely to tabulate an alb
stract of those conditions and send Il
to the bank. We are bound to accep
| that statement, and yet so suspicious
! was the Secretary Of this malign in.
fuence Of the National City Bank tha
he absolutely closed the avenues of in
| formation to the newspaper men o.
this city and forbade any of the Of
ficers of the Treasury Department Civ
ing out any statement except through
| him.
This last paragraph in his letter re.
lates to that. He says that many OF
these newspaper men unhappily de-
nounced that as a 'gog rule; and he
| EXCUSES himself for having excluded
| them from their usual sources of in
formation upon the ground that he was
trying to run down the special priv.
ilege that was being allowed to peo-
Pile, and the special privilege was that
this young woman. of good character
and excellent behavior, was earning
pitiful addition Of $22 to her meager
salary of $40 by this innocent work.
Il am not permitted to believe that
the Secretary Of the Treasury and the
assistant secretary of the Treasury
could engage in the small work OF ad-
vertising what they call the "expul-