Weekly journal-miner., 1922-11-01
ONLY DEMOCRATIC POLITICIANS KNOW

HTNHE democratic orators at the ElkS theater las 1 night purposely missed an opportunity to en tighten their audience in respect of matter whic they have introduced as an issue in the closing days of the campagn-the affairs of the late Cen | tral Bank. That Is a subject of which the dem ocrats could speak with first-hand and insid knowledge. It was under a democratic admins traton that the relation was established between that unfortunate institution and the treasury o the state and 1t was by democratic state treas urer that it was maintained over the protest o | Governor Campbell two years ago.
 These statements are made from the record anC are not disputed. There are some details of trans actions between the bank and the state treasury of which the public has not yet been informed The republicans as well as the public are in th' dark concerning them. Some democrats and no body but democrats, so far, know anything abou them. The matter is now in the courts in civi and criminal proceedings, with the prospect tha the public, including the republicans, will learr just what took place between the democratic treasury department, and the Central Bank
 The known facts are these: the Central BanI was accepted as a depository under democratic state administration and remained as such unti Us SOIldpSc III 15A1, more than $300000 of the states funds.
 Under Section 97 of the Revised Statutes, the treasurer was sole custodian of the states funds which he deposited in the Central Bank. Sectior 4645 of the Revised Statutes forbds the treasureI to deposit any amount of the public money in any depository in excess of the bond given it, and ther not until the bond has been approved by the gov ernor the auditor and the treasurer. In this case the democratic treasurer presented the governor the bond of the Central Finance Corporation fol $300,000, executed by the bank as principal anC the Finance Corporation surety. The governor rejected the bond that is he refused to approve 1t He sent for the democratic treasurer and directed him to get another bond.
 Then for the first time, the governor learned that the states money was already in the bank without any other security than this Central Fi nance bond Here had been a clear violation o the law. The governor then instructed the dem ocratic treasurer either to sufficient bond or to withdraw the deposit. The treasurer replied that he could do neither. The bank, he said, could not furnish another bond, and demand for the withdrawal of the states money would be prompt ly followed by the closing of the bank
 So, the disposition by the democratic treasurer of the public funds was much the same as if the treasurer had hidden them under stone in To- cation known to every thief in the state
 As to the character of the bond of the Central Finance Corporation, the democratic corporation commission had supervised the Central Finance Corporation and had thus lent its approval to its securities. That is, we suppose that action had been taken by the commission, for one of its du- ties prescribed by paragraph 3400 of the Civil Code of 1913 is the supervision of surety com panies.
 A certain power of making concessions to sure ty companies had been vested in the Corpora ton Commission by the legislature of 1919, which more than two-thrds democratic. The bill conferring it was passed in the house by vote of 31 to l and in the senate, by vote of 12 to 1. Though of course, the great body of the leg lSlature could not have been aware of its object, 1t IS apparent now that 1t was purposely laden with dynamite for the opening of the state treas ury. It was hurried through in the closing hours of the session and was one of the 184 bills pre- sented to the governor in the closing hours and became a law without his signature.
 It will be observed that we have taken care to label the treasurer in all these transactions with the bank, and the Corporation Commission as we'll as the legislature of 1919 with the word democratic" We do not mean that as stigma upon the democratic party We merely purpose to show that only democrats were responsible for the acceptance of the Central Bank as a deposito- ry, for the placing of the states funds ill 1t and for the acceptance of an inadequate bond as se- curity. We would not even name these men as democrats but for the fact that other democrats, candidates and speakers, have with brazen ef- frontery introduced this issue, MT. Hunt himself recently alluding to the Central Bank as "fly- by-night institution" though it had been made