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Show BANKS AND THE GOVERNMENT. To us the most interesting reading that has i come by wire during the past few days has been S tbe testimony delivered before the house 'commit tee by the steel mapnates and one of their attor- , rv. Bakla-t-af-cU-broug-t , nut there3ayg l been glimpses of power so masterful and com manding that it is hard to ahake off the impression I iaat it is a great general describing the progress of battle, where a plan wa decided upon and the I battle opened, and then during the long day, while it waa necessary to send a regiment, or battalion, or division, or even a whole corps to support a weak line, the original plan waa never changed, but continued con-tinued to grind its way on and on aa the alow sun unrolled the weary hours. The only difference ia that in the case of the steel kings, they use gold instead of men to make up their regiments, their battaliona, their division and corps. That bring the thought that they have to rely upon the great maaaea of the American people peo-ple to furnish their ainewa of war, and ao majestic and ao subtle has been their work that now the men ' behind the steel trust are the same men who from their counting houses, in effect control the government govern-ment of the great republic and dictate to th million mil-lion from whom they have drawn and continue to draw their power, when they shall have a measure of prosperity, and when they shall be diaciplined b- a panic. No one can fail to admire their general-bhip, general-bhip, but there is but a letter' difference between - steel and steal, and is it not clear that our govern- ment should assert its sovereignty and extricate : iti-tlf from the tender mercies of thia mighty force that owea all ita power to the government's protection? pro-tection? Assuming that these men are aa honest as average- strong business men are, still it ia clear tbet their own interests have had first placa in their thought and alway will. More, they have never been servants, but always masters, and always al-ways will be. We often read in eastern great newspapers news-papers that the government makes a mistake when il tries to handle its own financea ; that the banka can do thia so much better, and that European governments, gov-ernments, after centuriea of experience, long ago adopted this plan. No one could have made Alexander Alex-ander Hamilton believe that Rather, w think, he would have declared that the handling of ita revenues rev-enues waa the highest function of a government, and that no government of the first class should ever surrender this, its highest prerogative. The government, when it asaerta itself has supreme advantage ad-vantage over any private institutions, no matter how powerful they may be. It not only has superior su-perior (unlimited almost) credit, but it really haa a lien upon all the property and upon the live of th people, if the emergency require the extreme bAcrif ice ; and to say that thua caparisoned it cannot can-not and ought not to establish system of finance through which it can supply the people with the money necessary to do business on, and in times of disaster steady the country through the crisis; is to admit that there ia within the republic a power greater and wiser and stronger than the republic . itself. , |