is honesty
in this matter? How does it come in here at all? I can tell you. It
sprang solely from one source and from nowhere else, and that is the
desire of the politicians of this city to find a scapegoat for the
Republican party.

"Now you may think I am going rather far afield for an explanation of
this very peculiar decision to prosecute Mr. Cowperwood, an agent of the
city, for demanding and receiving what actually belonged to him. But
I'm not. Consider the position of the Republican party at that time.
Consider the fact that an exposure of the truth in regard to the
details of a large defalcation in the city treasury would have a very
unsatisfactory effect on the election about to be held. The Republican
party had a new city treasurer to elect, a new district attorney. It
had been in the habit of allowing its city treasurers the privilege of
investing the funds in their possession at a low rate of interest for
the benefit of themselves and their friends. Their salaries were small.
They had to have some way of eking out a reasonable existence. Was Mr.
George Stener responsible for this custom of loaning out the city money?
Not at all. Was Mr. Cowperwood? Not at all. The custom had been in vogue
long before either Mr. Cowperwood or Mr. Stener came on the scene. Why,
then, this great hue and cry about it now? The entire uproar sprang
solely from the fear of Mr. Stener at this juncture, the fear of the
politicians at this juncture, of public exposure. No city treasurer had
ever been exposed before. It was a new thing to face exposure, to face
the risk of having the public's attention called to a rather nefarious
practice of which Mr. Stener was taking advantage, that was all. A great
fire and a panic were endangering the security and well-being of many
a financial organization in the city--Mr. Cowperwood's among others.
It meant many possible failures, and many possible failures meant one
possible failure. If Frank A. Cowperwood failed, he would fail owing the
city of Philadelphia five hundred thousand dollars, borrowed from the
city treasurer at the very low rate of interest of two and one-half per
cent. Anything very detrimental to Mr. Cowperwood in that? Had he gone
to the city treasurer and asked to be loaned money at two and one-half
per cent.? If he had, was there anything criminal in it from a business
point of view? Isn't a man entitled to borrow money from any source he
can at the lowest possible rate of int