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1881. , GATES INDEBTEDNESS Mastin Failure to be Made Good, The Whole Ind ebtedness to be Paid Once into the Bank of Commerce. To be Turned Over Immediately Certain Conditions (Special to the Republican. ) some JEFFERSON CITY. Jan. 2 For time past it has been an open secret that the state treasurer was perfecting arrangements to pay ever to the state his final settlen before going out office the total amount of the indebted ness devolving upon him and his secu rities through the failure of the Mastin bank. at Kansas City. where a large amount of the state's money had been deposited The following detailed statement, prepared from reliable sour ces. sets forth a history of the troubles and plan of settlement When Col. Gates. in January 1877 came into the office of state treasurer he found the money of the state. and all the money of the state, in two bank the Mastin Bank of Kansas City .and the National Bank of the State of Missouri in St. Louis. He received from his pre decesser not dollar in money, but in stead there were turned over to him, with the sanction et the general assem bly, then in session, certain checks on those two bank that on the Mastin bank amounting to $312.000 Within tew days thereafter the general assem My and himself were alike advised by the official opinion of the attorney -gen. eral that the fifteenth section of article 10 of the constitution was not self-ent cing Anticipating early legislation to carry this section into practical effect Col. Gates made only temporary ar rangements for the sale keeping of the state's treasure, as appears in his coma munication to the house in reply to resolution of that body inquiring as to the communica In such arrangements. tion referred to Treasurer Gates said Inasmuch as there 18 no statutory law giving effect to section 15. article 10 of the constitution, have not observed the requirements of the same. but have the various funds in my custody so situ. ated that 1 can subject the same to the requirements of any legislation that may be adopted for the government ot the treasury department Believing that the present general assembly would an early day enact laws entercing the constitution. the funds in my custody have been temporarily deposited in the following banks for safe keeping,and no interest has been paid for the same Gov. Phelps, his message to the 30th general assembly said The duty of the treasurer with respect to the safe keeping of the treasure of the state is tersely detined The law reads the treasurer shall receive and keep all the moneys of the state not expressly requir ed by law to be received and kept by some other person. The law did not require him to keep the money the sale or vault it did not require him to deposit it with any bank, nor with any other moneyed institution. ner was he required to deposit that money where interest could be obtained for the benefit of the state: nor was he prohibited from depositing the money in banks. The law left it to the discretion and judgment of the treasurer alone with no interferenc or or supervision by any other person persons, to determine for himself how and where he should keep the moneys of the state Notwithstanding this clear declaration of the law by the governor supplemented as it was by the opinion of the attorney general,and the communication of TreasurerGates the house the session of 1877 adjourned about the first of May of that year without passing any law en orce the provisions of the constitution der consideration or to give them practical lite and effect. Throughout the entir e session the treasurer as he had informed the house, was compelled to hold the / tunds of the state as best he could so as to able to subject them to the require ments of any legislation that the gener al assembly might think proper to enact and at its close he was left without law. ful direction to execute the constitutional requirements withou the power to enforce them, and the old law in force imposing upon him all its respon sibilities. he executed his office in conformity to the constitution (which at g best. he could only do in part) the risk and loss would be entirely his own-if he adopted the views of the law officer of the state and conformed his action ex clusively to the law he felt that he would disappoint the expectations of the peo ple of the state and lose to the state treasury the interest on the public finnds that the makers the constitution deemed it wise to secure His position was both perilous and mbarrassing Against his power to act under the 15th of section of the constitution were the au thorized exponents of the laws by w hom he was advised to pursue the law by which his predecessors had been gov. in erned, before the constitution was made of or adopted- in favor of it were his own h inclinations his safety as he thought.ar the best interests et the state With creditable firmness the deter mined. in spite of all the difficult: in his pathway to attempt the execution of the constitutional provisions but circum stances beyond either his prescience or y control determined the whole matter for n him. A bank to which, in strict conformity to the constitution, he had awarded ly of the oustedy of all the moneys o! the le utterly tailed and retused to give le factory security for the deposits (and which shortly afterward made disas. fe trous failure) thereby leaving him NO nearer the desired result than he to when the 29th genera: assembly adjour ed. Before second effort could be made and on June 19. 1877. the tional Bank of theState of Missouri.in St Louis,clos ed its doors and suspended in the pos session of over hall a million dollars state money which it had been ordered remit to New York, to pay the July interest et that year OR the state debt This last un expected and most misfertune destroyed every hope of suc. cess of further efforts to enforce the con w stitution. and created but one fixed .con. e e tinuous purpose, that of saving the state at all hazards from loss in Col Gates had been in office barely five months nearly four of that k had been consumed waiting that Legislation would be unto lamp feet. He had attempted the execution of the constitutional provisions. and 8 now the great bank of the state. enjoy ing the confidence el the people and the commendations of the press half century. had just