The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

1 ; LOAN _ _8STOP -- s | on n ioh in io ehoomg anipreeprmnnmermismmmempmmeny | . / , . The statement of Col. Matheson _ with respect to the Temiskaming loanr makes the situation somewhat worse than was supposed. _ It was expected that the Province would net 98%, with some small deductions | i);'the wity of expenses, but it turns out that the expenses are so large that the net price to the Province is only 96. . In view of this everything that bas been already urged in these columns is intensified and made more a $ x # ' ent. There can be no doubt in the mind of any man who knows the co ¥ $ § # t « 2b & ;" - mg,,..v situation in this Province that Col, Matheson could. by inviting | 4 . intions > reqimres at a hundred cents on $ | popular subscriptions. get the mnmmt' h« ' q. the dollar. He virtually admits the fact in his own speech. He told the | A % a f ¢ j l | House on Tuesday that during the coming summer he intended to raise : ' f1 m; 'th to two and a half million dollars by the very plan which 'The 4 O & is : ce ns ' Globe is now proposing. * During the past year," he continued, " 1 have 3 x $ been approached by a number of wealthy gentlemen who wished to make investments for the benefit of their families," A considerable part of the j loan propofl'd to be floated next summer would be taken up by this class -.Ji of investors, no doubt in the world, and the amazing thing is that, in j view m: the representations of-- those gentlemen,. the proposition for a poimln" loan did not come from Col. Matheson. We can assure him that such a proposition would have been reccived with satisfaction from one end j nos of the Province to the other. : f f j ' The Treasurer can --rest certain that there is another class besides those j t \\calihw; centiemen he spoke of: who would be glad to put their money in . , S es 4 § ,,N.\-ritjp: as good as gold, and get 3%44, per cent. per annum for it. There C 4 ?elt s,. asog ¢ * § | are thousands of people who, rather than adventure into what they cannot hbe e | i > i 3 per cent. returns c x I sure aro not risky investments, are content with the 3 per cent. returns of the 4 Government savings banks and those of the chartered banks.. Many of , : x€) ® C . t ' + | these people would be glad to have the nr.qmlnmn'\ of oyhnngmg their s I present investments for the gilt--edged security of the Province of Ontario, « and. would not begrudge one hundred cents on the dollar for it. 'That . us ( o Nik: . | being the caso, why should Col. Matheson go out of his way, and take $240.000) , | § . ' -- less tor his bonds than he could otherwise get ? & ; 16 must be said for him that he plainly}wrcel\.'ev\ thf 'pnsltl(n] he is in, + ' and exeuses it by saving that he caunot, without imperiliing the honor of C 1 the Province,. go back on his bargain with the money--lenders. _ We would . | be the last to make light of the honor of the Province, but tortunately . ( na such position exists as Col. Matheson imagines. When the bankers ! drove their bargain with Col, Matheson they knew there could be no * finality to it until the Legislature had passed upon it. There would be f . no breacik of faith, or of any of the proprieties, in telling them that a . : more pn:iitnhlv way of disposing of the bonds had been adapted. _ There , 2 .. would be no derogation of Col. Matheson's position. any more than there ; E:; was to President Cleveland and his Cabinet when they had, in face of § 1 public epinion, to abrogate the bargain with J. Pierpont Morgan & Co. in f t 1895. By the abrogation of that bargain the United States saved £$6500,000, ' If the President and his counsellors did suffer a little loss of pres-- | 't tige. the people of the United States were scearcely ready to pay $6.500.000 : in order to preserve it, and we do not believe the people of Ontario are | prepared to pay $240.000 for the preservation of Col. Matheson's feelings, f l much as they may respect him. : | It neod scarcely be said that The Mail and Empire is with Col. ; ~Matheson up to the hilt. Those who sa w :m'articlc on th.v subject in yes-- . terdavy's isene, headed " Thwart the Grafters," may have imagined for one + F wild moment that it had joined the popular movement. But the grafters , ' which it had in its eye were not the gentlemen who stand to make some > o ' t > > * three hundred thousand dollars out of this transaction, but some mythical , 3 band of grafters that exists only in its own brain. If it chooses to regard + 3 as grafters the people who would exchange their three per cent. investments for three and a half. we can safely regard it as not serious. It depreeaten the withdrawal of the sum from the banks, and it may be that the banks > will not like that feature of it, although it is only a drop out of their |} ocean. But it must be firmly and clearly maintained that the Provin-- > cial Treasurer has no business to be influenced by that consideration. His } bounden duty is to get as much for the securitiee he has to sell as he > can.. He has no more right to consider what tho banks will think of it * * than he has to hand to one of them $240.000 that ought to go into the & coffers of Ontario. In short, in following the course now advised he would : be gotting for his bonds what he ought to get for them. and he would be 4 conferring a boon not only on the wealthy gentlemen who have spoken * to him about the matter, but also on many smaller capitalists, who have ]Z not the facilities for investing their money that those larger capitalists 4@ have. The argument !!mt the small investor req#®ires an investment that % can be rca«hI:v turned lx}to money does not lie in this case. What could : be more readily turned into money than an Ontario Government bond * 1 * 1 BbA h d Tb TTA Rop eA Td es -- Pnd Aefe] eR ol Aele d Aelefede dA J 4 J 4