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Cowperwood had always been the agent of the city in these matters for years and years. He
worked under certain rules which he and Mr. Stener had agreed upon in the first place, and
which obviously came from others, who were above Mr. Stener, since they were hold-over
customs and rules from administrations, which had been long before Mr. Stener ever appeared
on the scene as city treasurer. One of them was that he could carry all transactions over until
the first of the month following before he struck a balance. That is, he need not pay any money
over for anything to the city treasurer, need not send him any checks or deposit any money or
certificates in the sinking-fund until the first of the month because--now listen to this carefully,
gentlemen; it is important--because his transactions in connection with city loan and everything
else that he dealt in for the city treasurer were so numerous, so swift, so uncalculated
beforehand, that he had to have a loose, easy system of this kind in order to do his work
properly--to do business at all. Otherwise he could not very well have worked to the best
advantage for Mr. Stener, or for any one else. It would have meant too much bookkeeping for
him--too much for the city treasurer. Mr. Stener has testified to that in the early part of his story.
Albert Stires has indicated that that was his understanding of it. Well, then what? Why, just this.
Would any jury suppose, would any sane business man believe that if such were the case Mr.
Cowperwood would be running personally with all these items of deposit, to the different banks
or the sinking-fund or the city treasurer's office, or would be saying to his head bookkeeper,
'Here, Stapley, here is a check for sixty thousand dollars. See that the certificates of loan which
this represents are put in the sinking-fund to-day'? And why not? What a ridiculous supposition
any other supposition is! As a matter of course and as had always been the case, Mr.
Cowperwood had a system. When the time came, this check and these certificates would be
automatically taken care of. He handed his bookkeeper the check and forgot all about it. Would
you imagine a banker with a vast business of this kind doing anything else?"
Mr. Steger paused for breath and inquiry, and then, having satisfied himself that his point had
been sufficiently made, he continued:
"Of course the answer is that he knew he was going to fail. Well, Mr. Cowperwood's reply is that
he didn't know anything of the sort. He has personally testified here that it was only at the last
moment before it actually happened that he either thought or knew of such an occurrence. Why,
then, this alleged refusal to let him have the check to which he was legally entitled? I think I
know. I think I can give a reason if you will hear me out."
Steger shifted his position and came at the jury from another intellectual angle:
"It was simply because Mr. George W. Stener at that time, owing to a recent notable fire and a
panic, imagined for some reason-- perhaps because Mr. Cowperwood cautioned him not to
become frightened over local developments generally--that Mr. Cowperwood was going to close
his doors; and having considerable money on deposit with him at a low rate of interest, Mr.
Stener decided that Mr. Cowperwood must not have any more money--not even the money that
was actually due him for services rendered, and that had nothing whatsoever to do with the
money loaned him by Mr. Stener at two and one-half per cent. Now isn't that a ridiculous
situation? But it was because Mr. George W. Stener was filled with his own fears, based on a
fire and a panic which had absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Cowperwood's solvency in the
beginning that he decided not to let Frank A. Cowperwood have the money that was actually
due him, because he, Stener, was criminally using the city's money to further his own private
interests (through Mr. Cowperwood as a broker), and in danger of being exposed and possibly
punished. Now where, I ask you, does the good sense of that decision come in? Is it apparent
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