New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-12
SETTLING WITH THE SYNDICATE.

On the 1st of March the Syndicate subscribed
for fifty million dollars of the new Five Per
Cent bonds, agreeing to pay for them ON the
1st of June. AS commission the Syndicate re-
ceived the three months interest accrued on
the bonds from the 1st of March to the list of
June, together with what is left of one half of
one per cent on $5Oy0OO,000 equal to $25O,OOO),
after deducting the expense of printing the
bonds. This fraction was the sole and only
commission contemplated by the act which
authorized the issue of the bonds. If the Syndi-
cate were permitted to subscribe for the bonds,
on agreeing to pay for them twelve months after
the date of their subscription, their illegal
commission would be five per cent instead of
one and quarter. So, too, if they are al
lowed four or five months in which to make
their payments instead of three, their illegal
commission is proportionately increased. In
spite Of all the mystery with which the Treas
ury Department has endeayOred to surround
this business the above is a full and complete
statement of the material facts. When the
Treasury Department informs us that the Syn
dictate have been allowed until the 30th Of
July to make their settlement, it simply
amounts to a confession that so far at least
as regards a part of the loan, the Treasury
has paid a commission of five months inter-
est instead of three. 1t explains the discrep-
ancies hitherto noticed in the official state
ments of the coin in the Treasury, and ac-
counts for the indignation of certain financial
writer's, that disloyal spectators should ope-
rate successfully for higher gold premium,
when the Secretary of the Treasury and the
Syndicate have for two or three months been
yVo 81 -
all concerned in the result of such specu-
lations We only insist that the Secretary
of the Treasury shall show a little more
truth and candOr in his communications,
official and otherwise, to the public, and
shall be faithful to the trust which the
President has put in his hands. In some of
these particulars he seems to us conspicuously
to have fallen short of the just requirements
of the taxpayers
We are told authOritatively" from Wash
ington that "the Syndicate has at no time re-
"ceived single bond of the new loan with
"out having first paid the Treasury therefor,
"either in coin or in bonds" We do not
charge that they have. What we do charge is
that the Syndicate have been allowed from
four to five months to make payments which
tney contracted W MAKE III IuIc6 lHOulub'
We say that they receive benefit from the
delay, inasmuch as the bonds, when they do
receive them, have four or five months interest
accumulated on them instead of three. Two
months ago, on the LIST of June, the Syndicate
should have turned into the Treasury of the
United States the fifty millions of bonds,
coupons, and cash which they had agreed to
pay for the new Elves. This they failed to
do, though the United States Treasury was
moved to London for their accommodation.
The United States paid out thirteen million
dollars in gold in the first ten days of June
in redemption of called bonds, and appears to
have been trying ever since to break down
the price of gold so that the Syndicate might
get the gold cheap which they needed to COM
plete their settlement. The move has not
been altogether successful, which accounts, we
suppose, for the dispatches from Washington
denouncing the "gold clique" and the in
"genuity of those who choose to gamble with
" the national credit" This knife, we would
remind Mr.. Richardson has two edges.
In support of the position we have assumed
on this question we beg leave to submit the
additional facts: In July 1873, "a it !
appears from o comparison of the official |
statements of the Public Debt issued July l
and August /, Sl8,70O00O were paid out for |