Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1874-08-15
The New loan.

The time has come to tell in con
nected form the story of Mr.. Bris-
tow's disposal of the remaining sl79,-
100000 of the five per cent. bonds
authorized by act of Congress.
The bids divide themselves into
four classes % bids at 1or aboye)
par and interest, for bonds for in
7estment; q Similar bids by bank
ers for bonds to be sold; (3) bids at
or below par and interest, less COM
mission varying from IA to S-8 per
cent; a. a syndicate bid by a com
binat1on of both parties whose offers
were rejected in June. All bids of
the first and second classes were ac-
cepted, as soon as Mr.. Bristow had
conferred with the President at
Long Branch, The aggregate amount
of these bids was $1O,118.550, of
which s., 100000 was for reselling,
and the rest, so far as it is known,
for investment. All the bids of the
third class were at once rejected.
They amounted to about thirty mil
lions, including one of the State of
New York for three millions. The
syndicate bid was neither accepted
nor rejected at first. This offer was
for $55, 100000 "frm," that is uncon-
ditionalIy and at once, on the terms
offered by the Treasury, with the
option of calling for the whole or
any part of the rest at any time
within twelve months. But the bid
ders also stipulated that no other
speculative bid should be entertain
ed.
Negotiations were however open
ed at once between the Secretary
and the bidders. The syndicate
consists of the German firm of the
Messrs. Seligman, the Rothschilds,
August Belmont & Co., and the
First National Bank of New York.
A few million dollars of speculative
bids having been accepted, the offer
of the syndicate could not be accep-
ted entire; and the Government de-
sired that the twelve months option
should be shortened. The CORE
spondence between the different
members of the syndicate was neces-
sarily carried on by cable, and con-
sumed several days. The syndi-
cate reduced its 'tirm" bid by the
amount awarded to other parties,
and finally consented to shortening
the time of option for calling for
the rest of the loan, to six months.
On Tuesday, the completion of the
negotiation was announced. The re-
suit is that, altogether, ffty-fye mil
lions Of the loan are disposed Of ab-
solutely and the syndicate has .ex-
elusive right to call within the next
six months for as much more as it
pleases, The terms are such that
: the rate of interest on the face value
Of all the debt refunded will be re-
duced by one per cent. without even
a momentary increase of the aggre-.
gate of the debt ,s.,5#.--.t
There has been a great deal of
criticism the past week on the secre-
sy observed by the Secretary in re-
lation to bids. When the time came
for opening them, the operation was,
conducted in private, and on its com
pletion Mr.. Bristow took schedule
of the offers and posted off to Long
Branch to confer with the President.
There does not seem to have been
any injury done to anybody by the
failure to take the general public in
to the confidence of the administra-
tion, and perhaps in view of the del
icacy and magnitude of the negotia-
tions it was quite as well that the
business should have been privately
transacted. The final result is Who'll
ly satisfactory, since home investors
have had all the opportunity they
could desire. to take the new. fyes,
and a way has been found for dis,
posing of Q great part, and perhaps
the whole of the new loan.