Morning journal and courier., 1881-04-02
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. STUDYING THE FINANCES Secretary Windom in Con- suItation With Bankers. DISCUSSION CONCERNING 4 POLICY. A Three Per Gent. Rate of
 Interest Favored. LAMAR'S DAY IN THE SENATE. His Mouth Closed by Sheer
 Exhaustion.
NEW YORh.

NEW YORh.
 Secretary. windom Conferl ing with the Bankers-Pr0minentF Ffnanciers at the Conference-A Full Interchange of Opinfons-No Propositions Broached- Secretary Windom Gets Much Ffnan- cial Wisdom.
 NEW YORK, April 1.-The conference be- tween Secretary Windom and New York bankers began to-day in the Sub-Treasury building, the first session lasting from II a.
 m. until p. m. Present on the part of the government were Secretary Windom, Assist
 ant Secretary J. K. Upton, Controller of the
 Currency Knox, Attorney General MacVeagh
 and Stenographer E. J. Babcock The con-
 ference will be continued tomorrow at the
 same hours, after which the party will return
 to Washington. No government conference
 has ever attracted such interest among fnan-
 cial men in the country or is watched more
 closely by politicians all over the country,
 especially at Washington. An audience was
 given to seventy bankers Among them were
 August Belmont, George I. Seney, president
 of the Metropolitan bank, John Thompson
 of the Chase National bank A. S.. Hatch of
 Fisk & Hatch, George Bliss of Morton 6
 Bliss, William Dowd, president of the Bank
 of North America, B. B. Sherman of the Me-
 chanics' National bank, Jacob D. Vermilye of
 the Merchants National bank, John Parker,
 cashier of the Phoenix National bank, Thomas
 B. Musgrove of Musgrove & Co.,, bankers,
 George F. Baker, president of the First Ma
 tional bank. The proceedings were entirely
 informal and free discussion was held. The
 fullest interchange of opinions was made con-
 corning what was best for the government to
 do towards refunding the maturing fives and
 sizes. Not one proposition was made to the
 government respecting any policy by any of
 the visitors and none was made by corre-
 spondence. The whole day devoted to
 getting opinions of the bankers as to the
 best policy. None of the government
 party advanced any theories or opin-
 ions. They spent the time drawing
 out from the visitors their respective views.
 MT. Windom assured the bankers that the
 Treasury department had neither determined
 upon any policy, placed any under consider
 ation, favored any particular policy or fore shadowed any. He said the whole matter
 was still open. The question would remain
 so until the party returned to Washington. Then special Cabinet meeting would be called, at which the President would be pres ent when the whole subject would be dis cussed with all the light obtained. Then a policy would be shaped and put into execu- tion. MT. Windom said the interviews of himself and Mir. MacVeagh sent out yesterday by the National Associated Press defining the governments position as above correctly stated the governments position.
 During the early part of the conference the bankers by their conduct showed they felt that the Treasury had settled upon a definite policy, which it meant to putinto exc cntion despite any suggestions made by New York fnanciers, and that the conference was only held for the purpose of disarming criti- cism. Feeling this the bankers at ! first felt their way with caution, putting I questions with all the ingenuity possible ! in order to draw from MT. Windom what ! they suspected to be the truth, and for the l ton put by the government party in thehope | to gather from their questions the drift of the | Treasury policy they believed already formed. | But they found nothing to confirm their sus- picions and finally became thoroughly satis- | fled that Mir. Windom correctly stated the | governments position when he said the whole | subject was still an absolutely open question. l After this the bankers became perfectly | frank and freely gave suggestions, statements I and calculations. All kinds of schemes were | proposed The sentiment of the majority fa- vored the Treasurer issuing under the act of l
 
 the act allowed, and placing them upon the market, providing premium of IS 6-1O were l guaranteed the government for the whole ] issue. These bonds would have twenty six years to return and their revenue to the holders for the whole period of their outstanding would be exactly equal to the revenue of three per cent. bond sold at par. The advantage of this proposition was claimed to be first, that the four per cents are the only bonds which the government can lawfully issue until some new funding law is passed by Congress; sec ondly four per cent. bond would be the most popular bond to issue, because the peo- ple are acquainted with them and because of the ease of calculating the interest, one per cent every four months. The proposers of | the per cents also proposed to make up for the difference between the 105 millions of per cents. and the three hundred and fiftv-five millions of 5's and 6's that will ma- ture on the 1st of July by allowing the re- matured bonds to continue outstand- ing until Congress shall pass refunding bill, | the government meantime to pay the holders 3 per cent. The gentlemen who proposed the above plan argued that public opinion was almost entirely opposed to the govern ment any longer paying more than three per cent on it's obligations. This public opinion was too enlightened and strong to be disre- | garded, and it was right in claiming that the government credit was now sufficiently good ! per cent Besides, the funding bill passed by Congress last winter had the approval of 1 not only a majority of Congress and the peo- ole, but also of the President, and was vetoed because of the fifth section. The fact that the above plan was not only argued for by of the bankers at the conference, but put forth as the demand of popular opin- ion, is considered very significant. It is the first time that New York fnanciers have so deferred to public opinion and advanced it as an argument for government financial op- erations. This phase of the conference seems to foreshadow that any future funding law will be three per cent. one. There were but few advocates of 4 per cents. and no strong advocacy of them. No strong grounds were presented for issuing Treasury certificates using surplus revenues to make up the difference between the 1O5 millions of fours allowed by existing law and the lives and sizes to mature July 1st. Mir. Windom, pleased with the day when the conference ended, was heard to say: Well, came to seek wisdom and have learned more in New York to-day about finance than ever before learned about anything in any one day of my life"
 The bankers were greatly pleased with the Cabinet party. Gentlemen who called upon them at the conference express themselves as more than convinced that the present admin istration means to do the square thing with the people in it's funding operations, that no privileged syno1cate VIII De ano"eo to CUE trol the working of the governments tinan- ces, and that, to use the expressive words Of one of them, sIn this woodpile there is no l nigger, big or little" MT. Windom and par ty were the recipients of much social atten- tion at the Fifth Avenue Hotel after the ad- journment of the conference.
 Gold from Europe.
 NEW YORK, April 1.-The steamship Alge- ria from Europe brought SITS, 425 in gold and the Main $619, ,O94 in marks and gold bars.
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