The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-07-28

....-h not an important matter IN ltselt-
-.--s has gain set the people and the
% talking of ]. p. Morgan. Au-
=. 72sImont and the two groups of men
,7 as the gold and bond syndicates.
-.,r,st spring supplied the United States
-.slrv With gold and fioated the latest
of United States bonds. It has
---S--'-sss1med that these syndicates were
,sgsI TO prevent the export Of gold
..sn America. but so far as the public
laws this is not so. The promise 10 try
=. A., r1is was made by Mr. Morgan in
a,ilually before the syndieates were
.--,a5 and it has never been authOri-
..srv stated that the members of the
dictates agreed TO share his RESPONSE
,mrv. In one sense their work is now
srisbed. since the needed gold has been
laced in the treasury and the bonds al
,,.a5 but as yet no one knows how large
,,sir profits will be. Even the members
a. the syndicates themselves will not be
certain upon that point for some time to
come.
full list of the membership of the two
srrl;cates has not yet been made public.
and probably never will be. For long
ne j, was believed that there was but
,ae syndicate and that it accomplished
1. both achievements of furnishing the gold
and marketing the bonds. Little by lit
ra however. the main details have come
out and the public now understands,
10th that it required two syndicates to
ID the work, and that among the chief
leutenants of Morgan and Belmont were
George f. Baker, president of the First
National Bank: Fred d. Tappen, presi-
lent Of the Galiatin National Bank; J.
YlWard Simmons, president OF the Fourth
National Bank; and Henry W. Cannon,
president of the Chase National Bank.
| All Of these men are we'll known in hnan-
cal circles throughout the entire coun-
~y Like both Morgan and Belmont,
Hev all belong TO the Bankers Wall
street." which is quite a different thing
rom the stock exchange wall street"
so roundly denounced in heated political
lmpaigns by stump orators. In high
financial circles wall street" does not
mean the stock broker interests at all.
The Exchange is the term used by the
railroad managers and the bankers to
designate these interests, while the
Bankers Wall street" means the clear
ing house. which, instead of being an
element productive of fluctuations and
uncertainty in prices, always makes for
frmnes and solidity. Upon several oc-
casions Of great financial peril, when the
stock exchange has been absolutely help
less, the clearing house has proven the
one element of safety to the entire COM
munity; the strong, deep-founded dam, so
to speak, that has kept back the rushing
current of overwhelming disaster.
To the general public. perhaps, Mr. Ba-
ker's name IS not so familiar as those of
the four other lieutenants here mentioned
and vet he was a very important factor
IN the immense transactions of the syndi-
Gates of 1885, has been prominently identi-
fal with banking in New York for up
wards of thirty years. and was one of the
chief pillars of the syndicate which han
died the first great issue of bonds made
ty the government during the civil war.
Mr. Bakers father was a friend of the late
William H. Seward, and when Seward
was governor, acted as his official ad-
visor At that time young Baker was study
Ing the rudiments of finance as a clerk
in the Office of the New York State Bank
ing superintendent. When Seward went
70 Washington as Mr.. Lincoln's secretary
Of state, the elder Baker went with him,
while the younger man located in New
York. entering the employ of the late John
Thompson, the bank note detectOr man,
who at that time had private banking
house on Wall street near Broadway.
Shortly after that the First National Bank
was organized, with Mr.. Baker as cashier.
When the syndicate to handle the first
issue of bonds put out by John Sherman,
then secretary of the treasury. was form
e1 the First National was one of its most
prominent members, and Mr.. Baker and
Mr. Thompson, his former employer, were
among the most active of all who took and
sold these bonds. 1t will be remembered
that they were absorbed by the syndicate
as fast as issued, and it is traditional
in New York banking cir
cles, that these two men handled more
bonds in this country than all the other
members of the syndicate combined.
The New York members of this syndi-
cate We're known as the Fort Sherman
crowd the name Fort Sherman having
been applied to the Broadway building,
IN an upper room of which Secretary Sher-
man and the members of the syndicate
used to meet. Even since those days Mr.
Baker has been held to be the best all
round authority living with reference to
hlted States securities, and this makes
II clear why his selection as a leading lieu
tenant in the formation of the recent SYM
alcate was eminently sensible on Nor
CAMS part.
AT an early stage of the syndicate's OPP
efatons, Mr.. Morgan found it necessary
% go to Europe in order to establish a
market for American securities, and a
CIedlt to draw against in case ii were
necessary, for the purpose of preventing
lAe export of gold, to sell bills of exchange
dl loss. During his absence 1t was
3leeIul that some one of experience and
ie1sment should have charge of affairs
IeIe' and this post was assigned to Mr..
baker 1t may therefore be said that he
was the man who personally kept the need
81 gold in this country during one of the
nloSt critical periods of the later history
VI american finance. Because of his valu>
aD4e ana difficult services he became a
member OF both syndicates and will prob
10Y pocket very pretty profit from
.ieH operations. He is about sc, though
asparently much younger and is a man
y. striking personal appearance. Like his
TrSlIhSulshed financial chief, Morgan, Mr..
naAer Is man of great personal mod
ny and what he terms newspaper noto-
~ is especially distasteful to him.
-"ough he belongs to several of the most
"S'aoIe clubs, he is not nearly so much
" factor in New York club life as his
t7+oW members of the syndicates, nor lie
~ so much in evidence in society as some
ZEN. His bank is one of the largest in