Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-07
BROKERS WERE SURPRISED The Amount of the Bid Para
 Iyzed Wall Street. IT HAD ONE GOOD EFFECT Large Amounts of Hoarded Money Will Be
 Released. THE PREMIUM ON GOLD WENT DOWN The Competition of MT. Morgan and MT. Stewart for the Honor of Financing the Treasury Ran the Price of
 the Bonds Up.
IT HAD ONE GOOD EFFECT
THE PREMIUM ON GOLD WENT DOWN

Washington, Feb. 6.-By working day and night with expert accountants As sistant Secretary Curtis hopes to be able to announce tomorrow the names of those who were successful bidders al the bond opening Wednesday.
 The treasury has already in hand for delivery $40 0000. .000 registered bonds and &22, 900, ,0O0 coupon bonds. Bonds of the latter character, principally of $1000 de- nominations, are being printed and de- livered at the treasury at the rate of 3D. 100000 a day. Many of the successful bidders indicated in their bid how they desired the bonds awarded them broken up." Those who did not will be invited to do so when notified of the acceptance of their bids. Chief Johnson of the bu- reau of engraving and printing has prac- tically all the bonds printed. with the slight detail of denomination to be put on some, and from present indications, with 120 days left in which all bids can be paid for. no delay is expected in their delivery.
 Already steps have been taken to af ford successful bidders an opportunity to pay for their bonds. The following circular letter, directed to United States Treasurer Morgan, copies of which We're also forwarded to the nine assistant treasurers, was signed by Assistant Sec Tetdfy Wlke tulS
 Treasury Department,
 February G. 1896.
 As soon as practicable the department will furnish you a list of the accepted bidders for the 4 per cent bonds of 1925 of fered to the public by the circulars of January 6, and 15, 1896. The list will contain the name of each bidder with the addresses, the amount of each bid, the price and the date of the secretary's ac- ceptance. You will receive payment for t, ttAI tru rr0Id nnt gold certificates, by installments or in fulI as provided in the circulars above mentioned. Each payment of an install ment should include the principal. pre- mium al the price named in the bid and accrued interest from February 1, 1896, to date of such payment so that the pro portionate amount of bonds represent ing the instalments will be paid for in full You viii issue for each payment your certificate of deposit, in duplicate, In the name of the depositor, on account of the purchase of per cent bonds or 1925, stating on the face of such certifi- cate the amounts respectively of prin- cipal, premium and accrued interest re- ceived, and also state thereon the num- Der of the installment when not in full. You will deliver the duplicate to the de- positor with instructions to retain the duplicate and to forward the original to 1he secretary of the treasury, accompa- ned by letter from the depositor, glv- ing complete lnIOrmatlOH as u tIc hihu and denominations of the bonds desired and the place of their delivery.
 The bonds will be issued upon receipt by the secretary of the original certifi- cate of deposit. Any depositor may as- sign the original certificate issued in his name in which case the bonds will be is- sued upon the order of the assignee.
 If it should be deemed advisable to postpone the receipt of deposits on this account beyond the dates fixed in the .a1 sv.-f fnaO hxy gram or letter will be given you. The de- partment will begin the delivery of both registered and coupon bonds as soon as certificates of deposit therefor are re- ceived by the secretary as above indi- cated.
 First consideration will be given to the sb0 000 900 subscriptions at and above the rate of the blanket bid. Enough of that Sid will then be accepted to make I'D the total amount of the loan, $lO0,00O,- coo, If this programme is carried out, the Morgan syndicate will secure about $50 OOO, 900, or just one-half of the loan. The work of the committee will be sim pIified considerably by the rejection Of the mass of bids at rates below 110.6S77. Nearly all of these bids come from in- diyiduals and the smaller banking insti- tutions. In the words of one of the treas ury officials today "all the so-called pop ular offers to subscribe were at the low est rates averaging about 1O4. which, while showing desire to subscribe to government loan showed also that the small dealers, for some reason or Q other. were not willing or atis 10 pay as much for the bonds as the big institu- tions which make business or such transactions.
 In an article printed this morning un- der the caption Rivalry In the Bid ding" the New York Sun says:
 Wall street was astounded at the amount of the bids for the new bonds. The largest estimate on Tuesday was s2O0, 0,0O0,0 900. and the prevailing impress sion was that the average Of prices would be 1OS to 1O9. The first announce ment from Washington that bids aggre- gating $3S0, 100000 had been scheduled almost paralyzed the street. The official statement that President John A Stew art of the United States Trust company had sent in for his institution and large number of other institutions and individuals bid for $76.000,000 at HOOPS was not surprising. The announcement that J. P. Morgan & Go. had bid for the entire issue or any part thereof at a slightly higher price than that named by Mr Stewart for himself and asso- ciates was a genuine surprise to the street. Interest in the Morgan pid was intensified when 1t was learned that it was for the firm of J. F. Morgan & O., the Duestche bank of Berlin, Harvey Fisk & Sons and the National City bank. each being equally interested in the bid.
 AS soon as the bids were made public Wall street saw at once why the loan had been largely oversubscribed, and the more the street studied the circumstances attending the bids the stronger became the conviction that business rivalry was largely responsible for the extraordinari- ly large subscription to the bonds The most important fact, and one which 1t is useless to try to conceal, is that MT. Stewart and MT. Morgan have competed for the honor of financing the treasury.
 motive which MT. Stewart himself says actuated him in taking an active part in the matter s.that he wished the