The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1896-02-14

in the end, by the time the bonds are
| paid for, the government will find II
self possessed of not more than $780,
900, 600 more gold than it had to star,
| with.
In this connection 1 am enable to
| give some secret history that is very
| interesting. Five weeks ago the adj
! ministration wanted to place this loan
| with MIR. Morgan and his syndicate I'M
der conditions that would protect the
| reserve. Mr.. Morgan was willing TO
| undertake the task, but he declined 10
| pay more than los. The administra-
ton offered him the whole lot at 1Gs
| which was equal 20 31k per cent inter
| est. Mr.. Morgan persisted, despite
! pressure, IN adherence to this figure,
| and then the president decided upon a
| public loan. The bowls of certain
! newspapers, and the speeches Of sena-
tors in congress, denouncing private
loans, had nothing whatever to do
with the presidents change from a pri-
vate contract 70 a public competitive
loan; Mr.. Morgan's refusal to pay 100
determined that. II was some salts
faction TO the president to force Nor
gan TO come up with an offer, not alone
Of 100, but of nearly Ill, but he would
be better satisfied had he assurances
that the sale at III were going to pro-
tect the reserve and make another
loan unnecessary before the presiden-
tial election.
The newspaper writers who pirate of
PierpOnt Morgan as the favorite finan-
cier of the administration do not know
what they are talking about Presi-
dent Cleveland is out of patience with
Mr.. Morgan. If any financier may be
.Sal he Of +Joa Hy,f
istration it is John A Stewart of the
United States Trust company. After
the president had rejected Mr.. Nor
gan's terms of 105 month ago Mr..
Stewart was asked TO take hold and
help make the public loan a success.
He did 50 and to his efforts and infiu-
ence more than those of any other man
is due the success of the recent loan.
And yet Mr.. Stewart was outmanouv-
cred by Mr.. Morgan as bidder for
bonds. This was because Mr.. Morgan
had a friend 10 the syndicate which
Mr.. Stewart had organized for the pur-
pose of insuring the success of the is
sue. With this information in hand
it was easy for Morgan to ourbid Stew
art. If Stewart had been guided by
the advice of a Washington banker, one
Of his friends, he would have beaten
Morgan Last wednesday morning
this banker became satisfied Morgan
was going to bid near Ill and he wired
Mr.. Stewart to this effect, not once but
thrice Still Stewart refused to change
his bid. At the last moment the Wash
ington banker filed out bids for a half
million on his own account at III and
a little under, and reached the treasury
at just five minutes of noon. His bids
went in, he gets his bonds, and makes !
s25, 900 or $50, 600 for his quickness. Stew |
art lost the chance 10 make a million |
or two.
The Stewart bids for bonds, all at |
110.O75, were put in the hands of treas |
ury officials about twenty-five minutes |
before noon. The Morgan bid of no. !
GS77 was put in five minutes later. The |
Stewart bids had not been opened when |
the Morgan bids came in, and the Stew |
art bids were not IN the hands of the |
treasury officials when the Morgan bid |
were filed out and sealed in the office |
Of a banker two blocks from the treas
lry building. The difference between
llO075 and 1l0.6S77 represented the loss
Of a chance to make a fortune But
how silly and reckless the charge that |
there was collision in the treasury.