The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-02-07
THE SUCCESS OF THE LOAN
4 TALK WITH PRESIDENT CLEYE-
 LAND ABOUT THE RESULT.

A Defense by Him of the Syndicate Con-
 tract of Last Year-His Own Preference
 for u Popular Loan-Bclief That Many
 Small Hoardings Have Been Reachetl--
 The Presidents Part in Making tho Loan
 a Success.
 New York, Feb. GA Washington special to the Evening Post says: "Sel- dom, if ever, have taken so much in- terest in anything as I have.in the suc- cess of this bond issue," said President Cleveland to your correspondent this morning. "Both Secretary Carlisle and myself have had it very much at heart.'
 Tn response to a reference by your correspondent to the syndicate contract of last year, the president remarked that he had never had reason to ques- ton the wisdom of that arrangement under the conditions then existing. That contract" he added, helped us out at time when forty-eight hours delay might have produced serious re- suits. I sympathize, nevertheless with some of the objections made to that form of placing a loan. The difference between the price obtained from the syndicate and the price currently quo- ted can be twisted into an argument which will appeal to people who do not stop to calculate the actual cost to the syndicate of floating the loan at that time.
 My preference would have been to have the present loan much more pop ular than it appears on its face, but we have done the best we could. The peo- pie who hoard small savings of gold or the equivalents of gold are unaccustom- ed to transacting business on the basis on which these bonds had 10 be issued; they are unused to premiums or to the formalities of making bids. If we could have sold them a per cent. gold bond at par, I think it would have brought out good deal of this gold; but the only bonds the law allows us to issue have to be sold considerably above par in order to keep the net rate of interest within reasonable limits.
 'As have said, I wish it could have been obviously still more of a popular loan; but, from such information as comes to me from various private sourc- es, I am convinced that mere small holdings of gold will be drawn into the
 treasury by the present arrangement than appear on the surface. The small country banks, for instance, witch are buying bonds for their customers, have | made their bids through their New York and Boston correspondents, and this gives the loan the appearance Of having been taken up by the big finail-s cial institutions at the money centers, although, as a matter of fact not a lit- tie of it will ultimately come from the small investors
 Although the president vas too mod- est to publish the part he had taken personally in making this loan a suc- cess, in justice to him it should be said that since the bonds were offered for general subscription a month ago he has been untiring in his efforts to enlist public interest in the undertaking He has sat up late each night writing au- tographic letters to such of his friends 1 in different parts of the country as could be induced to take hold and work I for the success of this loan; it is be- l yond question that the generous res sponse has been due in no small meas-
 ure to his individual labors and those
 of Secretary Carlisle along the same ! lines.