Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-07-13
WANTS THE BONDS.
Kentucky Man Makes a Remarkable
 Proposition to Secretary Shaw.

| Washington, D. C., July 13.--Some amusing phases have arisen in con- nection with Secretary Shaw's prof.
 fer to the public of $30,000,000 of | bonds for the Panama canal fund,
 Offers to take the bonds are being
 received from all kinds and condi-
 tions of people, as is always the case
 when the government has bonds for l sale. Some of them are made in serious way and others evidently are made as joke or by some per- son slightly unbalanced mentally. Secretary Shaw, for instance, is in
 receipt of a proposition from a man out in Kentucky who says he desires 1 to take the entire issue of $30,000,- 1 000. He resides in small town in the central part of the state where | he is engaged in the feed business. In personal letter to the secretary.
 written in an informal and very il- literate way, he suggests that he is willing to take the $50, 100000 pond issue and offers to pay 100 1a for the whole amount.
 If this offer is satisfactory" he writes, "I will come on to Washing :. ton and talk it over with you and We can agree on terms"
 The writer of the letter gives no references and is a man of whom the secretary never before heard Mir Shaw is inclined to the opinion that the man made the offer as 2 joke, or on banter. It is possible heImay be a trifie unbalanced ,mentally- on account of the heat or an over -indul- gence in an important product of the Blue Grass state.
 Have you any disposition to ac- cept that price-100h-for the. Panama bonds?" inquired a friend of Secretary Shaw to whom he had shown the Kentuckian's letter. If you have, I will undertake to float the entire issue and will give you d guarantee to do so tomorrow morn- ing at g o'clock"
 Well" replied the secretary, ''I think we shall be able to do triile better than that. You need not lose any sleep tonight in the effort to get up your guarantee" '"' G~'fsr
 Secretary Shaw really expects to get pretty fair price for the Pan- anna bonds, although, as they will bear only 2 per cent interest. the price may not be high. There. is no doubt, however, that at 100k they would be a great bargain.
 Other offers to take the whole or a part of the issue have been received by Secretary Shaw. Some of these offers evidently have been made by persons who. in past years, have read stories of office boys in financial in- stitutions making bids for bonds of- fered for sale and getting them at price which enabled them immcdi- ately to turn them over to bond Duy- CTS at big profit without them selves having to put up a dollar. Yarns of this kind are published ev- cry time the government makes an issue and sale of bonds. They are woven out of the whole cloth. It may be accepted as a fact that the gov ernment does business only with re- sponsible people-with people who are able to carry out the obligations into which they enter. The secretary of the treasury looks pretty sharply after the governments interests and he usually gets every dollar for bonds he sells that they are worth.
 Secretary Shaw's belief tha. the government will realize a good price for the forthcoming issue is due TO the fact that so many small bids Tt good prices are being made for the bonds. The big bidders have not put in their propositions yet and Droba- bly will not until the last minute