The Clarksburg telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1874-1926, 1912-04-04
TERMS MADE FOR
;HONDURAN LOAN
New Orleans Bank Offers to
Lend Six Millions for For
eign Debt Settlement.

department announced tOudy tHc
terms OF proposed new loan to the
government OF Honduras, to be fl
nanced by the Whitney Central Trust
& Savings Bank OF New Orleans, in
stead Of by the Morgan group in New
York. The department officials claim
that the Objectionable features OF the
Morgan proposition have been elimi-
mated by the Southern bankers and
they are again urging the Senate toI
act upon the Honduras loan conven-
ton, which has been before the for
eign relations committee for more
than year.
The offer Of s10,OOO,OOO loan BY
the Morgan group recently was with
drawn. The southern bankers, it is
announced, have made tender of a.
similar amount under new and rad
ically different contract. They pro-
pose to limit the first issuance OF
bonds to $6,OOO,OG0 and will require
OF Honduras 100000 a year to meet
the service Of the loan, as compared
with s450,OOO a year under the for
mer contract. The official announce.
ment of the new loan issued today by
the state department says in part:
I The southern bankers limit the
uses of their loan exclusively to the
refunding of the Honduras foreign
debt, and discard the proposals Of
the Morgan group to promote rail
road building and other internal i'm
provements and to settle internal
debts and claims pending against the
Honduran government.
1T was these provisions extending
the uses os the loan beyond the settle
ment of the foreign debt that aroused
criticism against the Morgan con
tract, and the southern bankers claim
that in eliminating these features
they have presented terms satisfac-
tory to Honduras and that acceptance
OF the loan may be expected.
Their optimism as to its final
acceptance, however. is based simply
upon the approval given their con-
tract by individual officials of the
government of Honduras who have
closely studied their offer With the
general public in Honduras the
southern bankell find themselves
handicapped by a widespread pre-
JUDGE toward loans in any form, and
say that this opposition has undoubt-
eddy been augmented by the failures
Of the Senate to ratify the convention.
If the Senate ratifles the conyen-
ton and gives to the Whitney con-
tract the tacit approval which such
action %nplies, it will, it is declared,
produce wave of reaction in Hon
duras, dissipating the blind prejudice
and paving the way for sane con-
sideration OF the Whitney contract on
its merits. The opposition in Hon
duras to the loan convention with
the Morgan contract, against which
popular opposition has been aroused,
and with the convention divorced
from that contract and resubmitted in
connection with a new contract in
directly approved by the United States
Senate and Endorsed by many prom
inent officials in Honduras the bank
ers feel confident OF its complete sue
cess.
THE new offer. as described by
Acting Secretary Huntington Wilson,
is for $6,OOO,OOO loan, payable in
forty years with interest at the rate
of five per cent and with a sinking
fund after five years of one per cent
The bonds are TO be secured by the
customs revenue Of Honduras, col
, lected. as provided for in the loan
convention, by Americans appointed
by Honduras with the approval of the
President of the United States Con-
nected with the New Orleans bankers
Is the firm of William c. Sheldon and
Company, of New York.
Even before the New York bankers
had withdrawn formally their offer Of
a loan to Honduras, the southern
bankers, convinced of the impossible
ity of concentrating the New York
loan, began to study the field with
view to making the loan themselves.
Certain of them having large inter
ests in Honduras. it was essential to
them that that country be put upon
its feet financially. and they offered,
therefore, to advance a loan in ac-
cordance with Honduras demands,
limited exclusively to refunding the
foreign debt.
They have already made consid-
cradle Roadway. the Honduran Con-
gress having accepted their terms for
preliminary loan of 100000, offered
to meet the pressing needs of that