Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-07-06
A Remarkable Bond Sale.


the civic interest of the people is to cause
them to become stockholders in their mu-
nicipal, state and federal organizations.
To the extent that they invest their sur
plus capital in. the securities Of their Inn
mediate communities, when it becomes
necessary to raise money In this manner
for development purposes, they acquire
the viewpoint Of partnership which should
be gained by every citizen. Ordinarily the
securities of city. county and state are
taken by professional investors, banks,
bond-selling companies and other remote
purchasers who have no interest what
ever In the welfare Of the issuing organ
ization save as they are concerned In the
maintenance Of interest and in ultimate
liquidation. Recently Baltimore has had
a unique experience. however. in that it
has disposed Of a large percentage of q
municipal bond issue to the people OF
that city, who have thus become share
holders in the municipality The circum-
stances Of this sale to the peoplo Call for
particular comment, and. The Star ex-
tends its congratulations to the city Of
Baltimore and especially to the Baltimore
Sun, which was the agency Of this re-
markable purchase of securities by the
citizens.
On the 5th of June last the city of Bal
timore held a pubic sale of 8. 500. 900
bonds Bids had been invited In the
usual way for some time past with the
idea that the bond issue would be taken
by the investors who ordinarily absorb
such issues. The total Of the bids opened
that day. however. was only 1861, 800. of
~sx,~
being all bids of 80 or better, leaving
more than $5.0OOO0O bonds unsold. The
sale had thus been failure to the extent
Of pine-tenths Of the issue. a circum-
stance due 1t. was believed to the gen.
orally depressed condition of the financial
market, the states Of California. Missouri
| and Tennessee and the cities Of San
Francisco. Cleveland. Cincinnati Toledo
and Pittsburgh having lately failed to
dispose OF their Issues.
When the failure to sell the issue in the
open market became known the Balti-
more Sun started movement for the
/ sale OF the bonds directly to the people of
that city. It purchased $1,000 in bonds
and offered them over It's counter in null
tiples OF 500 at net cost without COM
mission or profit. With only a few hours
Fof announcement, and small opportunity
for preparation. this unusual bond sale
was opened the morning of June g. The
original amount purchased was exhausted
In three hours. More bonds were obtained
and on the first day. the sales totaled
$43.5 500 On the second day bonds to the
amount Of s73. 900 were sold and the third
day $121, AGO. The sale was continued for
nine days. and on the ninth day the appli-
cants were so numerous that they were
formed In two lines down the street. The
| total for the nine days was $093. 400 or
over twice as much as the award Of the
| city I'm the first sales to the professional
bond buyers. AZ . result Of this popular
sale the city was enabled to dispose Of
| the entire issue, which at the outset
seemed to be drug upon the bond mar
ket.
| This il remarkable demonstration
Of, first the power Of a newspaper In
q community whose confidence it has
won and second of the Willingness Of
the people to Invest their savings In pub
| lic securities when they are instructed
and guided In the process There are
doubtless hundreds Of thousands of peo-
pie In the United States who. like many
Of the Baltimore bond buyers, have their
savings in the form Of boards, unin-
vested and even undeposited In banks.
| who II properly educated in the matter
would gladly invest In the securities Of
their immediate community. Already the
example set In Baltimore has aroused the
interest Of public officials throughout the
United States. and it Is likely that as a
consequence. Of this demonstration the
same methods will be adopted elsewhere
when the time comes to put city. county
and state securities on the market. A bet
ter way Of increasing the working circu-
lation and stimulating q wholesome in
terest IN pubic affairs could not be de-
| vised.