The Washington herald., 1915-09-08
HISTORY BUILDERS.
The Dutch Faith in American Secuni.
ties
Written Expressly for The Washington Herald)
BY DIR. F.. j. EDWARDS,

written Expressly for The Washington Herald)
BY DIR. f. J. EDWARDS.
The late David A. Wells. who while
still a very young man was appointed tt
an office specially created for him in the
Treasury Department at Washington
when Salmon +. Chase was Secretary
of the Treasury. could. had he been sc
disposed. have written a very interesting
history OF some of the financial transac-
tions of magnitude which were carried
on by the Secretary of the Treasury In
toe first administration of President
Lincoln. Occasionally Mr.. Wells used &c
chat reminiscently Of his experiences in
those days and IL was while he was thus
disposed 10 talk that I met him one AFT
ernoon in the year 1875
Mr.. Wells gained an international rcpu-
tation In civil war days through a mono
graph which he prepared whereby II was
shown that the resources of the North ,
were AMPLE to maintain the expenses of
the war even II those were continued at
the rate of a million dollars a day for
ten years or more. There had been no
such rsasterly demonstration of Ameri-
can res, urCcs since the DAYS when Alex
ander Hamilton made his great and now
traditional report to Congress while he
was Secretary of the Treasury. had
heard that it was partly due to Mr..
into all the European languages and
widely circulated-that the credit of ther
United States was so greatly improved
that We were able to borrow large
amounts Of money from investors who
lived across the sea. / ventured to say
to Mr.. Wells that I presumed that Eng
land had been our greatest benefactor In
the way of loans at the time of the civil
war.
1,at ig ,-ia III.
Mr.. Wells. but it Is mistaken one.
There was a time early in the war DAYS
when the Confederate government So
cured larger loans in London than the
United States was able to get. That
was because English investors believed
that the Confederacy's loan was amply
secured by cotton So perhaps II would
have been provided the blockade had
not prevented the export of cotton.
Our great market in the early DAYS
of the war. at least for loans. was m
Holland The bankers and investors OF
Amsterdam appear to have had clearer
view OF actual conditions than did those
Of London. These Amsterdam bankers
and investors doubted whether the Con-
federacy could get its cotton across the
sea On the other hand they had Iookcl
into the resources of the North and that
investigation persuaded them that IL the
terms were satisfactory they coIId
safely inves. large amounts m the loans
of the United States. For a considerable
time Amsterdam was the largest IL
vestor in our government loans. 1 sup-
pose that IL what was called the seven
thirties' had been issued In double the
amount Amsterdam would gladly have
taken the whole loan. Later on in war
days London began to invest more heas-
ily in government boncs but Amsterdam
was our principal market at first"
asked Mr.. Wells to explain why the
issue of bonds OF which he spoke WIS
called "seven-thirties."
1T was chiefly for the purpose Of easy
computation of the interest. The inter
est at cents a day on sloc was equir-
alent to $40 per cent as the yearly
rate. It was for long time the most
popular of all our loans
Icoryright. his. BY J. EdwsrdA Al nsho
resrrvedJ
Tomorrow DR.. Edwards will tell How
Alaska Was Transferred to the Units1