This feature of the situation was not much discussed in public, but it was the subject of many long private conferences among financial leaders in New York. It was to them an octopus which threatened the very life of trade. Private attempts to learn something about the identity, resources, and intentions of the unknown dictator had all failed, and yet it was felt that some information on these points was essential to genuine business prosperity. This necessity was so great in the estimation of the presidents of the principal banks that they finally resolved upon a bold but straightforward course for solving some of their doubts. They decided to ask the master of these new golden millions, through his only known agent, for certain assurances regarding his future plans. The matter took shape in this way: The secretary of the treasury was asked to come to New York and attend a conference of the members of the Clearing House Committee of the New York banks and two or three private bankers of New York and Philadelphia. He agreed to come. Then a polite request was sent to Messrs. Strong & Co., inviting them to send a representative to the same meeting. Fifteen men sat in the big leather chairs in the directors’ room of a Wall Street bank at noon on the 21st of March, in response to the above call. John Wharton, the junior partner of a house but little known in the financial world a few weeks before, looked somewhat out of place among the grave and dignified masters of finance who represented as well as any equal number of men could the monetary interests of the nation. But it might have been noticed that the young man was greeted with as much respect and cordiality by every one present as was the almost white-haired secretary of the treasury himself. No time was wasted in ceremony or purposeless talk. Wharton had been a bit late. When he had been made acquainted with such of the company as he did not know, and two or three others had come in, the chairman of the Clearing House Committee briefly stated the object of the meeting.