Owing to the sudden and severe pressure of business to which the Committee of Five was subjected almost from the moment of its organization, some matters were unavoidably overlooked which should have had immediate attention. Conspicuous among these was the question of the rate of interest to be charged upon open contracts which the action of the Governing Committee had suspended. This matter was not reached until the meeting of August 4th, when the following ruling was made: "The Special Committee rules that interest on the delivery at the rate of 6 per cent. shall accrue from August 5th on all unsettled contracts for delivery of securities, except that interest shall cease when a receiver of securities gives one day's notice to a deliverer that he is ready to receive and pay for same. "The Special Committee further rules that sales of bonds on July 30th carry interest at the rate specified in the bond to July 31st, and that between July 31st and August 5th they are 'flat'; interest thereafter to be 6 per cent. on the amount of money involved, subject to the exemption stated in the previous ruling." In view of the fact that no action had been taken up to August 4th and that a number of private settlements had been arranged in the meantime the Committee thought it wise to avoid a retroactive ruling, and imposed the 6 per cent. rate from August 5th. Injustice was done, in some cases, by permitting a lapse of five days when no interest charge was required, but this injustice was cheerfully borne owing to the unusual exigencies of the situation. On this same day the Committee received the first communication which indicated that some members of the Exchange had not yet appreciated the necessities and dangers of the situation. This came in the form of a letter from the Baltimore Stock Exchange which contained the following passage:-- "A representative New York Stock Exchange house has been guilty of going directly to one of the Trust Companies here, and made offerings of bonds dealt in on both your Exchange and our own, at a large concession." The Committee directed the Secretary to make the following reply:-- "In the matter of your letter of August 1, 1914, I am instructed by the Special Committee appointed by the Governing Committee on July 31, 1914, to inform you that in the opinion of said Committee the offering down of securities in places where money is loaned on securities is most reprehensible, and that members of this Exchange ought not to engage therein. If possible, I would like the name of the member of the New York Stock Exchange who made such offer." It may be urged in extenuation of the act of the Stock Exchange house that, August 1st being only one day after the closing, a thorough appreciation of the gravity of the situation had not yet become general. * * * * *