American Defied Powers And Won.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 18, 1912:
Wendell Jackson's Flotation of the $50,000,000 Loan to China a Romance of Finance.
$2,500,000 ALREADY PAID
Foreign Ministers in Peking Protesting, but Mr. Jackson Says China Will Ignore Their Objections.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    LONDON, Wednesday, Sept. 18.— Amid the obscurities and contradictions of the reports about the $50,000,000 loan to China, there can be discerned material for a romance of finance, in which the central figure is that of an American whose name a few days ago was unknown to the world, whose identity even is a mystery, and whose previous history gave no indication that one day he would make a coup which would offset the labors of some of the greatest financial interests of Europe and America, backed up by the diplomatic influence of the six greatest powers of the world.
    When, not long ago, A. Wendell Jackson arrived in London with a single gripsack for his luggage, it is no exaggeration to say that he was bearding the British lion in his den.
    Mr. Jackson's object was to obtain a loan for China in the teeth of the policy which the British Government had followed for many years in regard to financial dealings with the Celestial Empire. The change to a republican regime in China had caused no alteration in that policy, which was approved by other powers, like Germany, France, mid the United States.
    The keynote of that policy was to discourage the issue of loans to China except under conditions scrutinized and sanctioned by the diplomatic agents of the powers in question.
    There was, of course, no actual veto possible on the issue of a loan to China by any financial interest that cared to take the risk, but most of the leading bankers recognised that the political support of the Consortium was an invaluable safeguard.
    Mr. Jackson entered the arena at a moment when the powers mentioned, with Russia and Japan added to their number, were giving the strongest diplomatic support to a syndicate of banks which was offering to make to the new Republic of China a loan upon conditions which were not altogether acceptable at Peking. The syndicate was the most powerful that could be formed, besides having the diplomatic machinery of the six powers at its back.
    To enter into competition with it would seem a scheme impossible of fruition, yet this is just what Mr. Jackson's idea was. From Now York he cabled to Peking offering to obtain for the Chinese Republic whatever money it required upon such terms and with such guarantees as would be acceptable to China. The financiers of six powers who were offering the loan were not, according to his argument, the only bankers in the world. That there are others Mr. Jackson has since demonstrated.

Negotiations Very Difficult.
    In the beginning the efforts of this adventurer of finance were, so far as can be learned, peculiarly difficult, even after he had obtained from Peking a cabled acceptance of his offer. His pourparlers with New York financiers led to nothing more definite than promises of support contingent on success in London. Even now it is uncertain whether any New York house is closely associated with the London bank which has taken up the $50,000,000 loan.
    Despite all obstacles, Mr. Jackson won his way to his goal, and, in his own words, "the $50,000,000 is waiting for the Chinese Republic now, and as many more millions as it requires in the future, if it will have them."
    It remains to be seen whether "diplomacy" has said its last word on the subject and whether the Chinese Government will disregard the protests made by the Ministers of the six powers in Peking.
    E. Buch Crisp & Co., the London house which, it is understood, has taken up Mr. Jackson's deal, is a Stock Exchange firm which in the fourteen years of its existence has acquired a reputation for enterprise.

Glad to See Monopoly Upset.
    In some financial quarters in London the success of Mr. Jackson's negotiations would be welcomed, as breaking up the monopoly in Chinese loan operations exercised by the financial houses in the six-power ring, for outside houses are dissatisfied with the existence of a monopoly.
    The Peking correspondent of The Daily Mail says that the first installment of the $50,000,000 loan has been paid over.
    The Times's Peking correspondent says:
    "There is much comment on the news received here that £500,000, ($2,500,000,) as the first installment of the London loan, is being paid over. It appears to impose upon Great Britain the necessity either of reiterating Sir Edward Grey's assurance of the Government's exclusive support of the Hongkong Bank and its adherence to the united policy of the powers in regard to Chinese finance, or of acquiescing in a transaction which runs counter to previous British declarations of policy.
    "The representatives of the six-power group to-day drew up a memorandum, for informal communication to the Minister of Finance, containing the points which they will insist upon as essential when the Chinese Government submits revised conditions as a basis for the forthcoming negotiations."
    Mr. Jackson yesterday emphatically declared that even this last obstacle had already been overcome and that the Chinese Minister in London had been instructed by his Government at Peking to notify the British Foreign Office that the contract had been signed and that a payment of half a million pounds had been made on account.
    Even should complete success fail to crown his efforts, Mr. Jackson's record in this matter is surprising. A leading London banker the other day described him as having undertaken a forlorn hope, and, though the financier at that time did not expect it to be successful, he added: "But one can not say for certain. Forlorn hopes sometimes are."

Who Is Wendell Jackson?
    "But who is Mr. Jackson?" then asked the banker, "and who is backing him?"
    To this question Mr. Jackson has refused to answer with much detail. He lived in New York, he told The New York Times correspondent, but he would not give the address. He has a wife and children there. He has no office there now, but at one time he was in business in Wall Street.
    "In what kind of business?" was asked. He replied: "In engineering and finance."
    Mr. Jackson said he was educated in universities in America and Germany, and later studied engineering in the United States. He has knocked about the world a good deal, his travels having carried him to Persia, China, and Russia. He was in Russia at the time of the Russo-Japanese war, and there came into contact with a syndicate of Russian financiers who had got a big concession in China. The syndicate was "scared" by the war and sold its concession to Mr. Jackson for a song. Mr. Jackson went to China to inspect his new acquisition, and passed some years in northern and central China, paying occasional visits to London, Paris, Berlin, and New York. It was while he was in Peking that he conceived the idea of negotiating a loan for China, and he gave the best part of two years to the work of preparing the ground. "I have an office in Peking,", he said, "but nobody knows where it is."
    Mr. Jackson is a man 55 to 60 years old, clean-shaven, white-haired, of medium build. He wears eyeglasses. In London he is living at the Royal Automobile Club.
    Behind him, he says, is a syndicate of British, American, French, and German financiers, but of not one would he tell the name. "They have more money than the six-power syndicate," added Mr, Jackson impressively, which statement is somewhat surprising in view of the fact that the six-power group included, J. P. Morgan & Co., the Deutsche Bank, and the Credit Mobilier.