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March 21,1896
Record and Guide.
478
ESTABLISHED-^ MARPU Sm^ 1868.
De^TSD 10 RiEJ^LEstate.BuiLDif/c Ap.cKn-ECTvnEMcwseKoidI
Bi/siWess Alto Themes ofGeiJer^I l»/traf»i!.
PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.
Published every Saturday.
TBLBPHONB,......OOBTIAMBT 1370
OonunnnloatlonB should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.
/. 3. LINDSEY. Business Manager.
" Entered at the Post-office al New York, N. Y.,as tecond-clast matter."
Vol. LVII.
MARCH 21, 1896
No. 1,462
The Kecord and Guide will furnish you with daily detailed reports
of all building operations, compiled to suit your business specifically, fot
14 cents a day. You are thus kept informed of the entire market for your
goods. No guess work. Every fact ver'ified. Abundant capital and the
thirty years' experience of The. Record and Gvit.>k guarantee the com¬
pleteness and authenticity of this service. Send to 14 and IG Vesey street
for information.
WITH 8UPPLEMEN1.
DOWN in Wall street people are engaged in persuading one
another that husiness throughout the country is in a very
bad way and that, therefore, prices of stocks aud honds ought
to decline. The arguments offered in support of this position
are not very powerful and overlook the fact of the satisfactory
natirre of the returns from the railroads, and the fact that the
predicted exports of gold have not come ahout. But when
such an idea is prevalent the predicted fall in prices usually
comes, though only to aftord opportunities for the shrewd and
cheerful minority to pick up cheap stocks. The meteorological
conditions of the month of March are ordinarily jjiovocative of
gloomy views and consequent lowering of quotation.i. This year
it was hoped that as the government houd sale was regarded hy so
many as a remarkable success, that it would counteract the dolor¬
ous influences of the weather. That hope has not heen fulflUed,
hut instead people have been blind to everything that is good
in the situation and eager to see the bad. Congress is still do¬
ing its best to uu.settle men's minds and make them fearful of
new undertakings, and the Washingtou orders in the stock
market are said to be all on the short side, and this fact has
naturally a bad influence apait from the actual effect upon the
mechanical movements of the market. The worst features of
the business situation are, however, dne to causes long past.
The actual eftect of the Venezuelan message of last December are
now being felt as later ouwe will feel the benefits of the removal
of the fear of war from men's minds that followed with the better
imderstandiiig of the .situation which was obtained in the follow¬
ing month or six weeks. We are apt to forget that a good deal of
time is required for the eft'ects of any event, beneficial or other
wise, to work through the commercial system, and to .<tssume that
with the nine days' excitement the whole matter has passed. It is
not so, however, as we are experiencing to-d.ay; but when
gloom is as pervading as it is to-d,iy. it is reasonable to conclude
that it is reaching its period to be followed by a spell of
sunshine.
A PPARENTLY we are to make up our minds that there will
-^^ never be peace in the world auy more. If war is not going
on in the Pacific, it will be iu the Atlantic or in the Mediterra¬
nean, and the little aggravations by which oue country tries to
" do up " another will be going on all the time and business must
adapt itself to these anticipations. We have got, too, to under¬
stand that the territories of the great European powers meet iu
many directions; that one nation may make war iu one part,
say of Africa, with the approval of another power, but not in
another part. For instance, England's advance into the Soudan
is sanctioned by Germany, while her movements in South Africa
are opposed by the same power. France aud England have no
sooner got through their mutual felicitations over the .joint
despoilment of Siam than they are shaking their fists at each
other again about Egypt. Without doubt European politics are
complicated. They have uot yet reached the point where two
powers can be at w.ir over one of their many difficulties and at the
same time exchanging- compliments over the closing of another ;
but that may come in time. Recent announcements have con¬
firmed the British determination to stay in Egypt and to cheri.sh
more fondly than ever the hope that they may yet find a way of
connecting their South African possessions with the Nile Valley ;
a truly magnificent prospect which all must admire even though
f«w may sympathize with it. These things give to Africa a
greater importance than ever, and it is in the development of
that continent that European surplus capital will go for a long
time to come. England's prosperity, asindicated by the national
revenue, leaves little to complain of ; the surplus over expendi¬
tures for the fiscal year, which will close this month, will be
about £6;250,000, and this and something more will be voted
to stimulate trade further through activity in the shipyards.
The liquidation of the affairs of the Society des Depots, which
went under on the collapse of tbe Copper Syndicate in 1891, has
been completed by the Bank of France, all advances having
beeu met by the sale of securities deposited. From Ger¬
many reports come that in Rhineland-Westphalia the iron and
steel business is better than it has been since the busy period of
1871-'73. Hungary ii preparing to issue a new loan of 150,-
000,000 florins. A strike of miners is proceeding in the Ostraw
coal mining district of Austria, twenty thousand men being on
strike. The demand is for a weekly instead of a monthly pay
day. Japan has appropriated something like $24,000,000 oiit
of the war indemnity received from China for increased arma¬
ments. Ship ijuilding ought to be the most active industry in
the world for some .years to come.
IT IS hard to understand why the Police Board thought it nee .
essary to make a formal reply to the newspaper talk about
the serious increase of crime in this city, unless it be that the
Board believe that the lie repeated acquires the force of truth.
The newspapers of New York are so utterly discredited with
people of judgment th.at their " charges " are not worth atten¬
tion ; indeed, a controversy lends them the very air of substan¬
tiality which the irresponsible reporter fails to impart to his
" story." The Coinmis.sioners' investigation showed that only
four crimes were committed of the forty-five which it was al¬
leged eluded the police. This is rather a high percentage of
truth for a paper like the 'World, or, indeed, for any other of
the sensational sheets which are busy decivilizing the multitude
by pandering to the raw uncultivated instincts. It is perhaps
an exaggeration to say that seven-eighths of all that is printed
in the papers is false, but certainly the greater part is utterly
unreliable. What i.sn't pure "fake" is so garbled, perverted
and journalistically colored that the reader is almost as misin¬
formed as he would be by straight out and out inventiou. How
few persons find correctly reported any event of which they are
personally perfectly cognizant. There is great need in New
York City to-day for :i decent, intelligent morning paper. The
wonder is that in the competition for readers none of the pro¬
prietors arrive at the conclusion that there is money to be made
by publishing a p.aper which people of ordinary culture and in¬
telligence could read with satisfaction. The policy for years
has been that whenever circulation declines a deeper plunge
into the mire is ueces.sary. The worst examples are followed.
First it was Bennett, then Dana, now Pulitzer.
A WRITER in the daily press recently became eloquent upon
the subject of the danger insurance companies were run¬
ning in taking risks upon large houses, meaning the town and
country palaces that our millionaires have of late years been
putting up. In the first phice it may generally be accepted that
the underwriters know their own business. If there is any in¬
dustry in the world that is based upon most careful calculations
and every consideration of risk, of which an outsider can form
any opinion, the insurance industry would appear to be that
one. So when a number of companies agree to guarantee loss
by fire in any particular case, it may be taken for granted that
the whole thing has been carefully considered and that the
prospects of profit warrant the operation. There is no reason
for supposing that these sound principles are less observed on
Sth avenue or at Newport than on Hester street or lower Broad¬
way. Our impression would be that, judged by the number of
casualties from tire which are reported, the risk is greater in the
commercial building or the tenement than in the p.alace. The
contents oi the latter are likely to be very valuable, possessing
more than a pecuniary value which is often uot the one most
esteemed but is the ouly one against which insurance is availa¬
ble. Consequently the provisions against loss through fire of
these treasures are as perfect as they can be. Not long ago we
made inquiry of several of the best builders of this city as to
why fire-proofing did not enter more largely into the construc¬
tion of the houses of the rich, seeing that they were to become
the depositories of costly pictures and other arl istic fiiruishiugs,
even reaching an intrinsic value of millions of dollars, to say
nothing of other considerations that endeared them to their
owners. The reply we got in eyery instance waa that the risk
from fire was so very remote in private houses of all the better
classes that the additional cost was not worth while. This is no
doubt the case. It will puzzle the memory to recall an instance
where a really tine residence has been destroyed by fire in this
country. In Europe, where wealth has accumulated with fixity
of families, palatial residences are scattered over every country,
and though mostly without those appliances for use in the case
of fire which are considered essential on this side, the percentage