June 37, 1885





The   Record  and  Guide.





733





although they may through the laxity of our laws escape personal liabihty
on account of the wrongdoings of those with whom they ore associated, yet
they cannot absolve themselves from the moral responsibiUty attaching to
the acceptance of a position ot such trust. They wUI be made
to lealize the important tact that the effect of a wrong act upon the
real sufferers is not essentially different, whether it proceeds from a
positive or a negative com-se of action, and that the responsibility is equally
great iu each ca.se. Outsiders in making investments are guided principally
by two things: first, tho reputation of the gentlemen composing the board
of directors (for they assume that no honorable man would lend his name
toadoubtflU enterprise), and, secondly, by the representations made by
such men in their official capacity through published reports. These two
things are, in fact, all that one not directly in the secrets of a company can
have to rely upon. Of course there are eiTors common to the lot of aU meu
which cannot be avoided; these wUl be readUy understood and frankly
overlooked. In managing large properties difficulties wiU often arise that
cannot be foreseen, but if a trnstee wUl use his best judgment and work
with an honesty ot purpose, whatever may be the result, the world wiU not
judge harshly, but will always discriminate between good and bad inten¬
tions. Good men may in unguarded moments be deceived by dishonest
men, but if no paiticipation in doubtful transactions cau be shown there
wUl be no disposition manifested to unjustly condemn.—Chicago Inter-
Ocean.

The New Steel Making Process.

The recent introduction ot the new steel making process, known as the
ClappGrifflth patent, by one of the leading firms of Pittsburg is attracting
much atteution throughout the country, and the results ai-e awaited with
eagerness. So confident are iron manufacturers of the success of the inven¬
tion that already a dozeu plants have been licensed, and a speedy revolu¬
tion iu steel manufacture is predicted. It is alleged that by this process a
steel is produced which is very low in the percentage of cartxm, and which
can be worked and welded as easUy as the softest iron. But few puddlers
wUI be needed in the new process, their work being done by machinery.
Persons who have investigated the workings of the Clapp^Griffith plants say
that if the process stands the practical test ot time, it wiU probably check
the importation ot iron ores by utilizing ores high in phosphorus, which
have hitherto been of no use in tho manufacture of steeL One of the great
advantages claimed tor the new process over the Bessemer process is that
the former wiU eliminate the phosphorus from the iron ores, whUe the
Bessemer process wUl not It is also claimed that by the Lipsey process,
anothar new invention, the manufacturer can take scraps of the most
worthless u-on, such as old bolts, bits of wrought and cast irou, and i-usty
scraps, commanding only half a cent a pound, and make steel of a finer
grain than the Bessemer steel and more thau fifty times the sti-ength of
wrought irou.—Exchange.

Grass Farming.

It is stated that grass farming in Missouri is steadily extending; it has,
within a few years, increased from 11 per cent of the farming lands to 20
per cent This is a sign of more intelligent agriculture. There was a tuue
m Missouri when grass was considered hardly worth raising, aud many
farmers were without hay from one year to another. But the value of
green grass in the summer and hav in the winter as feed for animals is being
recoguized, and meadows and pastures are now carefuUy cultivated. The
time is not far off when grass farming wiU be, if it is not already, the most
profltable, as it is the easiest and cheapest kind of husbandry in Missouri-
more profltable than the raising ot grain, tobacco or any other crop which
is removed in a raw state trom the soil and sent awoy to be consumed. The
great advantage of it consists In the fact that it is fed on the soil and the
greater part of it, therefore, is restored to the soU. There is no better sign
of thrifty farming than mauy haystacks. Grass and hay are flt only for
feeding to animals, and grass farming, therefore, means dahying and the
raising of cattle, horses, mules and sheep. A crop of wheat has to be sold
to the miller to be manufactured into flour—and the mUler makes a larger
profit than the farmer; but a crop of grass is converted on the farm into
flesh, milk and butter, which are not only the most valuable form it can
assume, but cost Uttle for transportation. A State that limits itself through
a long series of years to raising and seUing a raw staple ot any kind—grain,
cotton or tobacco—and sending it away for consumption, wiU grow poor;
but a husbandry that makes the farm a manufactory for converting raw
materials into high priced articles of food invai'iably bruig wealth aud com¬
fort. ~/S>'(. Louis Itejniblican,

The Investment Market.

A prominent firm of Loudon stockbrokers discuss at length in a recent
circular the relative position and merits of various classes of securities and
property, as receptacles tor capital, and conclude with a strong expression
of preference for American railrotid bonds. Stocks are regarded with
apprehension; but if the capitalists desires to combine the two elements of
security aud a high rate of fixed income, he can not well do better, accord¬
ing to this firm, than to buy with discrimination Americau raUroad bouds
occupying positions of medium altitude on the Stock Exchange register.
They recm- to the situation ot affairs in 1873, when a long category of bonds
then designated as " weak," paying 5(^7 per cent face interest and selling
at 75 to 100, which in flve yeai-s were advanced to the first rank, being rated
so high uideed as to yield ouly 4 to 4).^' per cent, on the investment. This
category has passed above the class of tempting purchases, and are suited
only for the custody of retired or trust capital; but there is a more and
ample assortment ot practically the same attractions as those high-priced
bonds represented in 1873, which offer strong assurances of having a simUar
career before them. Sinular conditions, but on a contracted scale, exist in
Canada. There is probably a great degree of probabiUty in favor of the pos¬
itions assimied. It may be premised as a certainty of the early future, that
commercial and industrial activities in the United States wiU experi¬
ence a wholesome and steady revival, and that the measureless forces which
should be steadUy undeveloping from the country's reservoirs of wealth can
be onlv temporarily confined among a people so inteUigent and enterpris¬
ing. Raih-oad interests wUl necessarily respond to the recuperatmg forces,
and whUe men are stUl repeating by rote the trite saying that railroad con¬
struction is on a scale adapted to years of future expansion rather than the
preseut, it wiU be demonstrated that the country has already buUt up to
the capacity of the raUroads, and that the procession has passed on. The
next stage wiU be a new era of construction, but this wiU be preceded by a
period ot good profits to stockholders, provided always, of course, that
the license and dishonesty of railroad managers do not convert the common
earnings into ring or stock exchange steals. Before the advent »t either, as
is always the experience of communities in times of commercial and finan¬
cial convalescence, there wiU be the inevitable prelude of large and increas¬
ing purchases of securities of guaranteed income. As a corporation must
pay ita debts before it can distribute proflts, bonds outrank stocks in point
of securitv, and the era of bend investments and specidations necessarUy
antedates that ot stock speculation. Of late the New York bond market
has displayed more action in this direction than in several yeoi-s, though the
peculiar position ot the New York banks, enforcing as it does the keenest
attention to easy temporary aid in the earning of iuterest on their immense
deposits, detracts substantiaUy from the value of this movement as a thing
of general sigiifficance. The circular to which we have referred advances
plausible reasons why English capital should begin to pick and choose
among the $3,100,000,000 American raih-oad bonds in market in preference
to EngUsh raUway investments. The latter are not only overbalanced rela¬
tively, but are to be subjected to the ordeal of radical reforms in the
methods of English railroading.   Inlaud freights in England are absurdly





high, and by strong discriminations in favor of foreign produce, weakened
so seriously the alreadv embarrassed produce interests of England that a
modification wiU be compelled in self-defense. It costs more to carry hops
from Kent to London than from Belgium through Kent to London, and the
transportation of a barrel of fiour from Chester to Brighton is about as
costly as from Chicago to London.—Courier-Journal.

Yankee and English Shoes.

In Robert P. Porter's letter on the shoe trade in England he quotes the
statement of an English shoe manufacturer to the effect that it given free
trade in shoes with the United States the English could beat the American
shoe manufacturers notwithstanding the far larger use made of machinery
by the Americans and the "work-at-home" system of the EngUsh. Mr.
Porter quoted the Englishman's boast for what it was worth, and without
approval. Doubtless with free trade inroads ot some extent could be made
on the American market. The abiUty to undersell on one article would be
made the means to undermine the dimensions of our manufacture, and so to
lessen our abihty to sell cheap on both that and other lines of goods. Who¬
ever supposes, however, that the English shoe manufacture, as it stands,
compares in either cheapness or quantity with the American is in error.
The shipment of boots and shoes from all England to all parts of the world
is onlv one-eighth as much of the shipments of shoes trom Boston alone to
points outside ot New England. As long ago as 1873 England shipped to aU
parts of the world only 6,332,328 pau-, valued at 48,197,8.52.50, or 81.28 a
pair. The same year Boston alone shipped to points outside of New Eng¬
land 55,000,000 pair, for which an average of $45 per case was realized,
being $1.12 per pah-. This shows that Boston ships nine times
as many shoes as all England, and that their price is 16 cents
less per pair than that received by the English exporter. The fact that
the shipments from Boston ai-e chiefly to other parts ot the United States,
and hence do not figure technically as "exjxirts" or "foreign trade," cuts
no flgure economicaUy, since all that would be necessary woidd be for
New England to go out ot the Union and these would forthwith become
foreign trade. The entire export of England iu 1875 was only 4,'226,376
pair, while Maine alone produces 4,675,854 jiair, and Massachusetts produced
78,000,000 pair in 1875, aud her product was worth $95,9(X),510 iu 1880, or
about thirteen times the whole English export. Ot the English shipments
two-thirds go to Australia and other EngUsh colonies, which buy ot England
partly for reasons disconnected with cheapness. The total shipment of
Enghsh shoes to new English countries is therefore ouly abont $2,000,000
a year, which is about four times the American export. All these and far
more would be consumed in England, leaving no export whatever, it the
British people as a whole wore as good shoes as the American people. It
sm-ely is not matter of pride that a people are able to export shoes if they
attain that result only by going barefoot. Comparing the total quantity of
leather consume<l in the production of shoes for consumption in the United
States, and it shows that the Americau people consume about one-fourth
more value in shoes per capita than the British. The best test of a good
shoe policy is the degree in which the people wear good shoes.—Chicago
Inter-Ocean.

---------•---------

Cheap Labor.

There are, apparently, those who beUeve that the prosperity of manufac¬
turers in this country would be increased by cheap labor. If there is a
country iu the world of which this is not true it is the United States. Goods
manufactured here are mostly sold here, and unless wages are such that
those who work can buy these goods, they cannot be manufactured. There
are several millions of wage workers in the country, and fifty cents more or
less a day tn the wages they receive, means as many miUion dollars more or
less to be spent daily, mainly for things produced here. If it were possible
to reduce at once, by one-half, the price paid for labor no greater blow
could be struck against the manufacturing interests of the country. Nine-
tenths of manufacturing is of things not absolutely essential, and is kept
alive by the ability of people to buy that which uuder compulsiou they
could do without.—American Machinist,





Unburnt Brick.

Much as many dispute the fact, it is nevertheless ti-ue that unburnt
brick forms a much drier waU than ordinary burnt brick, inasmuch as they
are not so absorbent of wet or damp. To make these any ordinary clay
wUl answer. If di-y when obtained it must first be moistened and thoroughly
worked by the feet of cattle or pounded by the hand. Cut some straw into
pieces about six inches in length. After being duly mixed with the straw
the clay is ready to be made into bricks. A mold of any size may be made.
This mold should have a bottom, but not au- tight, in order to prevent the
brick from sticking in the mud. The clay is put into this mold and the
brick formed much in the same way as orduiary brick. Should the clay
be very tenacious a little sand sprinkled in the mold will enable the brick to
leave it freely. The bricks are placed on level ground to dry, turning them
on their edges on the second day; thereafter left in pUes, protected from the
rain, tor ten or twelve days.





It was greatly to the credit of the Legislature that it passed the Adirondack
bill arranged principally by Gen. Husted. Tho compromise biU has
the endorsement of the New York Chamber of Commerce, the New
York Board ot Trade and Transportation, the Brooklyu Constitution Club and
even, it is said, ot the lumbermen who have opposed almost aU the Adiron¬
dack bills that have been introduced. It is possible that the lumber interests,
having no further use tor what remains of the wilderness forests, have kindly
consented to turn them over to the care of the State uutU the trees grow
again to merchantable size. The compromiso measure is very long. It pro¬
vides tor the appointment of three Forest Commissioners, to serve with¬
out pay, and have charge of the State lands in the Adirondacks. It also
provides for the prevention and extinguishment of forest fires in other
counties ot the State by the supervisors thereof, and gives the supervisors
of toivns iu which are forest lands the power to appoint forest guards to
extinguish and to prevent fires. The Forest Commission has among its
duties the preservation and protection of the forests, the punishment of
offenders agaiust the forest laws, the pubUcation of suggestions concerning
tree planting and cultivation, and the posting in school-houses, inns, saw-
mUls and simUar establishment of printed rules tor the suiipression of forest
fires. The law also requires raUroads running through woodlands to exercise
necessary precautions to prevent the escape of sparks, and appropriates
$15,000 for the pm-poses of the act.—Albany Journal.





Some estimate of the effects of the raih-oad war of rates between the New
York Central and West Shore raUrotids may be judgetl of from the state¬
ment made to us this week by a creditable gentleman who knew whereof he
spoke. He said that but for this raUroad war the New York Central would
have ordered 100 new locomotives some months since to be built at
Schenectady. This is only one of a number ot simUar incidents of a most
injurious character affecting business and labor prosperity resulting from
the suicidal cutting of rates below the profit point.—Exchange,





Three years ago, Virginia produced less thau 50,000 tons of coal annuaUy.
The openiug of uew mines, the extension of a railway and the building of a
great pier at Norfolk have increased the output to 750,000 toiu, aud this is
but the beginning.—Exchange.