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ESTABUSHEH'^ iÍARpU ^m'* 1863.
DevÍjIED ĨO ReívL ESTAJt.BuiLDiKG ApftlílTECTUI^E ^HOUSEUOID DEGOHfcncxí,
BasiI^ESS A^toĨHEMES OF GeTÍEpA lrlTt;Fl,E31.

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"Eníereil at tlie Post-Offlce aí New Tork, if. T., as secoiid-elaĸa muttei'."





Vol. LX.





DECEMBER 25, 189T.





No. 1.554





WITB FOUR PA(}K SVPPLEMENT.





SPECULATIVE înterest has this week centred in locaĩ
transit seciirities and in tlie coaĩers. Too miicli faith
should not be placed in a movement that professes to depend
upon the favor of a political party and its alleged power over
the courts, or to one that seeks to advance coal stocks, in an
open winter, on the oft-renewed report of an agreement among
companies that have never kept thelr agreements yet.
However, as we have pointed out hefore, the times and busîness
conditlons favor advances rather than declines, and any stock
guided with the necessary wisdom and strength can be put up,
Ohviously the public wants to huy, and there would be a gen-
eralĩy advancing market now if it were not for the obstacles putin
the way by powerful Interests that want to see the money
market freed from possibĩe adverse influences from the Union
Pacific payments before speculative activity is allowed fiill play,
The dullness in the wheat market has another cause. It awaits
the logical effects of the fact that one man is known to own an
immense amount of wheat for which he must eventually find a
market, Cotton is down on the revlsed statistical posltion. The
American crop is equal to ahout the whole of the world's esti-
mated consumption for next year, leaving India. Egypt and
other growing countries to provide a surpius, while Lan-
cashire and New England both feel the necessity of lessenins
the production of manufactured goods, Apart from cotton man-
ufactures, the reports from the trades generally are good for
the time of the year, and índicatíve of still hetter things to
come in the sprĩng.

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EUROPBAN exchanges and trade centres are at last seein?
that there are prospects of trouble over China, whose par-
tition is apparently hegun in a really serious way. What the
actual outcome will he no one can say, exceøt that the end of
the Flowery Kingdom is at hand, Jealous of the influence
Russia is acquiring at the court of Pekin, the other Powers see
no way of offsetting it except by holdly taking what they want.
Chína can do nothing, At the present moment she is a 'Jamb
that prefers to he devoured by the Russian wolf rather than by
the Brítish, German or Japanese, but the latter won't consent
to stand quietly by while the first disposes of the foolish vic-
tîm; theír hunger must also he appeased. Until their positions
and "spheres of influence" are assigned by agreement, a matter
that will occupy a considerable time, fears of war will be hu-
merous in the newspapers; but there is so much to divide that
all can be satisfied without fighting, Anyhow, there is a beauti-
ful diplomatic game to be played and the undiplomatic world
will watch it with interest, Perhaps the points that arouse
most curiosity are: Where the finish will leave Japan, who
really hegan the game? and, What will the United States do to
protect its trade with China, while handicapped by a traditional
policy not to. interfere in the politics of the Eastern hemisphere?
Turníng to other happenings abroad, we find that the cost of
India's recent afflictions is beginning to be counted. Thc
famine and plague have cut down railway earnings, the loss on
ooe line for the first half of thîs year being 25% and that on
another 15.6%, These are the extreme cases, but they occur
on the most important railroads. Promoters have always plenty
of "enterprises" ready for flotation, and the success in London
of the English Sewing Cotton Company, whose stock was sub-
Bcribed for five times over, has shown that there is an Invest-
ment hunger to be satisfled, The conseQuence is that appeals
to the public to subscribe to schemes of more or less impertinence
are more than pĩentiful. Ottoman Bank shares have been weak
at Paris, o;i the unsatisfactory liquidation of the bank's iiiter-
ests in  South Africa.     Germany,  hesides the  vagaries  of the





Emperor, is interested in the trade resuĩts of the year now
showing through dividends. Electricaĩ, iron and coaĩ shares
make the best ones. Don Jon, of Berlin, has got as far as
Ostend on his dangerous mission to China, A hill before the
Hungarian Reichstag fixes May 1, 189S, as the date when the
Austrian government must have laid a deflnite treaty before
Parĩiament. and when, otherwise, Hungary will consider herself
free to arrange a!l economic and financial questions for herself,
Argentine securities are rising on the improved prospects for
business produced by the crops.





RAPID transit has undergoue so many transformations that
it is risky to regard even the most apparently concluslve
phase of it as finai. It does seem, however, that the recent de-
cision of the Appellate Court practically nullifies all that has
been done in the last few years to provide New York with ade-
quate rapid transit by means of an underground railroad. No
one is in the least likely to put up the ?15,000,000 bond demanded
by the court, and in default of that, as the matter now stands,
the scheme which the Rapid Transit Commissioners have con-
structed after so hard an effiort falls utterly to pieces. This
result is all the raore to be deplored because it is due to an
apparentiy unwarranted assumption of legĩslative power by the
court. The amount of the bond could and should have been
determined by the Rapid Transit Commission. The members
of that bocĩy are necessarily more familiar with the plans than
the Judges can be, and being also men of large business expe-
rience are in a miich better position than the judiciary to deter-
mine the amount that would be at once a sufficient guarantee,
yet not prohibitive. How the matter can now be altered or
amended it is difficult to see, particularly as there ís not a sufR-
cient public sentiment in favor of the underground plans to
have any weight at Albany, in case the only way to support and
continue what has been done is by legislation. The apathy of
the public, and even of real estate owners, is hard to explain
except by supposing that there never was any real popular inter-
ost in rapid transit, and that the majority are utterly insensible
to the barbarities that mark the transportation of human beings
in New York City. The little noise that was made a few years
ago about rapid transit was evidently manufactured by tbe
newspapers. There was nothing substantial in it. As long as
the public have no violent objection to hanging on to straps and
breathing the foul air of overcrowded cars the companies wĩll
see to it that they get transportation of that kind. There is
more proflt in it, and that is a cardinal virtue with corporations,
It seem,s that the only way to better our condition Is by improv-
ing the facilities we have, That is the line to work on henee-
forth, Invested interests of one kind and another are now
so great and powerful that intrusion of any new factor into the
sltuation is resented, and the tactics of delay are so long-winded
and ĩegal and other pitfalls so numerous that success for a new
enterprise can only be a happy accident.





HE fogs this Fall have been numerous enough to give New
Yorkers a special reminder that with the growth of
Greater New York there is need for more scrupulous vigilance
than ever in protecting the city from the smoke nuisance. The
muggy weather we have had lately gave evidence that the facto-
ries multiplying in and around Brooklyn and Jersey City are
depriviug New York of one of its most valuable assets. After
January the first, when consolidation is complete, it wiU be
possible to deal wíth the smoke nuisance in Brooklyn as It has
hitherto been dealt with in New York, It might even he possi-
ble to effect some arrangement with the New Jersey officials for
the institution of some reasonable regulations across the Hud-
son. There shoukî be on this subject a strong public opinion,
Chicago and other cities have suffered incalculably because of
their indiffierence to the early stages of the nuisance. Indus-
trialism is aíl very well, but there is a point beyond which even
manufaeturing and money-making does not pay. Surely that
point is reached when the air is befouled by mephitic odors and
deposits of coal, such as inflict the inuabitants o£ Chicago, Pitts-
burg and London. New York is fortunate in its nearness to
the anthracite coal flelds, and that advantage should no more be
squandered than that cf its proximity to the sea. Clear skies
havebeen one of the great attractions of New York, and until
we lose thera we shaĩl probably never know how great a blesslng

they are,

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