June 26,1886





The   Record   and Guide.





825





THE   RECORD   AND   GU!D^

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Vol. XXXVII.





JUNE 26, 1886.





No. 954.





The general busines^s of the country continues fairly good. Real
estate here in New York is quiet, but holders and builders are con.
fident of a good faU business. Although railroad returns are
ghowing up very well there seems to be a halt in the bull specula¬
tion in Wall street. It is an open question, whether the prices in
the street have not discounted the improved condition of things.
The more prudent buUs were not quite sure that everything was
lovely; for, in spite of the advance, the market was a narrow one,
for not more than 300,000 shares of stock were dealt in daily,
against double that number last fall, while frequently in 1879 and
1880 from 800,000 to 900,000 shares changed hands in a day. Then
it was noticed that while an advance of six points was established
in May in the principal speculative stocks not more than two points
were added in June, which leads some operators to think that the
bull movement is over for the present and that we may have a dull
July in the stock market. Still the crops are large, business pros¬
pects are fair, and the railroads are all doing better than they were
last year._______________

It is the labor spectre which is again affecting values. There
has been a strike of switchmen ou the Lake Shore road, who claim
that the company has not kept faith with tiiem in a bargain made
some six weeks back. The Sheriff of Cook county says that their
complaint is well founded. However this may be, there is every
indication that the car companies in this city and Brooklyn, or at
least some of them, are nullifying the agreement they made with
their employes last March. Emboldened by the victory of the
Third avenue company they are disposed to crowd their work,
people and get more hours out of them for less pay. Hence there
are fears of tie-ups and strikes. The lYibune warns the companies
that if they seek by surreptitious means to go back ou their past
promises that the public will not be with them. They are reminded
that the community are quite aware that they receive large divi¬
dends on heavily-watered stock, for privileges granted them by the
city, and they should at leasfc treat their employes with common
decency.                              _______ _______

Months ago we gave warning that when the time came President
Cleveland would use the veto power more freely than any of his
predecessors. He gained so much applause when Governor of this
State for "sitting upon" so many legislative enactments that be
would be more than human if he could refrain from using the
veto in national affairs. At firsfc he showed the bent of his mind
by refusing to approve of pensions which had been rushed through
Congress; but last week he sent in vetoes of appropriations for
public buildings in certain Western towns. These last surprised
Congress, for heretofore our Presidents have considered it no part
of their duty to look after these minor matters, vetoes were con¬
fined to vifcal matters affecting the nation at large. The facfc is,
our present chief executive is a common-place, welj-meaning man,
whose instincts are those of an economical hotel keeper or owner
of a country store. He works very hard over small matters, and
were a really great subject called to his attention would deal with
it as if he were disputing an exorbitant butcher's bill.





income, and something must be done to add to the receipts of the
Treasury. Mr. Morrison made a wise and sensible proposition
when he declared thafc whenever a new outlay was decided upon,
thafc a special tax should be levied to cover ib. Messrs. Reed and
Hisoock did themselves and the Republican party no credit in
opposing this very sensible proposition. There need be no doubt
as to what new tax should be imposed. Ifc oughfc to be oae on
incomes. The owners of personal properfcy ought to bear their
share of the public burdens. Land is taxed altogether too much.
Then the tariff forces the poor to pay almosfc as much as the rich,
as ifc affects the price of clothing and other consumable articles; but
as governments, armies, courts, and policemen are mainly
employed in guarding property, that form of wealth which consists
in incomes derived from bonds, stocks, and other evidences of
corporate wealth should pay its share of the public burdens, and
this can besfc be done by an income tax.





A motion is before the British Parliament for the government to
take upon itself the cost of necessary election expenses. These are
rather heavier in England than they are in this country, and the
amounts that may be spent are prescribed by law. As members of
Parliament are nofc paid any salary, it follows that a long purse is
needed to stand a parliamentary contest. One of the objections to
Civil Service reform in this country is that ifc cuts off all the sinews
of war in conducting elecfcion campaigns. If the spoils are not
available, the funds for meetings, the support of party organs and
workers on election day are not forthcoming, why should not our
government provide halls for public discussions, print tickets, and
meet all necessary election expenses ? If this were done it would
meet the only valid objection to Civil Service reform.





The veto of these building projects is unfortunate. The country
is growing rapidly, and the courfc houses, posfc oflSces and custom
houses of the nation ought to be worthy of its wealth and growing
importance. Ifc is understood thafc from $15,000,000 to $18,000,000
is required by the bills before Congress providing suitable buildings
in the chief cities of the country. These projects will now have
to be laid aside until we have a new President. It is also very
clear that no River and Harbor biU can be passed with Mr. Cleve¬
land in the White House, and hence there is little cbaucie of any
improvement of New York harbor.

-----------------------Qk-----------------------

As the country grows ifcs expenses naturally^ become greater.
This fact has been forgotten by our nafcional legislators, and they
have been cufcfcing off taxes and using the surplus rey^nues of the
nation in paying our govierniiient debts^before th^f ar^'- du«. The
tim© isil^ar g-t liJtnd when otir Bati<mafe3:p^<lif»TFe ViU ey^eed





Are the Times Really Mending?

A pronounced bull movement in the stock market is generally the
precursor of an improved or improving condition of general busi¬
ness. The financial exchanges of the world always discount the
future. They are the pulses which show whether the trade of a
country is feverish, depressed, or normal and healthful. Of course
a market has its ups aa well as downs, and an advance of a few
points in quotations does not constitute a general speculative cam¬
paign, and has no special meaning as to the prosperity of the
country or otherwise ; hence it is important to know whether the
recent advance in stock quotations is merely one of the usual floods
of the tide which precedes a correspondiHg ebb, or if it is really an
advance in values based on improved conditions in the general
business of the country.

The financial writers of the New York press seem fco agree that
fche recenfc bull markefc was solely due to manipulation. They claim
there is nothing in the general situation to warrant higher prices.
This view is held by the money writer of the Tribune, as well as by
Bradstreet, the Evening Post, "Rigolo" of the Hour, the Daily
Stockholder and other stock and streefc journals. The following
axtract from Bradstreet presents the view generally held by these
authorities:

The present market bids fair to go down in financial hisfcory as one of
fche most remarkable ever known. Its course during the past week is a
striking instance of the characteristics which earn ifc this distinction and
o£ the methods by which it is governed. Under ordinary circumstances
fche existing hostilities among the Granger roads, the rather unfavorable
deductions to be drawn from the returns of railroad earnings, and the very
gradual progress made by general trade and industry, would naturaUy
poinfc to different conclusions than those which find most^favor in Wall
sfcreet to-day. As ifc is the attention of the stock market is directed not to
general conditions governing the course of prices, but to the bull manjpa-
lation of the market by professional operators, many of whom are com¬
paratively new men in Wall street. The immediate price-making influence
is not the rate war, but the attitude of Mr. Armour, of Mr. Ream, or of
Mr. Newcomb and their f oliowings.

If this is the correct view, of course fche bull movement will s«on
collapse. Wall streefc will have a fifc of the blues, and the outlook
for business next fall will be anything but reassuring ; but, after
all, can a bull market be kept up for any length of time by what is
called manipulation ; that is, by the action of rich capitalists and
syndicates who bid up prices and made an artificial markefc on
which to unload their holdings ? Ifc is curious how prone the aver¬
age financial writer, or, for that matter, the ordinary run of street
operators, are to believe that prices are absolutely in the control
of one or two leading street magnates. For many long years Mr.
Jay Gould was credited with every upward as well as every down¬
ward movement in about all the stocks on the street. Then the
late William H. Vanderbilt was often suspected of being the magi¬
cian who sustained or depressed the markefc at his will. The
fashion just now is to attribute the bull movement wholly to three
well-known Chicago speculators. As a matter of facfc, this univer¬
sally held theory of manipulation is utterly preposterous. All the
leading operators in the country could nofc make a bull or a bear
market, c<M<i they be induoed to gflt tdgetl^r,. a,nd- any finaneigj
writer Vfe^* ?^ttiribljt?s all ti^ip Obanges of tlie ^^it^rkM to maai|«3l?v-