SlOctober 19, 188!)





Record ' and   Guide.





139:





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FRI€E, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.

Published every Saturday.
TELePHONt,                     -          -          JOHN  370.

£ommunlcatioii5 should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 191   Broadway
), T, LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XLIV.





OCTOBER 19, 1839.





No. 1,127.





That it is still wallowing in the trough of the sea is all that can be
said of the stock market. Money has ranged from 8 to 12 per cent,
every day this week with no particular sign from any quarter that
it will be any easier before Jaruiary, This seems to be the opinion
of many bankers and brokers, but when one remembers that it is
only a few weeks since the same men predicted right the con trary
about the money market, no one needs sell house and land on their
judgment. It seems that money is in demand all over the
world at the present moment. Berlin, where it always rules
at very low figures, recently charged stock speculators at
the rate of 15 and 20 per cent, for carrying over balances.
Tlie Bank of England has drawn the lines very close with
borrowers for some weeks, white Italy has for' months been
in a state of sPULi-panic by reason of tight money. France is
really the only couutry witii a surplus of loanable funds, and .she
has paid too high a price to secure her.self this comfortable position to
let go of it very easily. In England tlie Chancellor of the Exchequer
has recently decided to issue silver for lialf sovereigns, and this may
be the first step towards the more general resumption of tlie use of
silver abroad. Should this occur, and silver be remonetized
abroad, we would see better business in this country than we have
had since the discovery of gold in California. Such close times as
they are now having with mouey in England and Gcrmauy will
hasten tbeir decision and strengthen materially,the silver party who
have been growing stronger every year.





Tlie tigiires collected by Prof. Adams of the Inter-state Com¬
merce Commission, showing that 61,44 per cent, of the railroad
stocks of the country pay no dividends whatever, and 31.69 per
cent, of the bonds pay no interest, bave a great deal of light thrown
upon tbem by this Atchison reorganization. Tiie stockholders of a
raih'oad company take luo.st of tbe risk and get precious httle return:
the bondholders take a much smaller risk and get a much larger
return, wiiile the bankers take no risk at all andgetth^ biggest return
of any of them. The latter aresimply necessary parasites who enrich
themselves on the enterprise, mistakes and misfortunes of railroad
stockholders and managers. A company is started, and the bankers
get a good fat commission for fioating the bonds. The liue, let us
say, pays for a wiiile and soou finds it desirable to extend its con¬
nections, with the result of more bonds and commissions. But the
extensions are made too much for the future, hard times come,
dividends are paid on borrowed money—for wbich a good com¬
mission is charged—and the road gets hopelessly involved. Once
more the bankers step in and double theii-^ofifcs, already very large,
by reorganizing, lending more money at a g' lod rate of interest, and
charging once more an ample commission. Tbere are $75,000,000
of.Atchison stock, §160,786,000 of bond issues, with fixed charges
amounting to $11,157,769. The fixed charges, as proposed by the
plan of reorganization, will be $7,y52,390. This is where the bond¬
holders will lose, tbeir lo.ss ranging from $11 to $o8 on the interest
of eacb thousand. To make up for this loss they get a certain
amount of income bonds, bt^aring :"> per cent, interest—when it is
paid, which it certainly will not be for some years. These income
bonds are the device used to save the company from foreclosure.
After the reorganization is completed uo single class of se<-urity-
holders will be any better off tbau it was before, iu spite of tho
scaling down of interest charges. Before tbe stockholders get any¬
thing there will still be ;f;ll,000,000 and over to be paid ; the bond¬
holders will receive less for some years, and the indebtedness of the
company will be enormously increased, Tliis is not saying that
the reorganization scheme is not as equitable a one as possible, but
it is a lar^e price to pay for inismanagenient. Nobody will make
anything except the bank(;rs. Such are the advantages ol the
control of capital in the modern industrial world.





The city is losing, if indeed it has not already lost, its common
sense in this matter of the electric wires. We flnd the public
almost in hysterics, onr streets in darkness and our olKcials ready
to embrace any half-considered plan, all becatise a lineman lost his
life in a conspicuous and distressing way.    It is  true the qnestion





of burying the wires bas been discussed and fought over for a long
time past, but it is safe to say that unless the pitiable accident that
occurred last week had happened, tbe matter would not be in its
present acute state. The fatality, of coui-se, is to be deeply deplored;
and the electric light company whose imperfectly insulated wire
caused the death of the man is undoubtedly to blame, and, if it
is, it deserves to be made to pay a heavy penalty for its criminal
negligence. But this does not warrant oui- municipal officers
in hastily committing the city to an ill-advised jiolicy in rela¬
tion to electric wires, which it seems they are about to do. Every¬
one must see that to bury insufficiently insulated wires in under¬
ground subways instead of carrying them overhead; and
to fancy that thereby danger to the lives of linemen and
others is lessened, resembles too closely the ostrich's plan
of hiding itself to be entirely pleasant to sensible people. The
safety or danger of electric wires is, practically, entirely a
matter of insulation, and just so long as wireo conducting heavy cur¬
rents are permitted tobe in service the lives of liugmen will be endan¬
gered, no matter how deep below tbe street surface they (that is, both
linemen and wires) are buried. Indeed, there are many reasons
for thinking, in face of all that has been said, that the wire buried
is a much more dangerous weapon than the wire overhead. Buried
beyond observation and almost beyond inspection the badly insu¬
lated wire could make a pleasant "combine" with the"leaking gas
main and attack the public at large through any stisceptible tele¬
phone or incandescent-light wire that happened to be ne^- by;
besides, it would certainly be more difficult for the linemen to han¬
dle it in a dark subway amid a tangle of other wires than in broad
daylight, as at present. So far as the protection of life is concerned
the pro])er thin^ for the city officials to do is to see that all wires
are adei|\iately insulated. Whether they are buried or not doesnot
affect their dangerousness, more especially so far as linemen are
concerned. IClectrieal experts need not be called in to tell us that
badly insulated  wires carrying heavy   currents   are   dangerous

anywhere.

— -   •--------

It should not be forgotten aiuid all the noise that has been raised
about the death of Lineman Feeks that the number of deaths that
have resulted from electi'icity is very small. Many more people
meet tiieir death every year in New York City by falling down
elevator shafts or by being run over in tbe streets than by elec¬
tricity. It is proposed that the use of cun-ents of only very limited
power shall be permitted. No such restriction should be tolerated.
It is the very worst policy possible to place impediments in the way
of tbe fullest development of an agent that is only just commencing
to be put to the service of man. To say that currents of only 3-50
volts may be used is very like saying that trains shaU be run no
faster tban thirty miles an hour. It is sufficient to enact that no
current shall be transmitted tbat is not transmitted safely, but that
is very different from saying that no current of more than 250
volts may be used. It may not be possible to transmit safely a
stronger current to-day tban2,50 volts, but improvements willsurely
be made, and what is impossible to-day will be possible to-morrow.
To put a limit to the force employed would seriously check elec¬
trical development along certain lines.





Is it not time that the government of this city should cease its
op]>ositiou to every scheme to impi-ove the present facilities for
transportation y It bas opposed the subway project, additional
tracks on the elevated roads, and electric niotoi's. It opposed the
construction of a car line along Broadway until the opposition was
overcome by wholesale corruption, and now, lately iu tlie case of
the Tiiu'd avenue road and more recently with the Broadway and
Seveuth Avenue Compauy, it is opposing the substitution of tbe
cable system for horses. Instead of fighting tbe companies the
city should have insisted long ago upon the change being made.
The use of horses keeps the streets and atmosphere of the city in a
disgusting and unhealthy condition all the year round, and the
gtables that have to he maintained for thousands of animals iu
different parts of the city are not only grievous offences to the eye
and nostrils but must be unsanitary in the extreme. The substitu
tion of the cable system on all roads would not only abolish this
evil but would make the city immensely quieter and cleaner
than it is—in a word, a fitter place for human habitation. Tlie change
canuot he made too quickly, and our officials should not be
opposing the substitution, but insisting that it he made without
delay. The interests of the city are uot to be best served by a
minuie analysis of legal technicalities. We need common sense,
broail libei'al views of public matters, and not the fine, hair-splitting
of a iiettyfogging lawyer. To si.;ore a microscopic point against a
corporation, to detect a deeply-hidden meaning in the words of its
charter is, after all, a poor success compared with making the city
a more habitable place.





Indications thus far by no means go to show that the Pan-Amer¬
ican Conference is simply to become au agency for tiie better satis¬
faction of subsidy seekers, such as some Democratic papers seemed