l<lovenlber"S0,''1889





Record and Guide.





1597





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Vol. XLIV.





NOVEMBER 30, 1889.





No. l,13iJ.





It has been argued throughout the fall that the activity in busi¬
ness—an acti-vity which interpenetrates nearly every trade alike,
and which has not, as yet at all events, verged upon inflation—
warranted an advance in stock values. Consequently observers
from time to time have been at something of a loss to explain the
lack of response to the improved business conditions which has
characterized Wall street during that period. Finally, however, it
is beginning to be realized that the very conditions wbich would
warrant speculative activity have hitherto prevented it. Capital
can be used to a better advantage in trade—and hence to trade it
flows. This is clearly shown by the course of the money market
for the last three months. There undoubtedly has been a shortage
of loanable funds, and the bears, taking advantage of this oppor¬
tunity, have used every means to magnify and artificially to
increase the scarcity—a proceeding that was so cleverly managed
that not even Secretary Windom could relieve the money market.
This fact, helped by the undeniable un-wiHingness of investors
to rush to Wall street with their money, as they once did, has pre¬
vented a continuous buying movement. This, indeed, is the only
explanation left. The significance of such facts as the activity in
iron, the increased railroad earnings, the prosperity of the Fall
River cotton mills, and our large exports cannot be denied. If WaU
street does not recognize them, it simply means tbat Wall street is
not ready to recognize them. When the Street is ready the
response will be unmistakable. Doubtless, throughout the whole
winter, the uncertainty as to the actions of Congress will be a dis¬
turbing element; but, ultimately, it will be an element which will
be more likely to advance than to depress values. Moreover,
it should not be forgotten tbat tbe capital which English
investors are and will be sending over here, although it does not
directly affect stock values, will in the end tend to advance them,
for the sellers will have to put the capital out somewhere, and will
doubtless, for a time at any rate, use it to pui-chase the handy and
easily negotiable securities that eschange in the New York market.
Theu the importance-of the direct buyingof European investors
haa been underestimated. For years they bave steadily been
absorbing securities, Denver & Rio Grande in the time of Woers-
hoffer was dealt in to the extent of 75,000 shares a day, whereas
now SOO or 300 shares represent the daily average. St, Paul is by
DO means the active stock it used to be, and Louisville & Nash¬
ville is steadily being absorbed by foreign buyers. Union Pacific
also is being taken out of the New York market in the same way.
The process will be continued in the industrial securities, and cer¬
tificates which now fluctuate |five points a day will he securely
held in London and Berlin. When the buying movement comes—
as come it must—its pace will be accelerated by the firmness with
which such stocks are held.





Announcement comes from Washington that Ihe Secretary of the
Treasury, on Tuesday last, directed tbe United States Attorney-
General to institute proceedings for the condemnation of as much
of the Bowling Green blocks in this«;ity as the appropriation of two
millions of dollars will acquire, for a site for a new Appraisers'
Warehouse and for a new Custom House. It will be recollected
that after Secretary Windom's decision, a few months ago, in
favor of this site, he delayed the matter to give a hearing to the
retail dry-goods merchants and others who protested against a
down-town location of tbe Appraisers' Warehouse. The steps now
about to be taken will probably put an end to all controversy,
although some dire threats have been made by parties having
interests in other locations as to what they will do in case the
Secretary adheres to his first selection, as he has now done.





The moralist inevitably makes an appearance when a disaster
occurs, and only too frequently adds affliction to affliction. The
men who ache to " draw a lesson " from any calamity that befalls
the world are uot likely to miss the opportunity to sermonize that
the great fire in Boston affords, and so long as the public mind is
in a mood to contemplate the misfortune that has visited tbe Hub,
will undoubtedly preach and demonstrate, with the wisdom  of





hind-thought, how easily such a confiagration might have been
prevented by this means or by that. The principal fact which the
Boston fire discloses, and discloses so distinctly that it is almost
needless to point it out, is that the modern fire-proof building is
mainly a delusion. It may be a less combustible structure than
those that are not regarded as " strictly fire-proof," hut the experi¬
ence of Boston shows not only that a fire can originate in such
edifices {the contrary of which, of course, has never been heid), but
it can utterly consume them and spread to others so rapidly that,
in .spite of the efforts of a well-equipped fire department, aided hy
a rain storm of uncommon severity, within four hours several
acres of buildings can be completely gutted. The fact is startUng.
Yesterday morning the consensus of opinion among architects
was that many of the buildings in the district burned could
not be destroyed by any fire that could be conceived as
likely to occur. Indeed, on the very morning of the day of the
conflagration the Boston Herald said editorially: "While it will
not do to speak too confidently concerning the future, one is none
the less justified in believing that a great sweeping conflagration is
altogether impossible in the newly-constructed business district of
Boston, and this, too, in si>ite of the fact that the buildings are, aa
a rule, higher and larger than those whicii occupied these sites prior
tu our great fire. There are parts of our city which have not been
thus improved, where the buildings are similar in many respects to
those which seventeen years ago dissolved in a heap of ruins almost
as soon as the great mass of flame struck them. But as fast as the
requirements of trade or the results of age cause these old structures
to be torn down and replaced by new ones, the effect of our build¬
ing laws comes into play, and the new edifices, if not fire-proof, are
at least so far fire-resisting as to make their speedy destruction by
an interior fire improbable, and their quick consumption by a sweep¬
ing conflagration impossible." A few hours later the fire-proof
building owned by Jordan, Marsh & Co. was in flames, and Boston
was struggling with a fire in tbe very section referred to, only less
destructive than the great conflagration of 1873.





The-flre-proof building is not likely to prove in esti-eme cases a
more reliable structure in New York than it did in Massachusetts,
This city is exposed to the danger of a conflagration quite as disas¬
trous and costly as the one that visited Boston on Thursday, and
is not a whit better prepared to cope with it. Our fire department
is perhaps the most efficient of our municipal organizations, but
plainly its power needs augmenting in some way, if, despite all it
could do, several miUion doUars worth of business buildings could
be destroyed by fire. There are many persons, of course, who -will
say no such conflagration could very well happen dotvn town in New
York, but many people would have stoutly affirmed the same thing
of Boston on Wednesday last, and on Thursday morning the
Boston Herald actually did declare as much. The loss in Boston
represents an investment in perpetuity of at least §300,000 per
annum. An expenditure of half that sum to increase the effi¬
ciency and power of her fire department might have made it
possible to confine the fire to the building in whicii it originated.
New York should be provided witb a water system that wou'd ren¬
der fire engines unnecessary; there should be more hydrants than
there are, and at least a certain numher of them should be equipped
with hose ready for immediate use. The elevated roads, too, sbould
be employed as an adjunct to the fire department for the transpor¬
tation of fire engines in case of a general call, so that they could be
concentrated where needed in a much shorter time than is neces¬
sary at present. It should not be a diflScult matter to institute a
system of rapid transportation for fire engines on the elevated roads.
For a proper consideration the Man hattan Company would doubtless
be wUling to provide at different points on its lines, and keep
in readiness for use at any time, freight cars and the necessary
appliances for hoisting and lowering tbs engines.





Periodically tbe attention of the public is directed to the tene¬
ment question in New York by some book, or by some review or
newspaper article, which bring to light once more the misery of
the tenement house poor. Jacob I. Riis, in the December
Scribner's, writes with the authority of an expert on the matter.
The article is not indeed statistical, but simply an illustrative
account of personal observations and experiences in the down-town
tenement house district. It does not recommend any measures of
relief, being indeed sceptical of the means that are being taken to
cleanse and renovate the filthy places, and he is probably right.
The Health Board of tbis city has done and is undoubtedly doing
a valuable work. As Mr. Riis says: "It is no longer lawful to
construct barracks to cover the whole of a lot. Air and sunlia-bt
have a legal claim, and the day of the rear tenement ie past. Last
year a hundred thousand people burrowed in these inhuman dens,
but some bave been torn down since. Their number will decrease
steadily, until they all bave become a bad " tradition of the
heedless past." On tbe other hand, there are places above l4th
street and even in Hai-lem whicb are as bad as the worst in the
lower part of the city.   The overcrowding stiU continues; and,