B-ebruary 22, 1896





Record  and  Guide.





563







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Df/oteD to ReJ^L EsTME. BuiLoif/o Aj!!:i<iTECToi\E .Household DEGOF^Mlort.
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Published every Saturday.
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Communications should be addressed to

C.W. SWEET, 191   Broadway,

J. T. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Vol. XLV.





FEBRUARY 22, 1890.





No. 1,145.





A continuance of the bear feeling, with a decided drive against
the Graugers, was the feature of the stock mai-ket this week, and
the close was not characterized by any change of front. There are
no present indications of anything approaching a bull market, and
the only operators who have made anything in stocks recently are
those who have been bearishly inclined. Rock Island is still a
puzzle to the " street," but aa the general market haa now followed
Rock Island the puzzle will be transferred to the geueral market.
There is a strong bear party who are trying for a turn in stocka;
but with the good outlook for business, and the real busineaa which
has been done recently by all railroads, there is but little chance
of bringing about any important decline in prices. Money is
easier in London, but Paris still holds a firm grip on its stock
of gold, and it will be only under a very strong pressure tbat
either of these cities will allow any exportation of specie to this
country Business cannot be called unusually active, but there are
very few lines which are not up to laat year, and many are ahead.
If Congress would only settle the tariflf bill, so that manufactur¬
ers could make their calculationa accordingly, there ia no doubt
but that we would soon aee a decided movement in business
circles. It ia noticeable, furthermore, that signs may be observed
of another revival in the demand for iron and steel. Says the
Iron Age:

In some sectiooB at least, consumers are drawing to the end of supplies
purchased during tlie rise of the closing months of last year. Weak specu¬
lators have been weeded out, so that the market is now again more directly
under the control of manufacturers. At the highest prices established late
last year comparatively little material was sold, so that aa a matter of fact
buyers are now about to pay really more for new supplies than they aver¬
aged on their former purchases. Having withheld from the market for
close upon two months, they find it stronger than the majority gave it
credit for.

It is a pity that the rate troubles in the West should again
act as a depressing influence, when the country in general is pros¬
perous and warrants higher prices. In cotton alone we have
exported since last August 600,000 bales more than last year, which
means that we shall be paid $33,000,000 more by Europe than dur¬
ing the aame months in;i888 and 1889. Such conditions must in
time produce their eoiisequences.





There is very little doubt now that the World's Fair will be held
in New York City. Apart from the geographical, social and mer¬
cantile advantages which the metropolis possesses over rival cities,
the fact that she alone does not appeal to Congress as a beggar for
national assistance to carry out the World's Fair project gives her
request a weight that in all human probability will be irresisl bile.
Besides this, since politicians have elected to make the choice of a
site a " political " matter, it is not to be wondered at that the
people of this State should also regard the matter from a political
standpoint, and as this is thoroughly understood iu Washington,
neither party are disregarding, politically, the wishes of a State;
indeed, it may be said, the wishes of a section of tbe country, tor
New Jersey, Connecticut, and the East genera.lly, is one with New
York in this World's Fair question, which figures so very prominently
in Presidential elections. Thus, politically, as well as financially.
New York is by far the strongest claimant for the Fair. There ia
much more doubt about the possibility of getting the Exposition
ready by 1892 than that this city will be the site. This is really the
important question to be considered now. With energy and the
free expenditure of money a creditable Fair could be got ready by
1893 ; but the national ideal in the matter is for something more
than a merely creditable affair, and New York cannot afford to
embark on an enterprise that will fall at all short of a signal and
brilliant success. Unless it can be shown beyond peradventure
that there is ample time between now and 1893, it would be better
to postpone the fair until 1893, and commemorate the events of
1498 by exercises that will be in a sense introductory to the grander
celebration to be held a few months later.





the Standard Subway Company and the Thomas-Houston combina¬
tion. No doubt the importance of the subway to these companies is
great; but apparently the idea has not yet entered into the heads of
any of our officials that the people whom they are supposed to rep¬
resent have the shghtest interest in the matter. " Government" in
New York City has been for many years one of the sorriest spec¬
tacles known to civilization. In addition to its positive vices in its
nature it does not differ from savage rule. It is a hand-to-mouth
ordering of things, devoid of any prevision or calculation of what
the morrow will probably bring. The electric hght is now almost
a necessity. The use of it is extending rapidly, and before long it
will no doubt be very generally employed as a source of light
even for domestic Tpurposes. In spite of this obvious fact, how¬
ever, the city calmly proposes to turn over a monopoly of the sub¬
way, in which practically all light and power wires must in future
be laid, to private individuals,who are empowered to charge rentals
sufficient to pay 10 percent, upon the cost of the subway above the
expenses of operation and maintenance. In other worda, these
individuals may levy a tax of 10 per cent, upon users of electricity
conveyed through the subway. The iuterest on investments in
New York Central stock to-day is 4.34; on Central Pacific first
mortgage, 3.87; on Lake Shore first mortgage 7s, 4.00 ; on first-class
real estate, 5.00 or 6.00. The city has borrowed money at 33^, and
at 3 per cent, could no doubt obtain as much as it might ask for.
What justification is there then for giving the control of these sub¬
ways, with power to collect any such rental as_10 ,'per cent., to any
company. The city itself should control these subways in the
interests of the commujiity. It would need nothing like a 10 per
cent, rental,  and  electric light could be  furnished so much the

cheaper.

------------■------------

Following the report of the successful operation of the municipal
electric light plant of Bangor, Maine,icom6S one_from the Mayor of
Little Rock, Ark., Mr. William G. Whipple. The city of Little
Rock assumed conti-ol of ita electric lighting over a year ago.
According to the report, the plant was operated during the year
1889 at a cost to the city of thirteen cents per arc light per night,
In a recent letter, commenting on the working of the plant, Mayor
Whipple says: "Our Ught is eminently successful and unanim'
ously popular. Our citizens would never consent to do with¬
out it, though it was established amid the formidable oppoii-
tion of the gas company and its numerous and powerful friends.''
Short as is this extract it contains the history of municipal elec¬
tric lighting in nearly every city that has undertaken to perform
this work for itself. At first, violent opposition on the part of
interested corporations—severe struggle and final adoption of sys¬
tem ; then low cost of light—a great saving to the city—general
satisfaction. The experience of Little Rock with electric lights
furnishes not only one more example of economy and efficiency
derived from universal management of certain public works, but
it further shows that the larger as well as the smaller cities are able
to secure good light at small cost under such a system of control.
Little Rock operated last year one hundred and eleven arc lights at
a cost below tbe average rate of what it cost ;wenty other cities—
principally small ones—to furnish themselves with light in 1888.
The experience of Chicago furnishing light for fifteen centa per arc
light per night and Bangor for tUrteen cents, adds strength to the
opinion that size is not a bar to the entrance of larger cities iuto
the field of electric lighting.





■ In the wrangling aa to the control of our precious electric sub¬
ways no interests have figured, so far as we are awaroj but those of





When will New York take a lesson from such patent faota as
these in the world around her. What reason can cooamon sense
give for our paying from thirty to fifty cents a night for each
electrical lamp, when Chicago by owning and operating her own
plant obtains the same service for fifteen cents? Is it because the
city is hard pushed to get rid of its revenues, or because there is
fear of destroying the marvellous correspondence between the
illumination of the city and the other results of municipal manage¬
ment ? New Yorkers cannot learn too soon that in spite of extra¬
vagant pretensions and vulgar self-conceit the eity to-day in its
public appointments is a stupendous failure, that only becomes tol¬
erable by the growth of a hopeless indifference. Consider for a
moment what a city of the size, wealth and importance of New
York should reasonably be, and then turn to our miserably paved
and filthy streets, our badly lit thoroughfares, our ramshackle
docks, our water supply that reaches only the third story of build¬
ings, our inadequate, uncomfortable, indecent and unhealthy facil¬
ities for transportation ; in short, turn to the dirt, the discomfort,
the mismanagement that exist everywhere, from which there is
no escape—within the city—which have become inevitable and
apparently permanent conditions of existence in the metropolis of
the continent. Yet we plume ourselves on being a highly civihzed,
intelligent and progressive community, and with a serioBs face
proclaim that New York is the only fit city—aa a city—in the
counti-y in which to hold the World's Fair, that other cities ar©
not " representative," that they have not the faciUties, tha af-^'-S'
tions, or the interest for the world that New York haa 1   OnI~'^'^y'