May 17, 1890





Record  and  Guide.





729









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Vol. XLV.





MAY 17, 18S0.





No. 1,157.





The stock market has lost none of its animation, thougli tlie con¬
ditions have somewhat changed. The Lull market is by no means
over, but for the time being money rates have become uncertain,
and as a consequence conservative houses are advising caution in
pm-chases and the taking of profits. Tliat this should be the case
is uot surprising, nor would it be surprising if the market should
now react somewhat and create a new basis before another advance
is made. There has now been a month of good business with a
steady advance, no set-backs fo speak of, and a considerable
increase in the number of active stocks. Most of tbe securities
which were in the front of the advamr, however, give evidences
of extensive realizings, and those whicb have joined the movement
in the later stages have found it difficult to hold their gains.
Money, which was plentiful at nominal rates at the beginning of the
week, has spasmodically gone up, at some period of each of the
last few days' trading, to points which check, if not forbid, new
operations and L-orapel realizings. The stocks likely to be least
affected by these conditions are those which have shown little
activity, and tbese, too, have the best chances, probably, in any
new advance. The present situation is one which is not of infre¬
quent occurrence in the stock market; one fi^om which it is very
difficult to predict the immediate future; and in which, of course,
advice becomes from that very reason all the more valuable, and
the caution alluded to as coming from conservative brokers, is per¬
haps the best that can be given under the circumstances.





Congress is at length beginning to appreciate that the step taken
when the Bland bill was passed must be followed up by further
legislation in the same direction. In spite of the failure of all the
pessimistic predictions as to the results of the bill made by the advo¬
cates of a single gold standard, in spite of the substantial betterment
of the finances of the Government under its provisions, the Secre¬
taries of the Treasury have uever coined more than the §3,000,000
per month necessitated by the law. The new legislation will so
materially increase this sum that it will practically make the coin¬
age free, and thereby the country will be supplied with a currency
sufficient to meet the expansion of our trade and to take the place
of the gradually decreasing national bank circulation. It is encour¬
aging to witness the effect of the prospect of this new legislation on
Wall street. Three or four years ago, so completely was the street
permeated by tbe mono-metallic theories that any proposal for
increased silver coinage w-ould have had a depressing effect; but at
present, on the contrary, it has formed the basis for a sustained
advance. Furthermore, the newspaper opposition to silver legisla¬
tion, wliile still heard, is by no means so confident and virulent as
it was formerly. The present Republican Congress may be charged
with a good many errors of partisanship and policy, but if it suc¬
ceeds in passing the silver bill it will have earned the gratitude of
all to wl\om higher prices mean activity of trade and prosperity.
The bill is uot perfect iu all its details, but it is sanctioned by a
sound economy and v.-ill go far towards restoring silver to a place
in our currency system on an equality with gold.





President George H. Scott did wisely jn calling so promptly a
meeting of the Eeal Estate Exchange to consider the condition in
whicii the adjouniment of the Legislature, without having passed
any measure, leaves the Rapid Transit problem. Mr. Scott evi¬
dently recognizes that only by keeping the matter before the public,
by agitating, by refusing to allow the question to sleep, can public
feeling as to the inadequacy of our rapid transit facilities be brought
to such a point that politicians dare not trifle with it. This is dis¬
tinctly the best com'se to pursue. We hope Mr. Scott will continue
it. But as to the special effort to resuscitate politically the Eapid
Transit question at this season we fear it will be a failure. It is not
at all Ukely tbat Governor Hill will consent to reopen a contest in
which it is by no means certain that himself or his party would
figure to advantage or with profit: even if the request for an extra
session should be much more influential tban any the Real Estate
Exchange can make just now. The fact is, and it is well that it
ehould be recognized, the consideration which the recommendations





and wishes of the Real Estate Exchange receive in Albany dimin¬
ished materially during the last few sessions of the Legislature.
The Exchange has busied itself with too much. It has dissipated
its strength in the consideration of too many measures. It has
come too near to being a sort of self-constituted petty Legislature
which spends its time criticising or passing recommendations upon
the acts of the superior body in the State capital. Politicians are
quite shrewd enough to discriminate betvveen perfunctory criticism
tbat begins and ends on the paper which contains the memorial
addressed to them, and the vigorous opposition of a determined
organization aroused to look after its own interests. The Real
Estate Exchange seldom should speak except iu the latter fashion.
It should speak as a unit, and only upon matters about which the
great real estate interest feels strongly, and is willing to
act decidedly. To pass resolutions about the hours of
labor of postal clerks, or small local improvements, about
which every one knows not ten real estate men in the
city would cross the street, tends to destroy the influence
of the Exchange in larger matters. If the Exchange had
done nothing else this session but organize a strong demand for the
passage of a Eapid Transit measure, and had urged thst demand at
every stage of the disgraceful political fight, a bill might have been
passed ; and more would then have been done for real estate and
New York City than could be accomplished by a hundred resolu¬
tions favoring an eight-hour day for postal clerks. As it was, at
many of the meetings about rapid transit, it was impossible to obtain
a quorum ; aud at the general meeting this week on the Exchange
fioor, there was a lamentable lack of vivacity, enthusiasm and
determination. Politicians know these facts ; and we may be sure
they very materiaUy quaUfy "resolutions" and the utterances of
committees iu Albany. No misinterpretation cau fairly be put upon
these remarks. The Record and Guide was one of the first to pro¬
pose that the E.xcharge should exert its influence in political matters
for the welfare of the real estate interest. We have supported over
and over again the action of the Exchange in carrying out this
policy, and we believe much good has been obtained by it. But
the very desire that the Exchange should have influence for good
government in Albany causes us to point out that a course of action
has been pursued of recent years which, we believe, must in the end

destroy that infiuence.

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The Seventeenth National Conference of Charities and Correction
now in session at Baltimoi'e has economic as well as moral and
social import- The man of every day affairs is not apt to regard the
practical importance of such meetings. To him they are little more
than so many occasions for the relief of over-wrought philanthropic
zeal. As a matter of fact, however, the direct purpose of these
annual conferences is to diffuse intelUgent information respecting
benevolent, charitable, penal and reformatory work. The repre¬
sentatives present at the session in Baltimore are for the most part
people who have had wide practical esperience in charity and reform
work, and the papers presented are by specialists who rank among
the first in the various branches of the field. To the charity organiza¬
tions represented in this conference is due tbe credit of placing the
administration of reUef to dependent classes upon a scientific basis
in this ctuntry. The law passed by the last Legislature of New
York, which provides for the removal of the insane from county
poor houses to State institutions, is regarded as one of the most
important reforms enacted in this State during the last thirty years.
This reform was promulgated by the State Charities Aid Associa¬
tion of this city, and was based on scientific investigations which
it had been carrying forward for seventeen years. It is the meeting
of these charitable organizations in conference tbat enables local
systems and measures which have been proved practicable and
efficient to become national. It follows logically that what elevates
the condition of the dependent classes not only adds to the economic
force of the community, but also relieves taxpayers to the extent
of the amount previously outlaid for the support of the classes thus
bettered. This is an obvious truth, but one not clearly perceived by
the work-a-day public. The araount which this city pays out
each year for the support of indigent classes is no small item of its
expenditure. It is through charity organizations that administra¬
tive law for treating with the poor aud dependent are in the
greatest measure to come that will relieve the citizens from this
yearly tax.

Not long since we called attention to the large nuraber of club
buildings which had been or were being erected in tins city and
Brooklyn—buildings which were superior to anything of their kind
elsewhere in this country and very nearly the equal of the best in
Europe. Such structures are from their very nature likely to be
better examples of architecture than any office building, hotel or
the Uke. The architect is not limited by natural desire of the
owner to make the investment pay. It is true that the rich banks
and corporations of tliis city have some of thera pu,- up buildings
w^hich are, in their way, well conceived and imposing elevations,
but their great height necessarily restricts the designer, and any
I lavishnesa of decoration, if it exists, is  felt to be out of place.    A