.i





July 26, 1890





Record and Guide.





109





DwfeiED TO I^ Es WE. BuiLwffe Apiu^iTECTaup >{c«S£3lou) Deoor^tioiI,
Basii/Ess Alb Themes or CeHerjiI Ij(tci\est









ESMUSHED^ MWPH 2iu^ 1869.^





PRICE, PER ¥EAR IN ADTANCE, SIX DOLLARS.

Pidilished every Saturday.

TkLBPHONE,               -             .             -             CJOBTLANDT 1370.

Commumcatians should he addreesed to

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





Vol. XLVI





JULY 26, 1890.





No. 1,167





THOUGH investors have not had much to complain about, the
past week has not been a happy one for the brokers. The
seven devils of dullness have settled on the stock market. Grood
news could not awaken it to activity, and of bad news there was
substantially none. The very strength of the market, however,
under such conditions, is an encouraging symptom, and other good
signs \rere not lacking. Among them may be noted the amazing
celerity in which investors gobbled up the shares of the new Procter
& GamU^ Company. Money and the disposition to invest
it cannot be lacking when so much of it could be con¬
centrated at one time on one point. It is true the securities
of the company were floated under exceptionally favorable
circumstances. Being a somewhat novel form of investment
they were well advertised; and they had the advantage of being
recommended by some of the most conservative and substantial
banking houses in the city. In this respect the conditions were
very nearly as auspicious as those under which the shares of the H.
B. Claflin Company were placed on the market, the difference
being that tbe employees and the customers of the concern, in this
instance, were not given exceptional privileges. These privileges
were so far appreciated by the large number of people in the
service of John Claflin and his associates that they absorbed
nearly all the stock; and the corporation is run practically on
a profit-sharing basis. It is the public that have taken the shares
of the Procter & Gamble Company, and the ease with which they
were sold may well lead to a considejable increase in this class of
securities. As English experience has shown, however, corpora¬
tions of this kind are difficult successfully to manage and are liable
even to wider fluctuations between surpluses and deficits than
railroad companies. Investors consequently would do well carefully
to examine schemes of this class, or they may be caught out
in the way that a too confiding public were caught on the shares of
AUsop's brewery. The future of prices in Wall Street will depend
almost entirely on the buying of our own investors and speculators.
Little or no assistance can be expected from London. English cap¬
italists are heavily involved in South American securities, which
have depreciated largely of late, and which are in a precarious
condition at present. Their bankers, consequently, are in very
much the same condition that ours were a few years
ago when the effect of the railroad over-building began
to be felt. Furthermore, the large increase in Images makes
more money necessary for the transaction of business in that
country ; gold is scarce with the Bank of England; and the conti¬
nental money markets are hardly in a better condition. The new
French loan has been postponed until next November on account of
the condition of the money market, and even so strong a banking
house as the Rothschild's asked the Egyptian government to delay the
conversion of the Daira loan for a few months—a request that has
been refused. Thus we may see that Europe v/ill have little money
to send here, but will rather be in a condition to draw gold. It is
quite possible, however, that we shall need no assistance. Money
is not tight, though apparently not over-plentiful, and a bull move¬
ment is due on account of the crops. The failure of the English
crops will help us to obtain bettor prices for our own products than
we did last year, so that even though the production and exporta¬
tion be smaller in amount, its money value will probably be larger.
One Qf the most encouraging aspects of our financial situation is
thecontinued prosperity of the South. The last two cotton crops,
sold at good prices, have comparatively cleared the fanners of all
'debts and have left them free to undertake the production under
improved circumstances, so that tbis year, for the first time since
the war, the South will have a large surplus to spend for luxuries.





WE do not believe that the Citizens' Committee could have
drawn up a much more suitable platform than that on
which they propose to stand. It has the one great advantage of
simplicity and definiteness. They have drawn the line clearly
between business methods in the administration of municipal affairs
and political methods.   A man who sincerely believes that the





finances and patronage of the city departments should be managed
just as those of any other corporation are managed, that fitness
sbould be the sole ground for selection to office, that satisfactory
work should be the sole giound for retention, that incapacity should
be the sole groimd for dismissal, and that the money of the
municipality should be expended with a wise liberality for the
accomplishment of desirable ends and a wise economy in means
and methods, has no alternative, so far as we can see, but to
support in word and deed the committee's candidate. There are no
vexed questions of policy involved. The single issue is there, and
a vote against it is a vote in favor of purely political administration.
Unfortunately there is no indication as yet that the public appre¬
ciate the singleness of the issue, and unless it is appreciated the
committee is powerless. But there is no use predicting failure.
Few were the prophets who expected this time four years ago that
Henry George would poll the vote he did. A good candidate and
a vigorous canvass, hampered by no mistakes, and aided, perhaps,
by diAosion and confusion among the politicians, may well serve to
bring out a number of votes which will make the committee a
power in our city affairs, if not the rulers thereof. A very sensible
step has been taken in enrolling the supporters of the platform,
for it will not only help to consolidate the vote, but it will give the
reformers some idea as to the amount of their following and how
much they can accomplish with it.





THE present disagreement between the city authorities and the
electric-light companies about prices should turn the attention
of Mayor Grant and his fellow officials to the question whether it
would not be wise for the city, so large a consumer of electricity, to
own and operate its own electric plant. The wisdom of such a
course is now not a matter of theory. Some few years ago it was,
and conservative and cautious people had excuse for hesitating to
approve of the extension of the functions of municipalities into
more or lees new fields. Since then, however, in this country and
abroad, city after city has assumed control of " natural monopolies "
such as the supplying of gas, electricity, water, ete., with a meas¬
ure of success that puts the wisdom of the step entirely beyond
question. To-day New York City pays private corporations from
30 to 50 cents per lamp per night for electricity. The same service
is obtained by Chicago, where fuel and labor is dearer than with us,
for 15 cents,—but Chicago owns her own plant. There is no theory
about this; it is a fact, which, surely, it is the duty of our officials
to carefully consider. What Chicago does. New York can do, and
clearly the course for this city to take is to cease perpetually
disputing and dickering with a combine of private individuals and
deal with the problem thoroughly. If the municipality is com¬
petent to supply the city with water, why not electricity as well ?
If Chicago can supply her citizens with electric light at 15c. per
lamp why cannot New York, and. let us add, why should not New
York do so ? The idea of going back to gas is absurd. The city
cannot tolerate this retrogression eventhotigh the companies should
demand $1 a night for every lamp. The electric light companies
know their strength in this matter. They would, however, dance
to quite another tune if the city decided to establish its own plant
and be forever independent of them.





THE article, " Hints for a Rapid Transit Bill," published in The
Record and Guide two weeks ago, has received considerable
attention. Many commendations and criticisms have been sent to
this office, and some of them show clearly that our correspondents
entirely miss the point of the suggestion. The bill we propose is
not a time-loser. Work can be begun under its provisions just as
soon as under any bill which affords opportunity for political
deals. The opponents of the bill say falsely that it is a time-loser,
and to assert that they, in proposing some hasty measure, are the
true friends of the people is far from the truth. But there is, in
fact, no such thing as a quick measure. Nothing at all can be
done without legislative action. A simple, plan-making bill, with
a strong backing of public sentiment, might be passed early in
the session ; but a bill to doctor the elevated roads would
give rise to a deal of wire-pulling and delay, and if passed late
in the spring would doubtless lead to litigation, and a good
deal of time be lost before the actual work of construction were
reached. And possibly it would be work thrown away. The pro¬
posed expert board |will certainly consider whether the elevated
roads can or should be ^extended and provided with additional
tracks, or whether these roads or some of them should be entirely
reconstructed. It will obviously be embarrassing for this board to
find preparations under way to make these roads other than they
are. The whole spirit of the proposed bill requires that the hands
of the expert board should not be tied in any way. The public
should understand this, and oppose any plan to authorize construc¬
tion independently of action by the board.





AMONG the very aims and objects of the bill are that all men,
who are hot engineers, shall be relieved of necessity to decide
intricate pstkAocas in railway science, but, at the same timei,be