November 8,1890





Record and Guide.





609





paring for a struggle.   If a lock-out or strike should actually occur,
the loss would be tremendous.







ESTABUSHB)^ MWPH2l«i^ 1868. ^

De/oteD to F^L Estate . BuiLoiifc AppdTEcrai^ .HousErioiD DEOOf^nort
Basl^<E5S Aifo Themes of GejIei^I I;<t£i\est

PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.

Published every Saturday.
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Vol. XLVI.





NOVEMBER 8, 1890.





No. 1,182





THE prices of securities on the New York stock market continue
to decline. The past week has seen no abatement of the pro¬
cess, which lias been due to an accumulation of causes operating in
spite of a satisfactory condition of general trade. In the first
place, the adjustment of the price of stocks to that of money is not
yet completed. We have frequently pointed out in these columii.s
that the steady purchase of United States securities by the govern¬
ment has put a false value on money. Capital in a country like
this, whose natural resources are as yet undeveloped, and whose
business opportunities are consequently numerous and various, is
worth more than has been supposed ; and the low rate of return to
which prices have been adjusted was unwarranted. This fact,
combined with the poor crops, which will in the future be certain
to diminish railroad earnings, and the disorganization of freight rates
in the West is responsible for the decline. Furthermore, the market
has suffered under the continued sale of our obligations by Europe.
Many of the conditions operating here have been at work there,
also. In England and on the Continent tho liquidation, not only in
speculative stocks but in dividend-paying securities, ha.s been con¬
tinuous. Ever since the Secretan failure foreign investors have
been selling us our securities, in order to strengthen their own
position. -The culmination of the whole process has been the rais¬
ing of the rate of discount by the Bank of England to six per
cent, a move that was forced on its Governors by the uneasiness of
the Continental bowses and the heavy demands for money by the
Irish and Scotcli banks. Where and when it will all end it is use¬
less to speculate. It is not possible that any sustained i-ally will
take place in the immediate future. Doubtless the liquidation has
left many ojjerators very well loaded up with securities, which
they are able to carry but willing to sell when opportunity offers.
Consequently the market will be dangerous to deal in, except for
long turns, as the fluctuations are liable to be numerous and
heavy.





AS a rule, post-election utterances usually take the form either
of explanation or of untempered exultation, so that very
little piofit is obtained from them. We would forego any expres¬
sion of opinion concerning last Tuesday's events were it not that
their real significance seems to have been missed completely by
press and public alike. Even the Evening Post, intelligent as it is,
says: " The great explanatory fact of the municipal election yester¬
day is that over 30,000 of those who registered did not vote;" and
then goes on in a very forlorn way to score Tammany after the
old manner, as though it were an alien body, radically distinct in
manners, morals and ideas from all the citizens it is supposed to
govern. Little or nothing is said indicative of the very important
fact that over 115,000 voters expressed themselves as, on the whole,
content with Tammany government. Tlie city, as a whole, made
as deliberate a choice as it is possible for a large community to
make; and it deliberately preferred Mr. Grant and what he repre¬
sents to Mr. Scott and what he represents.





TTIE prospect that Austro-Hungary will issue a gold loan in
order to return to specie payments is less imminent now
than it has been at any time for a month past. In Berlin the
stock market is still unsettled and nervous, but there appears to
be no real scarcity of money. The raising of its rate of discount
to 6 per cent by the Bank of England, above noted, has been feared
for some time. Last week it looked as though the bank might
pull through, but the demands on it were too heavy. This must
mean that both in Paris and Berlin there has been a further col¬
lapse of speculative securities. In Paris particularly there was an
active speculation in Spanish and Portugeese stocks, which
were selling at prices altogether too high. The labor situ¬
ation is becoming more threatening. Particularly ser'ous are
the differences existing bet »veen employers and employes in Eng¬
land. There is not the slightest prospect of any early adjustment of
the dispute in the Scotch iron trade. The masters have determined
that no steps shall be taken towards relighting the furnaces until
the men are defeated. The disagreement is all the more serious,
because.it is not only the blast furnace men who are concerned.
The coal and ironstone miners have resorted to four and tbree days
a week production, and have thus disorganized the entire trade.
The ironmasters dare not open their works—even if they were so
disposed—because of the lack of coal. A general lock-out of all the
colliers is quite possible. According to good authority, also, Eng¬
land is threatened by a dispute similar to the one which for a time
paralyzed the shipping trade of Australasia. Tbe employes in the
shipping trades are carefully organized, and are collecting funds in
anticipation of a prolonged strike—their claim being tbat the ship¬
owners shall employ none but union men on the penalty of all the
unionists quitting their ship. Opposed to the men is one of the
moet powerful organizations of capital and employers the world
has ever seen.   The Shipping Federation, as it is called, is also pre-





IF we could get this idea clearly into our heads it would be so
much easier to understand the situation and perhaps even to
do something that would be effectual to improve it. To work on
the supposition that New York, as a community, is, in a sense,
panting for a government of highly resjiectable, educated, bigh-
minded and unpartisan gtntleuien, but is thwarted repeatedly
through the diabolical machinations cf a small political organiza¬
tion, is arrant nonsense. " Tammany," as a campaign orator said,
though in a very different sense, " is the people." • Roughly speak¬
ing, that is a fact. It represents the sentiments of a majority of
the people—a majority composed not only of those who vote
diiectly for Tammany but those who, from political reasons, vote
against it, and whose standards of morals and of government are
exactly the same as Tammany's. The Post says: "We can oust
Tammany when we please." This .sort of talk reminds one of the
man who said he could be a gentleman if he wanted to; but he did
not waut to. Furthermore, the Post says: " The better element
in the population of New York cannot be persuaded into uniting
against the common enemy by anything but bitter experience."
What nonsense this is. After a campaign such as the one we have
just gone through is it not manifest that the "better element" is
not strong enough either in numbers or in influence to do anything
of the kind. And how bitter must the experience needed be; for
of that surely there has been enougli? What is needed is an eleva¬
tion of the moral aud mental tone of the community. In other
words, Tammany is only to be '' educated" out of existence. As
we elevate the " average" of the sentiments of the community the
character of our government, or, more strictly speaking, the char¬
acter of the men wbo rule the city, will change likewise. This may
not be a very encouraging view of the situation, but, nevertheless,
we believe it is the truth. We cannot see that anything is to be
gained by deluding ourselves that there is an enormous " better
element," possessed of all virtue and all gentlemanly qualities, cry¬
ing in the streets, as it were, for a decent government which a
wretched littla minority of ignorant nobodies refuses to give them.





"1^0 Republican should underestimate the significance of the
-i^ Congressional elections. Never was there a decision handed
down by the sovereign people more unmistakable in its wording.
It is a protest against the McKinloy bill, against the domineering
of a T)artisan majority, against extravagant pen.^ions, against every¬
thing, in short, for which the Republican party have stood during
the past year. Alike in New England, in the West, in the Middle
States and in the South the same verdict has been returned. In
Pennsylvania and in Massachusetts, perhaps, there were local
issues which obscured the national ones ; but elsewhere the lines
were simple and the consequent division cleanly marked. There
can be little doubt, also, that the enormous increases of the Demo¬
cratic vote were due rather to the McKinley bill and the consequent
rise in prices than to any other single cause. Struggles to escape
the fact that consumers will have to pay more for certain commo¬
dities than they did before are as childish as they are useless. The
tariff was intended to produce this effect; it would have failed of
its purpose had it made for any other result. This was the
bugaboo which the Democrats used with such good effect
to scare voters. But although it was an effective ecare-crow
in the last campaign, the consequence by no means fol'ows
either that it will be equally effective in the future
or that any great harm has been done to the Republicans
by the defeat. The Democrats notably reduced their opponent's
majority in the Senate, but not sufficiently to give them control of
that body. The McKinley bill, then, has come to stay for three
years, at all events. During tbat time we shall be able to leam
exactly what a result the higher tariff will have. It will raise
prices, of course. But its friends claim that it will raise wages
also; that it will stimulate production; that it will increase pros-





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