March 14, 1891





Record   and   Guide.





583





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J. T. LINDSEY, Busmess Manager.                         ^_^__________





Vol. XLVII





MARCH  14, 1801.





No. 1,200





THE stock markei atood the liquidation of La Societe des
Depots de Comptes Courants so well that people who had
fears of its future ai-e feeling more coufidence. There is, indeed,
no reason why such afaihiro should directly affect Wall street, for
very few of our securities are held in Paris, and it would be the
symi^athetic disorganization of markets more closely connected
with our own which ilone could influence us disastrously. After
all, in spite of the 'rying time we had for a while, the United
States will come out of the .trouble rather better than any one else
concerned, England's standing as a financial centre has been
seriously impaired, ai maybe seen from the fact that Kussia is
reducing what balance she has remaining in that city, and
if there had not !)een a ready market for eucb of our
securities as England held, that country would have
fared far worse than she did. A somewhat better
feeling certainly eiists in our own market. The winter wheat
crop pronaises very well. If any immediate advance takes place,
however, it will probably be io stocks, which are not affected by
the preseut shortage of the grain traffic, or in securities of
other than railroad companies. There has been something of a
slackening in general trade during the past two weeks, due, proba¬
bly, to the fact tiiat the heavy trade began earlier tbis year than
usual. Tbe year, however, promises to be a very satisfactory one
to the manufactuiers and dealers in cotton goods, for tbe price of
raw material is low and values are well held. Tbe coal stocks have
received a blow iu tbe decision of the Inter-State Commerce Com¬
mission in tlie favor of Coxe Brothers in tbeirsuit against tbe Lehigh
Valley, so tliat class of securities will probably be under a cloud until
the bearing of the decision is known or some counteracting news
ia reportec





rXlHE liquidation of a large Parisian banking house under circum-
-*- sta/ices similar to those of the Barings has disturbed confi¬
dence i^'Paris, London and Berlin. Itis becoming apparent that
the load which financiers abroad are carrying, in consequence of
tbe Aigeutine speculations, is heavier tban bas been supposed. Tbe
promjhence oi tbe bankers concerned has forced a distribution of
tbe responsibility, which will ha.Miper the European money centres
for years to come. The trouble will more or less react on om"
market as it has done in the past, but on the whole and in tbe end
it ■^ill certainly tend to facilitate the placing of our secm-ities
ambng foreign investors. The losses they bave suffered in our
railroads bave been nothing in comparison to those suffered else-
wiiere, and if there is a problem which jurists, economists and
bankers in this couutry are trying to solve it is the
protection of investors. The immediate result of this exposure
of the further involutions of the Argentine troubles will, of course,
be a spreading and a continuance of the stagnancy, which to a
greater or less extent pervades nearly all the slock markets of the
world. A serious difference has arisen in tbe French Chamber of
Deputies between tbe government and tbe Customs Committee.
The latter bas been going over the ministry's proposals as to the
tariff and increasing the duties in a wliolesaie way. The govern¬
ment now announces its refusal to accept tbe cbanges, and the
Chamber will have to decide between them. In Berlin the success
of three per cent Imperial and Prussian loans kept things steady
until the weakness developed itself in Paris. In spite, however, of
the consequent depression, the prospects in ihat city are apparently
better than they have been, for the assaults of the bears havenot
much impression on jrices. In. Austria the elections to the new
Reichrath have occup|ed public attention to tbe exclusion of inter¬
est in other matters,  i





some months past one might have supposed either that there was
no sucb sub-committee, or that the matter of selecting the site was
one which might be postponed for a decade or so. and nobody
would be much the worse. This is all the more curious in that the
Elm street improvement was laid aside avowedly because of the
urgency of spending so much money for the new municipal build¬
ing. Meanwhile tbe city is paying at the rate of $130,000 per
annum for rentals; and the valuable records in that ugly shell in
the park are in constant danger of destruction. Perhaps one good
thing can be accomplished by the delay. If the commissioners can
be got to revise their determination to go outside the park and
spend some million dollars of the city's money in purchasing a
valuable plot of land in a district where land is in
great dtmand, this waste of time may mean a saving
of money. We would respectfully submit that a more careful
consideration of the plan advanced by E. Ellery Anderson is worth
the while. We admit, of course, that this project for utilizing the
site of the present City Hall would not be popular with the news¬
papers; but if people will take such protests for what they are worth,
viz., aa the natural objection of property-owners to anything which
might partially obscure their property, it wiU be understood that
their bluster is the inevitable outcry of a person who gets a dig in
the ribs. The outcry, however, is particularly offensive, because it
assumes tbe hypocritical form of a windy protection of the public
interests ; and the newspapers may be compared in this instance to
certain mediceval Popes, who took advantage of their position to
bestow divine sanction on crusades against iheir private enemies.
Another class of objectors would oppose the removal of the present
City Hall,becauseitisagoodoldbuildingoffairdimensions. Now it
may be admitted that the City Hall shines by comparison with the
World, the Tribune, or even the Sun building; but we do not think
that it is of sufficient architectural or even antiquarian interest to
waiTaut the expenditure of some million dolls rs for tbe sake of
preserving it. In fact, it might be preserved by a far less sum by
simply removing it to one of the parks in the annexed district, in
which case particular care should be taken to keep intact the iron
dome, the symbolic figure of justice, and the brown stone back
(which bas been lately turned into a dirty white by Mr. Gilroy's
agents), so tbat future generations may understand what people of
tbe preseut day think wortbyof perpetuation. ThenanewCityHall
could be built, which Tammany could take some comfort in, the
brown stone Court House aud the Register's Office could be removed
and sold for old material (if, indeed, they too should not also be
transported intact to some remote region), and the people of the
city could be proud of their municipal hall.





ABOUT six months ago the Sub-Committee of the Sinking Fund
which had iu charge tho selection of a site for thenew muni¬
cipal building, were evincing a very busy .determination to select
the necessary location immediately. Various rumors appeared in
the papers as to the results of their efforts; but nothing was defi¬
nitely settled^   Then all of a sudden the rumors ceased, and for





IN the Herald, accompanying a libelous " cut" of Messrs, Potter
& Robertson's design foi^ the new Protestant Cathedral, in
which architects will not be interested, is the following statement
in which we fancy the profession will take some little interest:

The great Protestant Episcopal Cathedral, the architect of wliich must
ere long be selected, is one of the richest plums which has ever been bid
for. It is estimated to cost $.3,000,000 at ibe very lowest notch, more probably
$5,000,000, and very possibly a great deal more than that. According to
the usual rule the architect receives 5 per ceut of the gross cost, which
alone wiil mane a pretty snug sum for the winning team, but in addition to
this there are mauy wa^s of adding to the proflts, particularly if the archi¬
tects, as would nndoubledly happen in this case, are also superintendents of
construction. A sharp architect would be apt to make friends with the
quarrymen, the iron men and the varicus other contractors who come in
for a slice, and if he was a selfish mau he ought to squeeze from a third lo
a half million out of the job, to say nothing of the everlasting glory and
fulure work which would come to the successful competitor in a contest of
tdis magoitude.

All this is so plainly in the best " reportorial" style of the day tbat
we believe it is safe to regard the breezy statement about squeezing
■'from a third to a half million" out of the job, in addition to ever¬
lasting glorj, not as a broad insinuation against a profession, but
simply as a reflection of the blunted moral perception of the writer
and of journalism generally. We bave no desire to say bard
things, but a statement of the kind printed above, appearing in a
paper with a " high-water mark" of many years' standing and
some circulation, demands explanation, aud the most obvious is
that the fresh young men who nowadays do most of the work on
the daily papers breathe an atmosphere so vitiated by vulgarity)
" fake " and clap-trap sensation that with them the assumption that
underhand squeezing is done by all sharp people is well-nigh inevit¬
able. Of course, it cannot be truthfully denied that some men, to
whom a low standard and loose phraseology permit tbe title of
architect, do " squeeze" tbeir jobs, but it is needless to say these
are not of the class to which Messrs. Potter & Robertson belong, nor
is •'everlasting glory" within their reach. Yet it is this better
class that is involved in the Herald's slander.





A READER of the Sun ot last Sunday might have noticed the
following paragraph in au editorial article, headed " A Great
Town Residence:" "It is assumed that the propeity on the south¬
east corner of the {sic) 5th avenue and 56th street which Mr,