March 21.1891





Record   and   Guide.









ESTABUSHED*-^ M^RpH 2lf 1868. ^





De/oteO to I^L Eswe . BuiLoiffc A^KitectvJRE .(dus^old Degor^twI

Business Aito Themes of Oijiififil ntc^^est

IX dollars;

Cortlandt ISIO.





PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE,

^Uished every Satur^a

Telephone,





Communications should be addressed to

C.W. SWEEJ", 191   Broadway
J. T. LINDSEY, BuHneos Manager.





Vol. XL"?!!





MARCH 21, 1891J





No. 1,201





THE action of the Secretary of tiie tfeasiiry in refusing to
furaisli gold bars for export has m« witb general approval,
but. nevertheless, it seems utterly unjustiEble under present cir-
cum-stances. The United States is a largi producer of ^old, and
regularly iu tbe spring a certain amounSis exported, Iiis not
likely that the exports thia spring will be any larger than usual,
but they are just as inevitable, and nothpg is to be gained at a
time when the disposition rather is lr co-operation among
the different countries in financial latters. by hampering
the payment of just debts by forjng exporters to use
coin. The credit of the United States hs deservedly stood high
in the past. We have paid in the best that we have, and we
should continue to do so. The market lus not been able to get
out of its rut during the past week. Bribers' offices continue as
empty as ever; and the price of seats on tie Stock Exchange is as
low as at any time for ten years. The siuation is not, however,
without its redeeming features. There ai large capitalists, who,
though suspicious of the Granger road dvtring the period of
over-building and rate wars throuE;h w hi h these, properties have
been passing, regard tbe present oui aok for harmony and
better rates, if not better earnings, as m st satisfactory, and are
consequently buying for the first time in fW years. It is believed
that the most troublesome disturber of r^es in the West, the Chi¬
cago, St. Paul and Kansas City, wbich hal done more to demoralize
trafc arrangements than any other singl^road, will be bought out
in some way, leaving the path clear for i peaceful and equitable
adjustment of differences, so that wheil tne times of big traffic
again return the railroad companies will pe in a position to make
the most of their opportunities. The danir of hasty and vicious
legislat'on on the pai't of the Watern Legislatnres has
disappeared for the time being, ThefKansas and Nebraska
legislators and the more intelligent of the [farmers are,
perhaps, beginnmg to appreciate that lieir attacks on Easiera

es.     Neither' need any
time the embarrassment





investors react disastrously on themsel
trouble be feared from abroad. In a s'lor
resulting from the Baring guarantee willilisappear ; the enormous
assets of that fii-m will be distributed,jand tbe various institu¬
tions and capitalists who so advantageaisly for themselves came
to the rescue will have an interest in an ictive and rising market,
A good many people, it should be remyiibered, benefited by the
panic ; there was no actual wtalth destroyed ; the properties repre¬
sented by the securities still possess ther earning power, and a
rebound from the present dullness will sumly take place. Altogether
investors have every reason to retain ihe'r patience and their
atocks. The bad weatber has and will inure railway earnings. A
significant straw is the large falling off in the shipments of butter,
which is directly traced to the inclementweather, and the state of
things this indicates is widespread. Peoijle are beginning to com¬
plain of a slackening of business. Retainers particularly are feel¬
ing uneasy. A large part of the distrust iiidue to tbe labor troubles,
both nreaent and in prospect. Those intrested in the coal stocks
shculd remember the pending strike for In eight-hour day, which
may take place on May 1st. Both partiesare inclined tobe uncom¬
promising, and if Ihe struggle was proloiged it might well be as
disastrous aa tbe smke in the Scotch ironftraiJe, described below.





AS business conditions abroad remairt con stant, it is but natural
that the stock markets should Wntinue dull. The dull¬
ness, however, has not changed for the ■^orse into weakness; and
this, in spite of the continuance of therimors, groundless for the
most part, affecting the solvency of impotant housea. Indications
point to a year of moderate prosperity, Utthout any remarkable
activity and without any trying depressiol. After a dispute, which
bas extended over five months in the Scotch iron trade, the
blast-furnace men bave acquiesced in the [iron masters' conditions,
which reprtsent a reduction of ^0 per cent on ton¬
nage, and nine pence per day (on shift, wages, and
w<,rk has already begun again in sev^al districts. The loss
occasioned by the dispute has been very lirge.    In the five months





the make   of Scotch iron bas been   reduced   by at   least 330,000
tons.    Nor will this  direct  reduction of production be the only
source of  loss.    During these months the Scotch iron-master haa
beeu fast relinquishing touch, not only witb bis home, but with
his foreign markets.    A few more months of such idleness and
the Scotch iron trade would have almost passed into history.   As
it is,  customers have   been rapidly adapting themselves to new
mixtures,   and    some   makes   are   quite   out   vf  the   market,
so   tbat   it   will    be    a    difficult    matter     to     direct     cer¬
tain     sections     of     tbe     demand     back      to     the     original
channel.   Neither do the iron-masters start again under favor¬
able circumstances,    At the time  they shut down,  the cost of
fuel and iron was such that little if any profit existed in  selling
their product at current prices.    They have succeeded in reducing
wages, which form only a small part of the cost of production in
tbis industry, but as regards the price of fuel and 'he price of iron
the markets are as distinctly as adverse to production aa ever.
Ooly about a third of the seventy-two furnaces closed will resume.
The    strike    has    attracted    but    little   attention  compared   to
its    importance,    probably   because   it  was  in    a   trade   which
does   not   come   into   direct    contact    with   many people;     its
results,  may,   however, be far-reaching.   Now  that tbe details
of  the issue of the new   3   per cent .Prussian   and Imperial
loans  are   available,    it   may be interesting  to   mention   some
of the  facts connected wibh it.    The 250,00(i,000 Prussian consols
were  subscribed to  twenty-nine and a-half times over,  and  the
Imperial loan  of 300,000,000  forty-six times over.    The subscrip¬
tions at some of the important banks and bankers of Berlin were
very large—that at iilendelssohn & Co. beiug reported at 1,3,^0,000,-
000 marks ; that at Bleishroeder & Co., the same; that at the
Deutche Bank, 1,100,000,000; that  at  the Bank Fur Handel and
Industrie, 1,000,000,000, and so on.    As 5 percentof these subscrip¬
tions bad to be deposited, the amount of deposits at these firms and
banks would have run up to about 5OO,000,0Oi, marks, and would
have amounted to 839,400,000  marks  on the total  subscriptions.
The first payment on tbe loan, amounting to 20 per cent, is already
due; and it is the  transactions arising out of  this issue tl;at is
responsible fcr our constant exports of geld to Berhn.   The invest¬
ing public has uudoubtecly bad a large share in tlie success of the
loan, and this fact is perhaps the best comment on the disquieting
rumors tbat are being circulated respecting the state of financial
affairs in Berlin.





THE suggestion of The Record and GmoE's that the Sinking
Fund Commissioners should revise their determination to go
outside of the City Hall Park in tbeir search for a site for the new
municipal building, aud if necessary (as it will be necessary) obtain
permissory legislation to do this, has met with such encourage¬
ment in various quarters tbat we feel justified in urging this course
of action still moie strongly. The delay which is attending tte
erection of-this building, imperative as is the need for it, is doubt¬
less vexations; but the sub-committee with tbe matter in charge does
well to deliberate carefully before spending some millions of dollars
in purchasing a site when a more convenient and more prominent
location could be bad for nothing. If the alternative to going
outside of the City Hall Park was the occupation of thac pare of
the park aroimd the Register's office for the new building, we should
hesitate to recommend the latter course, for the result would be an
ill-arranged trio of incongruous edifices—about as defacing and
unlovely as that remarkable combination of buildings just to the
east, occupied by Judas, Ananias and the Republican Oracle. But a
third course exists, which is open to the commissioners. With lhe
consent of the Legislature the present City Hall could be torn
down or removed, and a building equally just and pleasing in pro¬
portions, more imposing as a whole, and lesa* meretricious in
some of its details, could be erected in its place.
This would doubtless bave been done long ago were it
not that the City Hall, in spite of ils shabby, barren and incon¬
venient interior, is possessed of dimensions most restful and admir¬
able compared with some of the uneasy and abortive sti-uctures by
which the park is surrounded. But wheu we remember that besides
much tbat is worth preservation the building contains many char¬
acteristics that are most vicious according to modern ideas of
structure, and most abhorrrnt to those who believe in architectural
veracity, and when we remember tbat this is the only really feas¬
ible way of saving tbe city the expenditure of several millions at a
time when the pressure of needed public impri^vements is great,
the conclusion is inevitable tbat the proposition'to remove the old
building has a balance of arguments in its favor. Very certainly
there are plenty of good architects in this city wbo could take
advantage of such an opportunity to give the public a building far
more noteworthy than ihe present City Hall, If a real compe*
tition were to be established, under terms that would make it worth
the while of tbe best architects to submit sketches, and if a com-
mittee of experts were called in to pass on the designs, we axe very
much mistaken if New York could not then havea building which,





I