October 24,18S1





Record   and   Guide.





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Vol. XLVIII





OCTOBEE 24,  1891.





No. 1,233





Have you read the second number of The Architectural Record
yet t Nobody interested in good building should be without it.
Articles appear in this issue from the pens of such well-known
writers on architecture as Prof. A. D. F. Hamlin, Barr Ferree and
Montgomery Schuyler; the first of whom points out the "Difflcul¬
ties of Modem Architecture;" the second discusses "What is
Architecture f" and the third continues his critical account of the
" Romanesque Revival in America." A paper by William J. Fryer,
Jr., on "Skeleton Construction," others by Hatry W. Desmond and
Herbert D. Croly; a second part of Prof. Atchison's lecture on
" Byzantine Architecture," and the regular departments complete a
very interesting number. Tlie magazine is, as usual, profusely
illustrated, and in matter and appearance is fully equal to the first
number. The publisher takes pleasure in announcing that the issue
immediately following this one will be of unusual interest to archi¬
tects and of great value to the general reader. Among the con¬
tributors will be Prof. E. A. Freeman, the English historian, O.
Lindenthal, L. De Coppet Berg. Prof. Kerr and other authorities
equally high.

WHEN one considers the thousand agencies that are at work,
not only in informing the public what bas takeu place
respecting large railroads, but in ferreting out any contemplated
action which might influence the price of its securities, it is possible
to realize with what secrecy the management of the Lake Erie &
Western Road has acted in authorizing the issue of a second mort¬
gage increasing the funded debt of the company by 50 uer cent.
The meeting at which the action is supposed to have been taken
was called to be held at Bloomington, 111., on June 25, 1890,
although the proceedings authorizing the mortgage were probably
taken at an adjournment of the meeting held several days after¬
wards, which would be a convenient way of disposing of any
stockholders who might chance to be present the first day,
but unable or unwilling to remain indefinitely in Blooming-
ton, even if it were known that such action was intended.
That the proxies solicited at that tirae by officers of the company
gave no intimation of such a purpose, is shown by the shock the
news gives, and the fact that the proxies had been so used has
been to adroitly suppressed that Wall Street knew absolutely
notbing about it until last Monday. Printed reports of the com¬
pany have meanwhile been issued, as well as Poor's Manual for
1891, but no mention of a second mortgage occurs therein. Just
fancy, for a moment, that the men doing these acts in the dark are
sworn directors or trustees performing with their cestuis qui trust
in this perfectly remarkable manner. The entire proceedings have
a most disagreeable and suspicious look. Stockholders in railroad
companies have been accustomed to moral looseness in the direct¬
ors and to performances technically within the law, but so peri¬
lously near the edge of the penitentiary that ordinary men look on
in amazement; but proceedings relating to placing additional mort¬
gages on the property have generally been carefully taken. When
directors come to play boldly with the validity of an issue of bonds
to be offered to investors, it illustrates how reckless men may
become after a long course of defiance of (let us put it) business
decencies.





"VTTHY should trustees strain a proxy to put a mortgage on prop-
' ' erty without notice to their cestuis qui trust and then,
having done so, conceal the facts for sixteen months ? It does seem
to us that a respectable banking house should hesitate before
standing sponsor for a security so created and offering the same to
its clients. There is a fear that the bonds have been sold or an
option given on them to a syndicate made up of the trustees or
parties representing them, and this, as well as the further fear of
the use the proceeds may be put to, adds to the disquietude of stock¬
holders. This business may yet prove awkward for that redoubtable





partnership, BricB & Thomas, if an attempt is made to push It
through. If it is necessary to put a mortgage on the property to
acquire additional needed equipment, let the facts relating thereto
be put before the shareholders; then if they choose they can author¬
ize a mortgage for that purpose with reasonable restrictions as to
the delivery of the bonds by the trustee under the mortgage and
the uses to which the proceeds can be put. Stockholders are in¬
formed that the company is earning over 6 per cent, on the pre¬
ferred stock but is paying only 4 per cent, because the remain¬
der is required for new equipment. Very well, if investors will not
take the new bonds at par let dividends be declared to the preferred
stock for the full 6 per cent earned, payable in scrip and exchange¬
able into bonds at par, and the company will have nearly three-
quarters of a million dollars available this year for equipment, full
value will be realized for the bonds and the dividends to the pre¬
ferred shares will be practically increased 50 per cent; but alas__

there is no money in that kind of financiering for the average
director. It is grand for the company and its stockholders ; but
our readers will notice there are no discounts and commissions in
this method, and so we suppose that the result will be that the
bonds will net the company, say, 80 odd per cent, the proceeds to
be administered on by the trustees who created them in secret.
The dividend on the preferred stock will remain at 4 per cent, the
price of the stock reflecting neither that dividend nor the hope of
an increase, but rather the state of terror of tho shareholder won¬
dering what new trick the trustees have in store for him.





THE Rapid Transit Commissioners' report has proved to
be worth waiting for. The demand for better transit
facilities which caused the Commission to be constituted was
specifically a demand for a system which would not only meet the
varying requirements of the present but would be capable of almost
indeflnite expansion as the city grew northward. These require¬
ments were many and exacting. The length of the city has made
express trains drawn at a very high rate of speed quite indispen¬
sable, and at the same time local trains in great numbers have to
be provided for. This service has to be furnished in compe¬
tition with a road that charges 5 cents alike for long
and short distant traffic. Consequently it was necessary that the
system should be so planned as to jive the greatest possible comfort
to the maximum of passengers obtainable at the smallest cost.
It is the great and paramount virtue of the plan of the Commis¬
sioners that these difficult requirements have been satisfactorily
met. The routes on both the East and the West sides will undoubt¬
edly originate more traffic than any two practicable routes of the
same length that could have been selected, and their coalescence at
14th street is an ingenious device, which wil] save a great deal of
money and be rather a convenience than an incon¬
venience to the public. The line of Broadway from one
end of the city to the other is the line of traffic on the
West Side; the line of 3d avenue on the East Siie would be
the best in that section, but that thoroughfare is iu the hands of
the Manhattan Company. Next to 3d avenue, 4th and Madison
avenues are the lines of the most profitable traffic. Again a shal¬
low tunnel, although more expensive than a deep ^tunnel, would
undoubtedly compete more effectually for local traffic than would
the latter. Furthermore, the loops at Battery and City Hall Parks
and at Union square are skillfully designed to provide an immense
capability at a comparatively small expense. So it is with all the
details of the elaborate plans; they show a thorough knowledge of
the conditions of the problems, and considerable inventiveness in
adapting the system to meet these conditions. If the system pro¬
posed by the Commission can not be constructed, then no compre¬
hensive system is feasible in this city at the present time.





THE Commissioner's plan is essentially the Arcade plan, and its
adoption is a vindication of the shrewdness of the originators
of that excellent scheme. If the system is ever constructed, what
a thoroughfare Broadway will be I At present it is traveled on
more than any other street in the city; and this is so in spite of
the fact that the present West Side rapid transit line is always
one and is sometimes three or four blocks away. But in the
future the current of traffic, instead of reaching its
destination around by another avenue, wiU flow directly
up and down Broadway; and the increasing accessibility,
which that thoroughfare will so obtain will enhance the
high price which property thereon already commands. South
of 14th street the tendency of late has been for investors to erect
large buildings on the streets running parallel and at right angles
to Broadway; but the completion of this plan will forever deter¬
mine the supremacy of that thoroughfare. The few parcels that
are not as yet improved with high buildings will soon be covered
with structures taller than any we have yet seen. Above 14th
street retail trade, hotels and theatres will cling to it
even more firmly than at present. It is above 43d street, how¬
ever that the thoroughfare may be particularly bene¬
fited.   Up to  tbis  time this  part of  Broadway  has been ne^-