December 19,18til





Record  and  Guide.





787







exiiaastion ia overcome, there can be no thorough improvemeat
either in business or in finance.





S^





ESTABLISHED^ MW\CH Zl'-^





De/oteO to-Re\L Estwe ,BuiLdiKc A;f!.ci<iTECToi\E.HouseHou)Deqor^tioiI.
BiJsir^ESS A^JD Themes of GeSei^L 1^t£i\esi

PRICE, PER TEAR IN ADTAIVCE, SIX DOLLARS.

Published every Saturday.

TELEPHOXX        ...        -        CORTLAXSI 1370.

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET. 14 & i6 Vesey St.

J. 2. LINDSEY, Business Manager.

"Entered at the Post-offlce at New York, JV. T., as second-clnss mattfr."





Vol. XLVIII           DECEJIBER  19,  1891.





No. 1,240





WALL STREET has seldom been so much lackinc: in all exciting
features as at present. Prices are undergoinR a slow and
steady advance; the buying beinp; largely in small lots. Hence
both bonds and stocks are evidently being absorbed by the average
investor, which makes a very healthy market. Not even the meet¬
ing of Congress bas operated to disturb this unwonted equanimity
ot temper. The public have taken for granted that no legislation
of any Importance affecting business conditions will be passed dur¬
ing the comina; session, not only because the two Houses jire of
different «political persuasions, but because it is seldom
that the fiscal policy of a country is changed during
prosperous times. President Harrison stands resolutely
between the free silverites and their objVct; con¬
sequently there is nothing to be feared on that score.
If, however, no ills are to be anticipated from Congress, but little
good news can be expected which is not already known. During the
coming week the Vanderbilt roads denlave their dividends.
Everyone is aware tbat the rate of distribution in to be increased,
and when the a'nount of the increase is known, investors will bo
able to judge whether the stocks have been advanced as much as
they should under the circumstances. Cheap money is now
assured for the first half of 1892, and this cbeap money will not
only raise the level of the prices of all inveatmont securities, but
will stimulate and facilitate the floating of new industrial
companies. A number of these concerns, one of them aa large as
the largest at present dealt in speculatively will be brought out at
a favorable opportunity and will doubtless meet the success which
other ventures of the same class have attained. There ia no doubt
that these industrials will be regarded in the future with very
much greater favor by the investing and the speculative public
than they have in times past. At present the average investor
flights shy of them, and rather than buy theja puts his money in
some Western railroad which he never has seen and never will see ;
yet these industrials are formed by the consolidation into one com¬
pany of the manufacturing industries which are the basis of many
of our greatest fortunes. In time this prejudice must wear away;
and stocks like the Standard Oil, which pay 12 per cent and earn 20
on a large inflated capitalization, will not sell below railway secur¬
ities that pay only 10 per cent.





THE past few weeks have done much to remove the fears of somt^
immediate political disturbance such as have kejjt European
financiers on the keen edge of anxiety. The chief agency in bring¬
ing about th'S result was the speecli of Gen. Caprivi, the German
Chancellor, in which with evident sincerity he announced his belief
that peace would be maintained ami answered all the pessimistic
arguments of the newspapers. These authorities, he said, magni¬
fied the importance of the visit of the French to Cronstadt, but a
great deal of noise quite needlessly was mada about the
renewal of the Triple Alliance, and it "gave other people
a feeling that they would like to make a little noise
too." The succe.ss of the meeting had gtaiifled the amour
propre of France, but a heightened feeling of amour
p opre only diminishes national nervousness which produces more
rash acts than national courage does. As for Russia, he knew that
the Czar had personally the most peaceful intentions, and no Power
has such a consciousness of preponderance that it can say to itself
cheerf uUj, " Now let us have war," or cease to remember that the
next campaign will be one. to the death of the defeated side. This
kind of talk, quieting as it is lo the feverish anticipations of many
foreigners, will.not sufiSce to make people cfaange their minds as to
business prospects, nor will the. coxnxnercial treaties between Ger¬
many, Italy and Austria produce that effect, although they may do
a great deal of good. The real cause of the depression is sheer
«shauation after four years' race after prem'iums, and until this





npHE New York and New Jersey Brido^e Company still fails to
-A. give any indications of substantial activity. It has done a
great deal of'work in the newspapers during the past year. To
read an interview with one of its officials, it might be supposed
tbat bridges can be built just as easily as charters can be obtained,
corporations organized and plans prepared. The official announces
that by such and such a'time the pier on the New Jersey side is
going to be started ; but he says nothing about the money that ia
to be raised, the banking bouse that is taking the company's bonds,
or the railroads that have contracted to use the bridge. If there
afipeared among the officials the name of one man who was known
to be a successful and conservative financier, or if the officials of
the company could point to a single important railroad that had
signed an agreement to use the structure, honestcriticism would fot
the present be hushed; but all that appears on the surface are the
names of people more remarkable in the way of political than
for financial influence. These people obtained a charter from the
Legislature whic;h permits them to build railroads throughthe City
of New York irrespective of propertvowners and the constituted
authorities. That in itself would bo sufficient to con¬
demn the " scheme" and to warrant the repeal of the
bill under which the company organized. If the com
pany had any povver it would be dangerous; but, being
without power, it is only ridiculous and annoying—annoying
because of the impediments which its scheme puts in tha way of
the activity and improvement of a large area of-real property, and
ridiculous because of the tremendous difference between what it
claims and what it can accomplish. Bridges costing $50,000,000,
and revolutionizing the freight transportation around a city like
New York, may possibly be constructed; but they are never con¬
structed by corporations with such slim backing as thai possessed
by the New York & New Jersey Bridge Company.





THE reticence of New York regarding the World's Fair is now
praccically ended. Only a trace of the old opposition and
coldness exists in a few out-of-the-way quarters. The entire press
of the city has at last acquired an amount of insight sutcient to
enable it to see that there i.; to be a real World's Fair in Chicago ;
that it is a great national enterprise. Politics and local narrowness
are now fortunately lost in a robust and growing enthusiasm. The
only thing chat remains to be done is to aee that the Empire State is
not only adequately but even "largely" represented atthe Expo¬
sition. New York should have not only the largest but tlie finest
State building on the Jackson Park grounds, and the Legislature
should appropriete not $5.0,000, but a good round million for the
purpose. Even if the return sliould come only in the good feeling
of Chicagoans and the people of the W^e.=!t generally the expenditure
will be wise and even remunerative. It is better now to stop all
calculation as to whether international exhibitions pay or accom¬
plish much of value in extending commercial good feeling among
nations. The Fair is arranged for and we must do the best we can
to make the most of it. The probability is that the best results of
the Fair will be an increased knowledge of this country, its condi¬
tion and its resources, which will be disseminated amungfore gntrs,
particularly in Central and South American countries, and the
impetus which perhaos may be given to a higher technical and
artistic development of our manufactures.





THAT the tmstees of Columbia should bo contemplating the
removal of the college to a larger site farther up town will be
gratifying to the friends vif that institution. It is hardly pos.^ible
that the present very inadequate space into which buildings of the
college are jammed does not hamper its growth in various direc¬
tions. Tlie trustees must, of course, be more keenly alive to this
than any outsider ; and the fact that they have finally faced the
necessity of removal, in spite of all the difficulties in the way of
such a step, indicates that the college will not be long lodged in its
present circumscribed buildings. The committee, bowever, that
bave the matter in charge cannot be congratulated on the site
which they have tentatively selected, viz., the area between the
10th avenue, the Boulevard, 116th and l20th streets. Columbia,
when it moves this second time, should look farther ahead than it
did wheu it left College place. The trustees should consider
whether by getting a site somewhere on the North S de, or in
Westchester County, they will not only save the bother
and expense of another removal wilhin many years, and whether
at tne same time they may not add a valuable but at present a
wanting element to the collegiate life of their institution, viz., a
little collese spirit. The flrat objection may seem to be founded oa
a false analogy, for the twenty acres which the trustees now pro¬
pose to purchase is so very jnuch larger than the present space oc¬
cupied by the college, that any fear of further inconvenience with
cramped quarters for flfty years or so would seem' to be unneces¬
sary and foolish.    That this ts the opinton of Pj^esident Low ia