m





luary 16.1892





Record   and   Guide,





65











•^                 \             EST)ÆL1SHED-^NWPH21'-Í^1868.^

DEVOTn) 10 Í^L ESTME . BuiLDIf/G ll<R.Ci(lTECTJl\E .HoUSEHOLD DeGORATIoH.

BUsi^/ESS A^to Themesí of GeSeiv^ l|J-rti\Esî
PRICE, PER YEAR IX ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.

Published every Saturday.
TeLEPHONE          ...        -         CORTLANDT 1370.

ComaiunicatioDS should be addressed to

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

J. 2. LINDSEY, Business Manager.





Argentine Republic has not ouly done nothing to extricate itself
froQi its diflBcultiea since the collapse, but bas Involved itself more
deeply than ever.





"Entered at the Post-offlce at New Tork, N. T., as second-clasa matter.'





VOL. XLIX,





JANUARY   16,  1892.





No. 1,244





Tlie inde.c to Volnme XLVIII o/The Record and Guide isis-
siied with this tmmber of the joumal, and snbscribers who may
not reeeive a copy shoiild report the fact to the offlce of pnblication,
Nos. 14-16 Vesey street.





THE plan announced yesterday for retiring Chesapeake & Ohio
Ist and3d preferred stocks wil Jgive Wall Street something to
tigure on, and admitsof enough difference of opinion as to theresults
to the company andits new sole owners, the common shareholders,
to ensui-e an erratic and lively specalation in the present three
kinds of stocks for some tirae to come. The large banking interests
vsfho stand sponsor for the pían are quoted as claiming that wben
it is fully uiiderstood, tlie new bonds will be valued at 90 and the
common shares at 40. The fact that the Big Sandy bonds, whicli
are to be exchanged dollar for doUar for the new consols, do not
decline, selling as they do now for 90 and interest, gives some sort
of warrant to the claim of the value of the new 4if s. Callint>
the stock worth but 30, and figuring the bonds at 90, the
present first preferred siiares should sell at 70 and the 2d
preferred at 50. The rediiction in interest and dividend charges
ahead of the common stock amounts to about 1 per cent, and it is
claimed that the physical improvements contemplated and made
possible by the new issue of the bonds will very soon add another 1
per cent, so that the common shares may be said to be prospectively
2 per cent by way of dividend better o£f than before. As they will
shortly have a London market and the backing of Drexel, Morgan
& Co. perhaps the claim of 40 wiU be justified sooner than the
doubters now believe.





NO one who has f oUowed the course of business in England dur-
ing the year wiU be surprised at the assertion that the prices
of most commodities, except food stuffs, have been tending
downward throughout the year. Xhe movement has at no time
been heavy, so that after all prices are not very much lower at the
end of 1891 than they were at the beginning; in fact it has been a
case of gradual decline forming a natural accompaniment to the
duUness of business. Out of the twenty-six leading commodities
eleven have fallen in value, tour are quoted at about the same level,
whUe of the eleven which are quoted higher no fewer than seven
are articles of food. It is among minerals that the fall has been
most decided. AU iron and steel quotations, with the síngle excep-
tion of Scotch pig iron have fallen in value. Among textiles the
most noticeable as well as tue most important movement is the
continued f all in cotton. Trade in this line has not been remuner-
ative, and there has been a noticeable contraction of English
exports to the East. The prospects for the rescue of any consider-
able portion of the money which British investors have sunk in
Argentina are not improving. The balance sheet of the national
government wiU show a heavy deficit. The BuenoB Ayres
customs receipts for the year amouut to ^about 48 miUions
of paper money. The estimated expenditure in the Budget
of 1891 is 393Í miUions in currency and lOiá raiUions in gold, and
there was a deticit of some 5 or 6 raillions in gold from 1890, besides
some 3 miUions of extra expenditure, for which no provision was
made in the Budget and which had to be added to the floating debt.
As the receipts of the othor Custom houses of the Republic are
always insignificant compared with those of Buenos Ayres, and
wUI not add much to the revenue, it wiU be seen that there is
another heavy deficit for this year, although the compact wilh the
Eothschild Comraittee to withdraw and burn yearly 15 raiUions of
the paper currency has not been fulfilled, nor ever wiU be. The
National Legislators have voted the Budget for 1893 with another
heavy deficit, so it is justifiable to expect the financial question to
be more pressing and serious than ever in the coming year.    The





THE report of the State ComptroUer indicates that the fíuances
of New York are in a very satisfactory condition.    In spite of
the fact that administrative expenses have becn increasinj largely
of late years, th'e State is practically free from debt, and, what is
better still, we are gradually approaching to a financial conditiou
which wiU make any general tax levy unnecessary.   The Comptrol-
ler believes that the tirae will  shortly come  when the corporatiou
laxes, the succession taxes, the taxes on coUateral inheritances and
similar sources of income wiU suffice for all State needs.    Very
certainly   they   can  be   made   to   suffice,   and   they   should   be
raade to suffice.    The   State   proi^erty  taxes   work   raost   unsuc-
cessfuUy   and   uujustly.     Everyone  knows what a tarce the tax
on personal property is; the only people who pay it are widows and
orpbans and a pitiful  rainority  of conscientious gentlemen.    Yet
the State benefits by its beiiig evaded, for its coUection would ham-
per business and drive awaj' capital.     The State tax on real estate
is more successfully collected but is necessarily unjust and is par-
ticularly so to New York City.    The Board of Equalization, which
contains   no   representative  from   this   city,  has   an   impossible
task     in   endeavoring   to    equalize     the   assessments    of   the
differeut   counties;   but   if   even   the   assessments   were equit-
ably  made, the injustice   would reraain.     Under any property
tax spread over a whole State a wealthy localiiy like New York has
to pay out far niore than it receives in benefit.    Real estate ought to
bear the expenses of   raunicipal governraent—such of them   as
cannot be made out of the careful working of all publicfranchises;
but it is no fit subject for State taxation.    If Tammany knows what
it is about it will undertake a reform on these Unes.





AVERY sensible proposition is that of paving the roadway of
.5t!i avenue with some smooth material. The class of
vehicles which use this avenue are mainly carriages, and in order
that driving may be pleasant the pavement raust be made either of
wood or asphalt. If the alliance between the residents of 5th
avenue and the politicians had been any closer than it is, the pres-
ent granite block pavement, which was only laid a few years ago,
would never have been put down at all, but driving on the avenue
would long since have been restricted to carriages and the roadway
would have been raade ti) suit thera. Every foreign city of
any importance limits heavy trucks to certain thoroughfares ; but
in spite of the obvious desirability of such regulations, New York
has never had the advantage of them. But 5th avenue needs
another change also. The present legislative restriction of the
building of any surface railroad on the avenue should be repealed,
and a charter should be granted to some company that would
operate a cable road from a few blocks above 43d street to Wash-
ington square or thereabouts. The shops that now nearly mon-
opolize the avenue from 14th to 43d street require sorae better
means of surface communication than the stages; and as the
restriction was only intended to preserve the character which the
avenue had ten years or more ago, it is foolish to pre-
serve it when the charactfr of the avenue is changed and to the
detriment of the best interests of the property. Of course, no rail-
road should be permitted on that part of the thoroughfare which
still retains a predominantly residential character. If such a rail-
road was ever authorized provision ought, to be made for some
northernconnection. It would, of course, be very difficult to find
a cross-town street north of 43d, the property-owners of which
would permit tlie location of a surface railroad in front of their
doors, but if nothing else could be done some arrangement might
be made whereby the cars could run through 43d street for a
northern connection. It would, for instance,beagreat convenience
to many Westsiders if they could get to points along lower 5th
avenue by means of the Boulevard cars.





WHEN Austin Corbiu assumed the presidancy of the New York
& New England Railroad Company, it was raysteriously
announced that sonie very deeplaid and far-reaching plans were
under preparation for the improvement of the property; but only
the vaguest hints have been divulged concerning the details of
these plans. The Daily Stockholder, for instance, is responsible for
the assertion that the New England, the Long Island Railroad
Company, and, perhaps, one other important corporatiou would all
have a common station in New York City. When one
remembers all that a station in New York City means,
the magnitude of Mr. Corbin's plaus wiU be appreciated. But
where this station is to be and how it is to be reached, insiders
refuse to say, and speculation has not been very successful in dis-
covering. One story is that;the new tunnel from 42d street, New
York, to Long Island City wiU be used for the purpose; but the
proposers of this theory fail to explain how in the world tlie New
York & New England trains were going to get into the tunnel.
On the other hand, the Tribune says it may  be stated authorita-