June 18.1893
Record and Guide.
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OwoTED tO Rt^LEsrMt SuiLDlf/C AROHITECTJI\E,HoUSDÍOLCDE«Of^llOll.
BUMIÍESS AIÍdThEMES Cf ÛE^EI^L l;iT£[\ESl
PRICE, PER TEAR IN 1DT1!V(E, SIX DOLLARS.
Published every Saturday.
TELBPHONB .... CORTLANDT 1370.
ConunuDÍcatioDs should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14 & i6 Vesey St
J. 1. LINDSE'y, Business Manager.
"Entered at the Fost-offlce at New Tork, N. iT., as second-class matier."
VoL. XLIX
JUNE 18, 1892.
No. 1,266
WITH a powerful party working in the Orangers and a faith on
the part of the public of the mountain-moving order there
has been a narrow but strong buU market on the Stock Exchange
for a week, which only received a real check on nearly the largest
gold export movement ever seen in one week, For a time even it
seemed as if that movement, usually so infallibly a factor on the
bear side, was to be without influence, but it told at last, and
wherever an attempt was made to market any large amount
of secnrities not protected by the manipulators there was a rapid
decline, But while there is a public wiUing to pay 82 l'or a
non-dividend stock like St, Paul, or 37 for one so embarrassed as
New England, there is notelling how soon they may go up again
or where prices may go as soon as there shall come some cessation
of gold shipmentf, It is highly supererogatory to point out the
conditions and prospects of the railroads or to suggest the advisa-
bility of discrimination in purchases whenever there is a determina-
tion on the part of the public to have an advancing market and
large balances laying at the banks unemployed, At such times
stocks are not bought because of their earning capacities or
because of the property they represent, but because the tide
is strong in one direction and everything good, bad or indif-
ferent must go that way. It was natural that the Stock
Market should reflect the general relief felt when the farmer of the
West was given a spell of good weather in which to make
some endoavor to obtain a good corn crop when it
became known through the Government reports that the
damage by the previous bad weather was less ihan had
been anticipated and when the news of the receding of the flood was
received. Conservative people might have wished and expected
that that reflection would have shown more vividly among stocks
and bonds of the investment class. But it was not so. The gilt-
edge series of stooks shov\ very little benefit from the change of
opinion; in fact, some of them,notabIy the Coalers, are lower than
they were last week, while transactions in bonds generally have
not raised prices at all, Not only have news of crop and weather
been better, but there are undoubted signs of improvement in gen-
eral business, AII these are used to help the speculative advance
on the Stock Exchange, The use of the latter seems inconsistent
when it is remembered that only a few weeks ago dullness in out-
side buyinesrt was used as a bull argument; it was without effect,
and it may be for that reason that the bulls cannot be now charged
with illogic. The mood the public is found to be in promises
advance in prices whenever there is the least news on which to base
one, provided there is no shrinkags of the funds available for specu-
lation. Acontinuation of heavy gold exports and the demand from
renewed activity in many lines of businesg which have been so long
stagnant may so absorb the now idle money as to check speculation.
So far the market looks this probability in the face with confldence.
UNTIL lately the German Empire has beeu comparatively free
troin the financial deficits which have been embarrassing the
other cbief European nations, with the exception of Great Britain
and Austro-Hungary ; but now Germany like the rest is spending a
great deal more than her income. Hitherto the extra expenditure
has been met principaliy by borrowing ; but the growing inorease
calls for extraordinary provision. The first step taken in
that direction was a reform of the income tax,, Self-
declaration has been adopted; and it has considerably
increased the yield of the tax already, Now a epeoial
tax on funded income is proposed. These increases inay
â– suíÄ©ice for a time, but if things go on as it appears they will,
new loans will become inevitable. So far, few people give thought
to this, but when the new demands for money come before Parlia-
ment, the question will be amply discussed, though it may be fore-
seen that the whole discussion will lead to little, leaving things
practically as they were. Curiously, the ojjerators. in stocks inake
a good deal of this as a bullish argument, Their tactios are to
adopt the reasoning which in the beginning was meant only as an
evasive reply to an importunate opposition—that expensive arma-
ments are better than an expensive war, In this way they go
almost so far as to call every increase of the army as a freSh
symptom of peace; and as peace is that which everyone longs for,
ii Í8 easy to argue further, and to state that peace once being
secured, business ought to improve. These arguments are not
always openly expressed, but they constitute the germ of many
a theory propagated to stimulate busmess. Business, however,
refuses to be stimulated, Cheap money and the comparative
tranquility of the general situation have, indeed, increased the
price of good securities in Berlin as in London ; but there is
nothing in prospect to warrant any extended advance. Great
hopes are entertained that Gennany will come to a better under-
standing with Russia; but they are accompanied by misgivings
almost as great. One thing, however, is certain, and that is that
in both countries strong and persistent efforts are being made to
establish a friendly political understanding compatible with the
present state of European politics, and to establish also a commer-
cial position advantageous to both countries, Russia being under
the necessity of reconstituting her flnances, must put a high value
on German financial aid, and Germany cannot conceal the fact that
she i8 longing to resume her once flourishing export trade to
Russia,
SOBER-MINDED people must view with alarm the noticeable
increase of cases of personal administration of Justice, so
caUed. The newspapers (to whom, of course, such matters are
"richness") have fairly teemed of late with reports of
aggrieved women shooting down men at sight, husbands
murdering other men or tlieir own wives, according as they
viewed the requirements of their case, and in all parts
of the country mobs have been busy making a holiday
over the corpses of suspected offenders whom they have strongly
" felt" were guilty, One is, indeed, driven to ask, is there any
public adminstration of Justice in the land ? The courts apparently
pay no heed tothese violences against civilization, for, needless to
point out, such they are, Lamentable excesses are sure to lesult
from this unbridled freedom, Every deed of the kind that goes
unpunished and receives the acquiescence of silence from the
public quite naturally encourages other individuals to undertake
the private redress of their wrongs, or what they believe to be their
wrongs, and mobs will beemboldened until the Mafia incident will
be a common occurrence. The very publicity given to deeds of the
kind servespo?tr encourager les autres. Now, tlie punishment, the
prompt and certain pimishment of an offender is only one side of
Justice, Com'ts of Law and judicial proceedings have been estab-
lished by civilization not only to perform that function, important
as it is, but to insure the protection of the innocent, which is even
more important if any comparison may be made. The Law has still
a further offlce arising from the very nature of Justice—the adjudica-
tion of the degrees of acrime. It may be said that the punishment of
crime is in its immediate aspeot a matter affecting, relativoly speak-
ing, only a few persons. It is in a sense the accidental relation of Law
to Society. The general and permanent relation is the security
which the Law should afford to every individual agaiust hasty
judgment, unwarranted charges, undue punishment, Thissecurity
is needed by everybody, It is the most sacred obligation of the
Law, and confersupon the court-house something of the ancient
sanctity of the church altar. To say that colored "Johnsing"
merited his fate at the limb of a convenient tree, and if he didn't,
still it will serve as a warning fo others, doesn't touch the evil.
That Mr, This was shot five times in the back on Broadway, or
that Mrs, That was murdered in the compaiiy of her paramour may
" serve them right," The great evil is that this personal admin-
istration of Justicesurely creates wider possibilities, utterly vicious
and dangerous in theextreme to Society itself, Experiencehasshown
as clearly as it has shown anything that dangerous weapons caniiot
safely be put into everybody's hands. Sooner or later they are sure
to be employed with lamentable results. The tendency of pracLice
is to widen priuciples, aud the principle of permitling personal
vengear.ce in certain cases will not stop with those cases, but will
be extended until Society wiU be obliged to wholly abolish the
principle. It is fully time that rigorous punishment should be
meted out to lynchers and the rapidly increasing numberof " mur-
derers with excuses." Tbe sentiment that at present favors these
offenders is dangerous in the extreme.
IN an interview published in the Times respecting a letter which
he wrote to the treasurer of the fund to build tho Washington
Memorial Arch.'Mr. O. B. Potter is more than usually iieculiar in
his opinions. He says that before many years 5th avenue will be
continued straight across V/ashington square to join South 5th
avenue, thus making another broad thoroughfare available foi pub-
lic travel and trafflc of all kinds. Tliis new thoroughfare will be
lined with business buildings, not with warehouse, but with oflice