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year is likely to be a year of considerable suffering and disturbance
in England.





Vol, li.





JANUARY 21.   1893,





No. 1,3117





The semi-annual index, to Vol. L., of The Record and Guide, of
New York Conveya^ices nnd Projected Bidldings, recorded from
July to December, 1893, inclusive, accompanies tins issue.

THE bull movement in the stock market, which was begun last
week, shows no sign of ending. Of course, wherever large
advances are made, reactions may be expected, but the tendency
for the time being is upward and will continue to be, while money
continues to increase at this centre and while no very bad condi¬
tion develops. Tbe advance, in the face of heavy gold shipments,
shows that the buying public has ceased to fear the operations of
the Sherman Silver Act. The great horror of these abnormal gold
shipments arose from their apparent endlessness, but now that
there is a certainty of the repeal of the act of 1&90, that
fear is eliminated and people know the extent of the
evil and are reassured. It does not matter that the
present Congress may, and probably will fail to pass the
measure for the suspension of silver purchases with the
close of this year. It will answer the purpose just as well if the
new administration prepares for their suspension and the next Con¬
gress orders their suspension within a short time after, if not with
the passing of the Suspension act. This will make it as broad as
long, and every one will be liappy again until the financial ignor¬
ance of the law-makers creates another muddle. But if Congress
is loth to redress the wrong it has doiie it cannot fail to have learned
■a lesson which will be effective for a long time to come, and no
-more sensational currency legislation need be apprehended so long
as that lesson is remembered. The refusal of some of the banks to
supply their customers with gold for export raises an expectation
that the results of the Sherman Silver Act may jet extend to the
very full of the evil of which it is capable. Happily this comes at
a time when, in view of a wiser fiscal policy, its mischievouenesB
is reduced to a minimum.





THE decline in the yield of the tax on stock transations is very
eloquently descriptive of the character of speculative busi¬
ness in Berlin during the past year. In 1389 the (ax yielded nearly
11,000,000 marks; in 1890 about 14,500,000 ; in 1891 about 11,000,000,
and in 1893 about 8,500,000. The new year has brought tbe appear¬
ance, if not the reality', of better things in the market; but close
observers are inclined to question the stability of the movement.
The securities principally dealt in on the Berlin Bourse are the
shares of domestic enterprises, and if any sound improvement
takes place it must be based upon some improvement in German
ibusiness. The various trades in that country, the textile trade
lexeepted, are at present far from prosperous, and seems to preclude
ithe chance of any change for the better just now. The diclara-
ition of dividends which have been taking place in London during
the first of the year have not been of a kind to satisfy shareholders.
Nearly all the important banks reduce their rate of distribution;
ithe aame is true generally of the railroads: little or no money has
ibeen made on the large capital invested in the textile industry, aud
ithe only iron companies which show satisfactory balances are those
■which have some special line of business. It cannot be long before
■the English government will again have trouble with
-the unemployed workmen. Strikes are becoming very
numerous, and, as in the case of the cotton weavers, are being very
obstinately fought. The agriculture of the island is, asthe cable
reports show, in a very depressed state, and the farmers are crying
for a relief, which they are not likely to get. The agriculliu-al
depression will of course act unfortunately by inducing more
laborers to seek employment in the cities, there for the time being
to swell the numbers of the unemployed.    Altogether the coming





THE plane which the Manhattan Company disclosed yesterday
(ostensibly for tbe first time) to the Rapid Transit Commis¬
sion are scarcely less important as a contribution to the problem
now before the city than tbe plans formulated by the Commission
itself. It is needless to point out tbat they necessarily possess an
apparently greater degree of actuality than projects coming from
any other source, because the Manhattan Company ia an organiza¬
tion already in the field, possessed of all the capital and the
machinery needed to complete any enterprise they may deem it to
their advantage to undertake. This element of actuality will
undoubtedly prove very attractive to a city which already has had
to suffer much disappointmentfrom the vacuity of many good plans.
The Manhattan Company's scheme, the details of which are printed
elsewhere, is decidedly clever. It fairly winds around many of the
niimerouB difficulties in tbe way of an extension cf the elevated
roads, difficulties which if touched would become the centres of
strong opposition. It ijrovidesNew York with one more line of road
throughout the whole west side of the city from the Battery to Fort
George. There is little to object to in ihe plan as it stands south of
45tb street, beyond the general objections which have been urged
against elevated roads. The line would greatly benefit property
on West street and on 7th avenue. At 45tb street, however, the
line strikes Broadway, but it will be noticed, Broadway at its most
unatlractive spot. We doubt whether property-owners there
would seriously oppose an elevated structure. From 59th street the
road makes diagonally for the Boulevard, through the whole length
of which it runs. It is at Sherman square that trouble will begin,
for there can be no doubt that from that point northward an ele¬
vated stru'.ture would completely change all the possi¬
bilities of that thoroughfare. The route as a whole,
however, has been so cleverly laid out, that there is
probably no other route in the city the selection of which
would engender so little opposition either from property-owners
or the city at large. Of course, if tbe Commissioners accept the
Manhattan Company's plans that is an end, practically, to all un¬
derground schemes. The city will then be committed wholly to
the elevated roads, and what we more particularly object to—to tbe
Manhattan Co. The MunicipaUty, and no one but the Munici¬
pality, should own the permanent transportation system of this city.
To turn over the immense interests of the metropolis in this matter
to any private corporation will be a colossal blunder, the magnitude
of which will become more and more apparent yearly.





EVERYBODY with any real knowledge of the rapid transit
problem will indorse the latest decision of the Rapid Transit
Commissioners as expressed in their resolution recently published.
At least four years ago The Record AND Guide commenced to
tell its readers that the Manhattan Company would have to be
consulted in any steps that might be taken to provide New York
with an adequate system of transportation. At that time a
majority of our citizens and all the daily papers were rabidly an¬
tagonistic to the elevated roads. The cry then was that the Man¬
hattan Company was a vile monopoly, of whom tbe public expected
nothing and to whom the pubhc would grant nothing—except a
bad name. THE Record and Guide fought this folly. We en¬
deavored to make it clear that tbe elevated roads, and only the ele¬
vated roads, could give the city any immediate relief from a con¬
dition which was daily becoming more and more unbearable. We
advocated the wisdom of permitting tbat company to judiciously
improve its structure by tbe building of a third track, by the addi¬
tion of adequate terminal facilities and by slight extensions in
directions where extensions were most urgently needed. We also
pointed out that if the city did not deal liberally with the ele¬
vated roads then, by and by it would have lo act hastily, un¬
wisely, acd grant in a wild, pell-mell fashion privileges that
should be granted only with circumspection and with due regard to
the larger and ever increasing interests of the metropohs. Every
word that we have said on the subject is justified by the predica¬
ment in which the city finds itself to-day. In a sort of panic-
stricken way. People and Press alike are tumbling over themselves
in au effort to grant the entire city to the Manhattan Company.
This is foolish. What should have been done four or five years
ago—tbat and little more—remains to be done to-day. It is still
tbe policy of wisdom to permit the elevated roads to improve their
structure by every reasonable means possible. One or two tracks
should be added to the lines already existing; better terminal facili¬
ties are needed and must be allowed; certain limited extensions
should be permitted. About all this there can be no reasonable
difference of opinion. Apparently, the Rapid Transit Commission¬
ers are now completely committed to the course we have indicated.
Their resolutions, however, are wisely conservative, as they should
be. They indicate, we sincerely trust, that the Commissioners
have some reservation in mind as to the limit of the extensions
which the Manhattan Company should be permitted to make.   We