March 3, 1S94





Record   and   Guide.





323







ESTABLISHED-^ KgWPHZlii^ 1868,

"Dn&TEfl TO Ra^L EsTWE.BinLDif/o AflcrfiTEciJHE,F(ouseHou)Degof^atioiJ,
Bi/sii^ESS A^(D Themes oFGEflER.RL IKteresi.

PRICE,  PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE,  SIX   DOLLARS.

Published everi/ .Saturday.

TELEPIIOKE,......CORTLAKfDT 1370

Coniiniinlcations bIiouW lie addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.
,r. 7. LINDSEY. Business Manager.

Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington .Street,

Opp. Post Ofticb.

" Entered at the Post-offlce at New York, If. T,, as second-class matter,"





Vol. LIII.





MARCH 3, 189-1.





No. 1,355





For additional Brooklyn mattor, see Brooklyn Department immediately
foUoioing New Jersey records {page 350).

A CONTINUED and increaf3ed improvement in trade and
financial circles may be noticed this week, due in a
large measure apparently to the liope that the difference
existing bet-n-een the Senate and House on the Wilson Bill
may lead to the .ab.andomnent of tariff legislation for a time
ntleast. The passage of the Bland substitnte.silverinflation bill has
not been without effect, although the President is relied upon to
veto it as a viol.atiou of the principle under which the purchas¬
ing clause of the Silver Act of 1890 was repealed if ever that
measure reaches his hands, which from all accounts there is a
considerable prob.abilit}' of its doing. This bill, as it pas.sed the
House, not only gives a ridiculous money value to the silver in
the Treasury, but also makes the notes issued for its purcnase
redeemable by a part only of the bullion they were issued to
pay for. In this way it is sought to give the
government a profit of over fifty-five millions of dollars.
The result has been to expedite if uot cause gold shipments,
and to prove what has beeu said before here, th;it if foreigTi
capital is to be retained in this country, there will have to be
found a way to lessen the opportuniries for irresponsible cur¬
rency theorists coming into tiie great prominence and having the
seemiu.g importance that they now do. The outward movement
of gold is never favorable to stock exch.ange quotations. Atten¬
tion is attr.acted to tlie radical reductions in the operating cost of
the great raiU'oads in J.anuary and people are asking, if they can
be operated at such a low percentage of cost, have not stock¬
holders hitherto been defrauded ? The explanation no doubt is
that such extensive economies as have been instituted can ouly
endure for a short time and are intended only to I'l'idge over a
period of poor business, which the railroad m.anagers hope will
not last much longer. There is no do doubt whatever that the
proportion of cost of operating will increase .and that soon,
whether business does or not. In general trade there is the same
conservati.sm on the part of buyers as has characterised tlieiu
for some time, though mitig.ated enough to lead to the hope that
abetter demand is growing up at least in the lines of necessaries.
This feeling is noticed in the boot and shoe, the wool and the
cotton goods trades. The great fuYnaces have been large buyers
of ores recently, though at low prices, and havo thereby created
a prospect of renewed activity in the iron trade in the near
future.





monetary conference seeing no advantage therein. Euglish fin.in-
cinl papers aro congratulating the trading community they serve
on the results of their analysis of the trade returns for 1803. The
differences in prices being t.aken into accountthe importsof for¬
eign goods for home consumption were only 1.42 per cent less than
in the previous year and the exports of British goods only 2.10
per cent less. This result, in .spite of the malign influences of the
collapse in Australia, the currency troubles on this sideof the
Atlantic and the strikes aud other impediments to business at
home, is naturally considered very satl.sfactory.   Current reports
of railroad  earnings  also  show that business is  picking up
slowly.   There is no break in the dullness of  financial affairs
in Paris, though the arrest of Baron de Soubeyan, the chaii-mau
of the collapsed Baiique d'Escorapte, affords an iuteresting topic
of conversation.   This gentleman was one of those financiers,
apparently,  who try to   carry too man.y concerns   at once, or
rather try to make several concerns caiTy each other, and has
consequently come to the grotind under circumstances sufficiently
suspicious to demand his arrest and pkacing under bail.   The
native population of France  diminished by 20,041 in   1892
according to the recent returns ; fhis is the third year in succes¬
sion that there has been a decrease.   The demand of Hungary
for .a note bank independent of the Austro-Huugarian B.ink is
being resisted; a ministerial explanation of the refusal contained
the statement that if anything rather too much credit had beeu
given to Hungar.y and it might lead to d.angerous speculation.
Like their fellows in  Germany.  Hungarian agriculturists   are
opposin.L'the conclusion of custom treaties with neighboring
powers where any concessions from the present regulations for
the import of cereals iind live stock are contemplated.   Vienna
seems to be full of unemployed poor, .among whom  there are
said to be daily suicides.   One of Ihe works of relief conteiu-
pliited is the removal of the great barracks standing in the centre
of the city, a relic of the time when the monarch feared tho
population of the capital.   Itnl.y's endeavors to relie^'^e itself
from bankruptcy do   not meet with much success.   The only
resource seems fo lie in additional t;ixation, and that naturally
meets with opposition  on all sides.   The mere attempt, how¬
ever, to bring order into its finances has put up the ]irice of
Italian   rente in the foreign   markets.   Tn   India natives aud
Indian born Europeans join in condemning the financial policy
of the Engli h (Toverament towards India, but in Calcutta and
Bengal opinions have been expressed adverse to the reopening
fhe mints to .silver.   The solution of the Indian part of the silver
difficulty is still far away.   While there is a .great deal of pro¬
test, there appears to be no su.sgestion of the way in which the
government can remove the evi's complained of.   The govern¬
ment proposes to meet the deficit by imposing a new ij per cent
tax on imports,  except cottons,  besides doubling the tax on
petroleum.   Whether this includes silver is not statail, bnt from
the wording of the dispatch bringiug this news it may be pre¬
sumed that it does.





UNDOUBTEDLY the question of greatest commercial
importance discussed in Europe to-day is the treaty
Between Germ.any and Rus.sia. Notwichst.anding the announce¬
ment by the Emperor William that "he treaty is a political
necessity, the agrarian party is fighting its confirmation in the
Reichstag tooth and nail. Outside, trading and commercial
bodies all over the Empire have taken the matter up, the manu¬
facturer being on one .side and the farmer on the other. There
is a belief that should the treaty be rejected by the Reichstag
adissolntion would follow and the appeal to the country would
result in a triumph for the government, just as the same pro¬
cedure did in the matter of t he Army Bill a year or more ago.
The failure of the treat.y, taken in connection with the imperial
statement, would probably be very mischievous. The proba¬
bilities favoring confirmn tion of the treaty, however, the busi¬
ness of Germany has improved .somewhat and the shares of
banks and maiiiifacturing coinp.anies, pnrficularly those of tho
latter connected with the iron trade have gone up. The com-
missiou appointed to consider the w.ays and means to rehabilitate
silver is not expected to produce much good, the opinion being
so general that an effective solution of the silver question is
only possible through international agreement, the impossi-
bilify of -phich is elcwn hy the recent official anncunctmentthat
Ecslnnd Jind DO int«ptioi) of propcsinK the reneEcnahlins'of the





EFFECTIVE work has been done at Washin.eton on beh.alf of
West Side property-owners in securing amendments to
the New York and New .Jersey Bridge bill, uow undergoing
examination by the Committee on Interst.ate and Foreign Com¬
merce of the House of Representatives. In the first pl.ace,
instead of the Bridge Company being free to locate Iheir eastern
approach on a wide line reaching as far np as 71st street, as was
contemplated b.y the bill as introduced, Ihe cimimittee has
decided th.at this approach .shall not be higher than ROIh street
nor lower than .50th street but at some suitable place between
those two points, to be decided upon by the Secretary of War
after examin.ation. Should the bill become a law au endeavor
will be made ou the p.art of interested property-owners
to h.ave the choice fixed on GOth .street, and failing that,
on B.'rth street, as that would throw the approaches into
the tenement district, where the least amount of damage can bo
done. The bill provided that two hundred and fifty thousand
doll.ars should be .spent the first year and a million dollars each
year thereafter. This provision has been amended in one very
iniport.antparticular, namely, by the insertion of the words "in
money " after the statement of e.ach sum. This is better than
the original provision, though not all that can be wished as a
proof of the good faith of the people acquiring the charter. At
the first view it does appear that a sufficient guarantee for the
performance of the work would be obtained if a quarter of a
million of dollars were spent ou it 'with a forfeiture
following if a million dollars arc not expended each year theie-
after, yet if the comparatively small sum required to be sjient in
tho first year is put info the woik it would probably
be ea.sy for the p:omofcrs to gain nn extension of
time if they were not able to raise the next irqnired sum for a
year or two. Moreover, once any considerable sum were spent
in actual work Congress would be loth and perh.nps would find
it difflcult to confiscate the woi'k eo created. No doubt people
could be found who would snppl.V the money for the first year's
requiriements in order lo h,o),d sp vnluflblea franchisp os a sperw