Apr a   7, 1894





Record   and   Guide.





525









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Vol. LIII.





APRIL 7, 1894.





No. 1,360





For additional Brooklyn viQitter. see Brooklyn Department immediately
following New Jeraey records {page 5571.

THE underlying cause (if the strength .and advance in the
stock market is uudoubtedly the growing iirospect of the
defeat of the Wilson Tarili' Bill in the .Senate, if not hy direct
negative vote at least hy some iiiece of parliamentary tactics, or
by additions that will render the measure unacceutable to the
House, or throw it into the way of a sure veto. If the Demo¬
cratic party managers were blind to tlie warning they received
iu the elections of last fall, it need not follow that the Senate is
of equally dim vision or will pay as little regtird to the signifi¬
cance ot the utterance of Rhode Island iind other places that
have favored the Republican candidiites tliis week. In fact the
Capitol has all along been tlie f.irthest point north at which
any interference with trade conditions has been desired since the
tiiiiincial disturbances of liist summer, and the iiuiiression is now
evei-3' day growing stronger tli.it even thiit point is beginning to
understand or is being taught that the wishes of the country
ought to have some weight in deciding whether a tariff measure
is now timely or not, notwithstanding a thousiind Chicago plat¬
forms and any amount of party managerial obstinacy. With
the signs that Congiess is at last becoming susceptible to reason
and the conviction growing thiit there will be no interference
with the tariff this year at any rate it is not surprising
that the Industrials have led the recent advance; as that
conviction becomes stronger they will advance further. The
recent decision ot Judge Gibbons in the Whiskey Trust ease
under ordinary circumstances aud in times of high prices
would have been a serious set-biick to tliese stocks because the
principle there laid dowu might be extended to every one in this
class. The decision of Judge Caldwell in the Union Paciflc labor
case, arbitrary as it may appear to be, is more generally con¬
sidered as likely to create so good an impression in labor circles
;is to make the settlement of Wiige disputes more easy. While
Wall street is buoyed uii under the influeuce a'ready referred to
and the great accamuliitions of idle mouey, general business
shows no greater improvement than was recorded some weeks
ago and uiifortutiately the lateuess of the season does not
encourage the idea that it can show any considerably greater
activity for some time to come.





\S the Euglish governmental year draws to a close it becomes
apparent that the deficiency of receipts wUl not be more
than $7,000,000 instead of $10,000,000, the estimate of sixty
days ago. The Chancellor of the Exchequer will, however, have
to proviile not only for that deticiency, but also for about
.$21,000,000 estiniiited increase of expenditures for 1894-5,
The government shui-es in the Suez Canal will begin to draw
regular dividends tliis year, which at the rate of hist year, 20
per cent, will create an income of more than $3,500,000, alreadj
pledged, however, for the redemption of a loan. Reports of
raih-oad earnings are not discouraging. In India, too, the defi¬
ciency for the year will be less than was iuiticipated, and if rail¬
road eainiugs have any Viiliie as an indication of the coudition
of trade, matters are not so bad in that country as we have been
led to believe. The railroad revenue last year increased by
about $3,000,00t». Advices from Germany are that the
opinion that general business will improve has not been so
widespread and intense for fifteen years as now. This opinion
gives strength to the values of shtires of manufacturing com-
Iliiuies, and is sujiported b.y reports from the iron, coal and
Ouilding trades, in all of which there is renewed activity. The
French goverumeut is endeiivoring to bring its colonial affairs
iiKire to the front, whicli affiiirs are thonglit to be of sufficient
iiiiportance to ju.stify tlie creation of a niiiiistry for the colonies
with a.seat in the cabinet. Hitherto this department has been
idl adiunct of some other ministry, generally the Marine. This
policy is calculated to have a direct and beneficial influence on





French trade. From 1876 to 1893 the commerce between
France and Italy fell off $115,000,000, shared between them at
$57,500,000 and $55,500,000 respectively. These losses,
while attributed wholly to the disturbed eommercial relations
between the two countries, were partly due to the same
causes that have diminished the trade of the whole world. It
being probable that the Italian Minister of Finance -wUl
be able to carry through his proposals to meet the pecuniary dif¬
ficulties of the country, Italian securities have advanced in the
foreign markets and commercial relations with that country give
promise of improvement. The faU of Don German Gamazo, the
Spanish Finance Minister, is a blow to good government in
Spain. His policy of compelling retrenchments in all depart¬
ments from the throne downward and his insistance on an honest
collection of taxes without regard to political affiliations prom¬
ised more for the finances and political morality of the country
than that of any minister of recent years. South American affairs
are the least assuring of any, though, in the present low condi¬
tion of the business of the world it must not be supposed that
interruptions to trade and defaults can have as far-reaching
effects as they had a few years ago.





SO far as we can see, the annual spriug opening of the rapid
transit farce at Albany is drawing to a close. The threads
of the somewhat complex plot of the play this year are gathering
together .and now it is apparent that we shall have to witness at
the close the old, stale, unprofitiible termination ou which the
curtain has fallen year after year for nian.y .years. The entire
busiuess is a sickening exhibition of popular imbecility. From
any point of view it is that. Surely if New Yorkers wish to
retain their reputation for common sense they should either
cease to deplore their sufferings on account of inadequate rtipid
transit or they should do something. We know what we have to
choose from. All the pother in the world will neither add nor
subtract from what is offered to us. We can either extend the
present elevated system, or build new elevated roads or run
trains through the block upon arches or around the city water
front, or we can build underground. Moreover, we can commit
the work either into the hands of private entei-prise, or turn it
over to the city authorities, or iidopt a middle course upou the
line proposed in the Chamber of Commerce bill. With the fore¬
going we exhaust the category of possibilities unless we can have
some aerial road with flying machines. Why, then, if the city
needs rapid transit, if people reaUy object to be jiacked like a
parcel of hogs on the top of one another, breathing and
puffing each other's breath, for a space of time, no
matter how short, that should be enough to sicken
decency, why don't we make some decision, even if it
be only the hopeless decision that the Fates are agaiust us
and nothing desirable can be done. Why beat the air any
longer? Why not pack off the Steiuway Commission to private
usefulness; cease agitating ourselves and "ring the bell," as
the phrase goes, upon anybody who mentions Rapid Transit.
This would be logical, intelligible; but to keep on talking, to
pursue au interminable discussion without ever moving an inch
towards a decision, to appoint commissions for the purpose of
exhibiting the impotency of a few individuals, to prepare bills
and eliiborate schemes which we will neither support nor treat
with hostility, surely this is to make for Rapid Transit through
Bloomingdale. But the aetion the city won't take, others will.
As onr correspondent elsewhere says, the schemers .arO already
at work at Albany, aud there is no manuer of doubt the city is
fated to be sold out, lock, stock and barrel. It will serve us
right if our streets are invaded by elevated structures, if our
avenues are bespoiled aud franchises of enormous value frittered
away for the traditional song. Real Estate owners particularly
will suffer fi-om this. Their rights will be invaded, and then,
perhaps, we shall have a wonderful awakening and protesting
and petitiouing which will be iis futile as the hubbub that was
made when the elev.ited roads were built through the narrow
streets down town. Public opinion that will not assert itself
intelligently .and at the proper time deserves to be trtimpled on.

«----------

^ENATOR CANTOR has put forth a bill at Albany, this week,
^ prolubiting in New York City the erection of a stable within
100 feet of a church. The bill should be passed. But what the
Legislature shoidd do is to proceed to foi-mulate ii comprehen¬
sive system of regulations for the protection of localities against
similar nuisances. Not only does there exist to-day a set of
thugs who gain a piratical living by purchasing lots contiguous
to fine residences and then threatening the alarmed property-
holders with the erection of stables or factories unless they
stand and deliver, but there is also a scarcely less reprehensible
class composed of wealthy citizens who manifest an exasperating
indifference to the comfort, and, if one may say so, extra-legal
rights of others. A notorious example of this lack of social
amenity is furnished in the case of John Jacob Astor, with his
stable on 65th street and Madison avenue. This gentleman appar¬
ently has determined to build upon the spot he has chosen despite
the requests, protests and even the financial offers of persons