â–²pril 28.1894
Record and Guide.
657
^ ESTABUSHED â– ^*W.CH2l«i^ 1868.
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Coiumunluations shoiUd he addressed to
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Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington Street,
Opp. Post Office.
"Entered at the Post-office ai New York. N. I'., as seeond-elass mailer."
Vol. liii.
APRIL 28, 1894.
No. 1,363
For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department inimediately
following New Jersey records (page 685,.
A WASHINGTON dispatch quotes one of those brilliant indi-
â– viduals who sit in Congress .is saying, in regard to the
probable passage of the Tariff Bill by July 1 : " Our busiuess
men can stand anything better tlian suspense." One would think
after the experience of the six or eight months that this measure
has been uuder discussion in one form or another, that the busi¬
ness men of the country have stood suspense very well. Not¬
withstanding the terrible inflictiou of this discussion, busiuess
has improved somewhat, though the improvenient is not by any
means as great as some individuals would make it, nor is it what
it would have been had the taritt' discussion been sp.ared us.
The troubles that now confront us cannot be removed by the pas¬
sage of the Tariti" Bill, although they are largely attributable to
it. His Satanic majesty is raised, and it will take sometliiug more
than a motion of Congi-ess to exorcise him. The contest that has
begun on the question of wages on the Great Northern and iu the
Midde States mining regions, the fears aroused by the uprising
of so-called Commonweal armies all over the country and rate
disputes amoug the railroads have all to be settled before we
can expect better business; moreover, the ordinary dull seasou
will soon be here. It is not reasonable to suppose that mer¬
chants will place orders or capitalists make investments while
the country is in such a disturbed state as it is now. People
who have to sell of course are placed at a disadvantage by these
conditions and quotations will be lower. In the stock market,
for instance, all the activity is in a few stocks operated by small
parties of professionals, so while the Industrials advance, bonds
decline, which is not a healthy symptom at all. In other lines
also the indications are that buyers have the pick at their
own prices. Naturally the closing of the Harlem River Bank
and other local troubles have had a bad influence
on ti-<iding aud will create further caution in dealings. How¬
ever, while there is so much that is uusatisf.actory in the situa¬
tion, it must not be forgotten that the conditions are a great way
from what they were last fall; for instance, the record of fail¬
ures for this week are fewer thau they were in the same week
last year or iu the two weeks previous to this. In fact, most of
the troubles of our day, however depressing they may be for the
time being, are iucident to the course of recovery.
THE enormous over-subscription of the $40,000,000 City of
Paris Loan is all the more remarkable as it is the flrst loan
put out by that city at as low a rate of interest as 2^2 per cent.
The attraction is probably the lottery scheme that accompanies
the loan. Apart from this pernicious feature does not this sug¬
gest that the time is a good one for N. Y. City to make needed
improvements, when both money and labor are needing employ¬
ment ? Not to do something out of a sentimental regard for the
laboring classes, but for the practical benefit of the city. The
bill before the Chamber of Deputies proportioning the deposits
of a bank to its paid up capital has caused the Credit Lyonnais
to call up its unpaid capital. Business on the Berlin Bourse
is suflfering from the tax of two cents put upon .all transactions of
1,000 marks each and under, which goes iuto ett'ect on May 1st.
Trading conditions will soon adapt themselves to this innovation,
but meantime it is of course disturbing. Beriiu banks still retain
the absurd custom of opening from 9 A. u. to 1 p. m., and from
3.30 to S p. M., the interval being for refreshment and siesta.
The Imperial Bank is now contemplating the advisability of
keeping its doors open from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. If they adopt this
plan, the other banks are expected to follow. Bankers aud other
business men are uniting to form a committee with stock
exchange members to protect legitimate bourse business against
ignorance and political calumny. The Farmer's Alliance man,
who wants grain prices to be always high, has tui-ned up in
Berlin, and the consequence is .the introduction of a bill into
Parliament giving the government a monopoly of the imports of
grain and fixing minimum prices at which it shall sell. From
Vienna advices are that the symptoms all poiut toward
a general revival of business. As the cry of the unem¬
ployed of Vienna for work was about at last to be answered,
by the commencement of the great works for the exteusion of
the city, the brickmakers struck, followed by a general demand
throughout the building trade for a reduction of an hour in the
time of the day's work, and many of these people were so near
the verge of starvation all winter that suicides were frequent
among them. From Russia there come favorable advices of the
winter crops which cover a much more extended area than usual.
The activity in the shipbuilding trade in the United Kingdom is
shown by the fact that there were 414 vessels ot 725,208 gross
tons under construction in the first quarter of 1894 as compared
with 263 vessels of 535,291 gross tons in the same time last
year. These figures do not include warslups, otherwise the
comparison would still more very largely favor this year. The
Indian Trade reports for seven months dating fiom the close of the
Indian mints and ending January Slst last were : imports, $167,-
391,300; exports, $171,610,200; excess exports, $4,218,900.
Same time in 1892-93, imports, $138,521,400; exports, $180,-
232,800; excess exports, $41,711,400 ; same time in 1891-92,
imports, $136,029,300; exports, $172,527,000; excess
exports, $36,497,700. The siguificance of this return lies in
the fact that it is fi-om her excess of exports that India pays her
obligations abroad. The March returns from the Witwatersrand
gold mines again broke the record, amounting as they did to
151,870 ozs. against 111,474 ozs. in the same month last year.
For three mouths the yield was 467,056 ozs., an increase of
nearly 50 per cent over the yield for the first quarter of 1893.
----------â– --------—
THE old story of the pious " Thank Heaven" ejaculated in
the general dormitory of the western hotel, when a loud
snorer, who liad been breaking the midnight peace, died, finds a
parallel in the comfort which the decent part of the community
of this State feels uow that the work of our piratical legislators
is ended. It would be unfair to say that these gentry have con¬
tributed nothing by their labors to the weal of the state, but
cei-tainly the sub.stance is very little, and it has been obtained
amid a clash of personal interests and dirty political schemes
which has deprived the legislative activity that produced it of
any real public character or dignity. Indeed, the session has been
a sad disappointment to that hope of better things which tickled
the imagination of many good people, when the "great
moral revolution at the polls last Fall was announced.
"Ah," we were told, "the moral sentiment of the State
is at last aroused, and is iu arms against political rascality."
It was fondly imagined that with the change of political names
then eftected went a political change of heart, manners and
morals. We were done with bossism. People were to have a
voice in their own aft'airs. The management of the State was
not to be entirely as hitherto, an aft'air of pelf and politics. Legis¬
lation, it is true, has moved at Albany with a trifle more apparent
consideration for public requirements than was the case in pre¬
ceding sessions ; but the improvement has been only apparent,
due rather to the fact that the Legislature was composed of
diverser elemeuts.than usual, not to a higher morale. The "pub¬
lic note," so to speak—the assertion of the claims of the people—
never once predominated at Albany since January 1st. Th«
personal note was prevalent, the political note was prevalent,
the note of bossism was prevalent, but never once the popular note.
We heard a great deal about what the Governor wanted, what Mr.
Platt wanted, what Mr. Croker wanted ; but the people, as in the
case of the Chamber of Commerce biU, had to force and screw
their way forward to a mere hearing. The fact is, we have had
another exhibition of the truth which experience has emphasized
ad nauseum—politics are subversive of good government. Sel¬
dom does a question ever arise at Albany that is in a true sense
a political questiou. To question whether it is wise for New
York City to build aud operate a rapid transit system is bus) -
uess, to be decided very much as a great trunk line decides any
questiou of administration. Democracy and Republicanism are
utterly foreign to the issue. The same is true about the creation
of parks, the enaction of 'juilding laws, the administration of
police aft'airs, and practically all other questions with which
the Legislatiu-e has to deal. These matters can no more b«
decided wisely by reference to political creeds than they can by
reference to religious beliefs. If the Chinese made their laws iu
the topsy-turvy way we make ours, we would say, What else
can you expect from the unenlightened heathen 1 But we boast
of our practical common sense, and yet proceed to act after a
manner that would beludricous among lunatics. The sad thing
is that the farce annually enacted is not an opera-bouft'e on the
boards of a theatre, but au aft'air in which the hard interests aud
welfare of several millions of people are intimately concerned.
SOM ETHING solid has been accomplished in the matter of
rapid transit, and, with it, upon the whole, we should be
satisfled. The city has obtained more than was to be expected.