May 5, 1894





Record   and   Guide.





101







ESTABLISHED-^ MARPHSl'i^ 1868,
DeV&TEDIO REJ^LEsTWE.BuiLDIf^O A,RprflTECTUl^E,HoUSE«0U)DEQQl^nOlJ,

BUsii^ESs Atio Themes ofGeHeraL 1>(tei\esi.
PRICE,  PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE,  SIX   DOLLARS.

Published every Saturday.

Telephone,......Cortlandt 1370

Oommuiiloatious sliould be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Stieet.

J. 1. LINDSEY. Business Manager.

Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington Street,

Opp. Post Office.

"Entered at the Post-office at New Tork, N. T., as second-class mutter."





Vol. LIIL





MAY 5, 1894.





No. 1,3G4





For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately
following N^ew Jersey records {patie 731).

npHE markets continue to suifer the consequences of the delays
*- and uncertainties attending the Tariif Bill in Congress
and are additionally burdened by the prospect of a very dull
summer as a consequence of the obstructions that have been
placed in the way of commerce, of gold shipments and other
things that always have a tendency to disturb prices. For
instance, the disagreements which prepare the way to settle¬
ments of disputes between different classes of securities issued
on properties in the hands of receivers are becoming quite
prominent and as a result the stocks and junior bouds
of such properties suffer. The receut declaration of the
holders of the Reading "generals" to enforce the terms of their
mortgage will doubtless compel the Income bonds and stock to
do something to keep themselves alive and it is essentially
proper that this should be so. In Atchison, it is said, and the
probabilities point that way, that the greatest sacrifices will be
demanded of the guaranteed bonds, which sacrifices will be
enforced even if it is necessary to foreclose the first mortgage
to bring them about. The investigation of Northern Pacific
affairs will do a great deal of good in ventilating oue of the
most reckless cases of railroad financing iu the couutiy, espe¬
cially if it results iu compelling restitution. Iu the Industrial
Stocks the features have been Lead and Sugar; the former has
been put up on reports, doubtless unfounded, of a forthcoming
dividend, and the latter, as everyone knows, has been manipu¬
lated on Washiugton news. There are signs of coming collapse
in both movements.





THE first of May slipped by this year with unusual quietude
in the Labor world. There were strikes in progress, it is
true, but they were not the outcome of that spring fever which
annually fills the workingman's breast at the appearance of the
foliage and other green things. The absence of any agitation
about the eight hours day was particularly noticeable because
for some years past the first of May has recurred as an anniver¬
sary for demonstrations favoring a reduction iu the hours of
labor. To the universal dull times in all countries, pro¬
tectionist, free trade, monarchical and republican, is no
doubt to be attributed the peace and quietude we
enjoy, but as what the physicians call a "predisposing
cause" there was undoubtedly that change of sentiment which
has affected the world iu the last year or two in relation to this
much debated matter. A great deal of the old rancor, hot head-
edness and prejudice which in the past marked a large part of
all that was written and said on the subject of shorter hours of
labor has died out, passed away if one may say so iu direct ratio
with the extension of experience. It is curious, indeed, how
long it took before experience was called into this controversy.
Theory was allowed to say a great deal on the matter
and the self interests of one side and another still more.
The very last instructor to be given a hearing was
Experience, and Experience, so far as it has spoken up to
the present has rather tended to show that the controversy has
been iu no small part a wrong headed and empty one. The cry
of the theorist and the cry of the employer has been that the
adoption of an eight-hours day would proportionately decrease
the productiveness of labor, and consequently the wealth of the
community. Nothing seemed more certain than that the output
of eight hours work must be sniiiller than the output of nine or
more hours of labor and even the workingman himself did not
controvert the notion. He assumed its correctness and then
sought to override the interests of the hated capitalist
by force. It turns out, however, that the certainty is
no certainty. In some directions at least the accepted
conclusions are positively erroneous. Experience has com¬
menced to instruct people.   The Salford  Iron Works, on the





other side, employ 1,500 men. It happens that this important
Lancashire establishment is controlled by a public-spirited iron¬
master, Mr. William Mather, who has just published a report
upou the operation of the eight-hour system in his establish¬
ment. His'men formerly worked fifty-three hours a week. A
year ago the time of labor was reduced to forty-eight hours,
and the effect of the change was carefully noted. The result of
the experiment of reducing the hours of labor by 10 per cent a
week is that it entailed a decrease of ouly a half of one per centin
the amount of the product turned out, and even this deficiency was
offset by certain economies. This experience is not an isolated
oue. Mr. Allen, iu his engineering works at Sunderland, has
obtained .similar results, and now the British Goverument has
been so impressed by the results of these experiments that it has
voluntarily introduced the eight hour system iuto the national
arsenals and dockyards. It can liardly be doubted that the
effect of these examples will be widespread, and that in a large
number of industries shorter labor thau hitherto will soon pre¬
vail. Herbert Spencer has decried the modern " apotheosis of
work." It is tiiie the cominercial nations of the world have
acquired the habit of glorifying work as though civilization is
very largely <i matter of keeping the multitude in a state
of perpetual " demnition grind." We have come to admire the
spectacle of as many people as possible toiling for as many hours
as possible. The highest humanity has ceased to be with us
that possessing the largest intellectual view and the greatest
enlightened leisure, but that which labors most arduously in
the factory and counting-house, grinding out the greatest quan¬
tity of goods aud totaling up the biggest figures. Serenity,
dignity and charm of Ufe have scarcely auy place any longer in
the popular ideal of human existence. We cau scarcely con¬
ceive that States

" tUougli very poor, may still be very bleat."

The cominercial aspect of life has done so much to exclude all
others from our view and to render the making of dollars and
cents the highest pui'suit of the human race. Shortening the
hours of labor, even though it be accompanied by fewer yards of
cotton cloth and fewer tons of iron, would be, we believe, a bless¬
ing, but probably the reduction would be slower in coming did
not people discover that the human being can be a more highly
organized aud more productive piece of machinery working
eight hours a day than eighteen.





THE most conspicuous evidence of the prevalent dullness in
real estate has been furnished by the auction market.
Everybody has noticed it. Even the daily papers which have
been talking in so ridiculous a str.iin .about the " boom iu real
estate," the " activity of the market," the " firmness of prices,"
and trash of a similar kind, intending to tickle the ears of
readers in proportion to the length of the organ, have had some¬
thing to say about the dullness of the auction miirket. The
lethargy in this department has been too pronounced and con¬
spicuous to be gainsaid. Some attempts have been made to
accouut for it, or rather to get around it and harmonize
it with the aforesaid roseate views. The commonest story
current is that the auction business has been dull
because of the unfortunate division amoug the auctioneers,
whereby there are now two exchanges in operation instead of
one; that the superfluity of places where real estate may be sold
has been the reasou why auction sales have been so few. This
notiou has not been altogether unacceptable to people, and
indeed it would be foolish to deuy that the duplication of the
Liberty street salesroom at 111 Broadway has conduced rather
towards a diminution of sales than au increase of them. At the
same titue the duplication has undoubtedly stimulated riviiky
and activity among auctioneers to a degree that under normal
circumstances would have offset the evils of division. The fact
is the dullness of the auction market must be sought elsewhere
than in the divisiou of the auctioneers. It is to be found
almost entirely in the general dullness of the whole real estate
world. The auction business is a very good indication of
the tone of the real estate market. The former cannot be
active in times of stagnation like those existing at present, for
it depends for its activity upon the prevalence of the speculative
spirit, and the speculative spirit is never rainp.ant and aggressive
when prices are declining or stationary. Now, the very best that
cau be said of prices for the last twelve months is that they have
been stationary. As a matter of fact they have uot, on the
whole, beeu eveu th.at. The tendency of values has been to a
lower plane, not in an extreme or an unwholesome way, but
clearly what pressure there is or has been is and was exerted
downward. There has been no buoyancy iu the mar¬
ket for more thtin a year The auction market has
reflected this condition very faithfully, and that is the
true reason of the dullness. But, though many speak of it, not
everybody realizes how dull auctioneering has beeu. Relatively
speaking, it has never been duller save in the darkest years
following the panic of 1873, and uow, as theu. the great bulk of
the transactions that have takeu place have been foreclosures.