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Mny 26, 1894
Record and Guide.
8S7
De/oteD to Re^lEswe.BuildiKg 7\R.crfiTEeTVJRE,Kousolou)DEOCii^Tiot<,
Bi/siiJess Aifo Themes of Ge^Iei^I- Ij/terest .
PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.
Published every Saturday.
Telephone.......Cortlandt 1370
Communications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.
J. 1. LINDSEY. Business Manager.
Brooklyn Office, 276-282 'Washington Street,
Opp. Post Office.
" Entered ut the Post-offiee at New Tork, N. T., as second-class matter."
Vol. liii.
MAY 26, 1894.
No. 1,367
For additional lirooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately
following Xew Jersey records {page 8G4i.
THE .-igreeirrent of the Western Trunk line presidents, thefall-
iuK oil' in gold exports and the way the Tariff Bill is shap¬
ing it.self ill tlie Senate hits encouraged the buying of stocks and
started shorts to cover with the result of a more buoyant market
than has been seen foi' some weeks. The attack on the New
York Central was jiait of the scared-be;irs' tactics. For the
moment, liowever, the street is more ready to listen to good news
than to bad. and while it is in this condition prices will continue
to advance. There lias been in the past three or four mouths
more bear talk on the New Yorlc Central and Western Union
than upon any two other stocks, but they have hitlierto with¬
stood this adverse influence very well. Both are greatly
affected by the dullness in bu.siness, and while a leduc-
tion in the dividend of New Central seems very probable
unless there is a sjieedy change in the outside conditions,
it is said the usual one iind a qutirtev will be declared on We.stei'ii
Union at the ne.'ct ((iiarterly meeting of the directors. In the
case of Central it is doubtful if its friends will alhiw it to drop
very much even if the dividend be reduced. What the real
meaning of the iiresideiits' agreement is leinaiiis to be seen, and
on that will depend its influence on the market. Hitherto offi¬
cial agreements to miiintain rates in times of Ijad business have
not been very effective. The lessened gold exports are parily
the result of foreign interest iu American securities, and while
it it is ouly a siieeulative interest it is still better than none.
Movemeuts are on foot for ^procuring an agreement to
liiise prices in the cordage trade: on the strength of
this an attempt is to be made to put up United States
Cordage t'omp;iuy's securities, but investors had better
carefully study the conditions of the trade and that
company's relation thereto before touching these securities.
Atchison is likely to come to the front in the near future. Al¬
ready the new bureaus are supplied with Mnts to test the public
feeliug on the subject of reorganization. The most feasible phm
yet reported embraces au assessment of 10 per cent on the
stock, the reversion of the A's and B's to income bonds with
provisiou for small annual capital requirements tihead of them
and some scaling down of the guaranteed bonds. The soft coal
miners strike has increased the ugliness of its featiu'es, encour¬
aged in Illinois no doubt by the Governor's known sympathy
Avith sociiilism and auiirchy, but the resort to violence must in¬
jure the cause of the .strikers as was the case at Honiestead aud
will alwiiys be the case where the discontents attempt to
assert themselves by destruction of life and jiroiierty. Tlie
causes which limit geiientl business to actual needs, it is
hardly necessiiry to say, continue to prevail -without show of im¬
mediate improvenient. Tlie conditions upon wliich iidvances
have been made in previous yeiirs, such as the hiiy, wheat, corn
and oats crops ilie as good its they liave been in tmy year and
only fail for tlie time being of tlieir u.sual influence because the
iiiisfoi'l lines of tlie piist yeiii-have made the public less subject
to them than usual.' Should nothing occur to alter these condi¬
tions they cannot fail to be beneficial not ouly to the stock miir¬
ket but to geueral trade as well.
T>RITISH trade returns for April show au iucrease of iinports
-*-' of .'pi l,5()0,0l>(» and iin increa.se of exports of $4,700,(100.
The former' is due largely to increased imports of bread stuff
and cotton; but an expansion of iinports of r.aw materials gen¬
erally is noticeiible. The increase of exports is mainly found in
the items of coal and cotton manufactures. The decline in other
branches of expol'ts is less niiirked than it has been hitherto.
The imports of wheat were i^2,'2G0,()(W greater than in April,
1893,:iiud those of flour ;}<2,000,000 smaller. The United St.ates
sent a larger amount of live stock by about $1,750,000.
English railway shares are advancing in price as a result
of the improvement in business. It ia prob.able that Prance
will enter the market as a purchaser of silver, if it has not
already doue so, to provide for the subsitliary coin made
necessary by the withdrawal of Italian small silver
coins from circulation in that country. The Minister of Finance
is urged to melt down flve franc pieces and to reduce the present
large supply, but as the seignionige to the government will be
.$800,00(3 more from the new met.al than from the tive franc
pieces, it is presumed the minister will choose the former. The
supply of Egj'ptian cotton is expected to be more largely in
excess of the estimate than ever. The prevailing feature of tho
Beriiu market is siiid to be a totiil absence of animation. In the
theoretical discussion of the declining tendency in iirices, it is
calculated that the fall in Germany, tiiking the average prices of
1870-89 to stand at 100, has been for the succeeding years as
follows: 1891, 98.14; 1892, 95.32; 1893, 91.52; only the
year 1890 .showed a rise to 105.21. The export tnide of the
empire stood at 104.7 in 1892, 102.6 in 1891 and 96.7 in 1892.
These are coiupared with tigures of 104, 97.5 and 92.4 severally
for the exports of Englaud in the same years. The Neiie Freie
.Pressc speaks hopefully of the industiy ot Austria, which, it is
believed, will uuder preseut favorable conditions take a fresh
start. The .announcement of another Indian sterling loan is
accepted as a sign that the government will make uo change in
its mint policy. Italy has started on a policy of rigorous economy
which .should materially improve its credit.
IF for no other reiison, in view of the present hard times when
everybody is feeling the pressure of tinancial contraction
there is something willfully leekless about Governor Flower's
.appro\iil of the act for increasing the pay, in certain departments,
of the police force, on the score—sluiU we say ^—that the men
at present cannot deposit the entire iimount of their p.ay
eaeh month to their several credits in the Savings bank—as,
of course, these fellows should. These iire not the exact words
of the guberuiitorial iipproval; but iis everyone knows, consider¬
ing the work to be done and the previous pav of patrolmen,
they comprise its ti^riiis exactly. The New York public has
observed the whole cotu'se of Senator Coggeshall's measure of
unnecessary and quite unwarranted generosity to the police
force with cynical amusement, but has done little or nothiug to
oppose it. This is the characteristic attitude of the New Yorker
towartl the police. He looks upou the force iis very necessary,
and, lit the same time, as something dangerous to come iuto con-
i let with iindei- any circumstances ; in certain cases brave and
I'fficient, but considering the mental calibre of the men employed
and the nature of the work they have to perform^andthe lucra-
tiveness of the work they tloii't perfoim^very much over-
jiaid. But no one, for |obvious reasons, aud jiarticiilarly for
reasons that reflei.'t unfavoiiibly upon the character of the men
emijloyed, has had the temerity to raise a strong voice of protest
against the further greasing of the fatted " force," and the New
Yorker as he passes along the streets and giizes into the vacant
countenance of the city's beefy guardians satirically jjraises
Heaven that at least the fortunes of some are superior to the
times.
THE question most vitiil to the interests and progress of the
City of New York, rapid transit, is in as satisfactory a
shape as it can now be jiut by the approval by Governor
Flower of, the " Chiimber of Commerce Rapid Transit Bill."
This is essentially a citizens' and not a politicians' measure and
consequeutly puts the matter in its best aud most practical
shape. So long as the matter was left to politiciiins it was
impossible to hope for anything like progress. As soon as it
was taken up earnestly by a represent.itive body who could
authoritatively sjieak with the voice of the city at large, progress
began by the introduction of the measure just apjjroved into
the Legislature. The enforcement of the measure still remaius
with our citizens as a body, because it is almost certain thiit there
must be a referendum when the comiuis.sion has decided upon
the pliiu, because it is quite hopeless, in view of the cost of the
work and the lengthy period within which the capit.al employed
must remain unremuneriitive, to expect any business syndicato
to take it up without municipal backing. In fact any .syndicate
that would undertake such a contract, in view of all the difficul¬
ties that .so obviously surround it, should be regarded 'with great
.suspicion, aud their bona-tides submitted to tlie severest tests.
It should not be difficult, however, to prove to the people of this
city, when the matter is submitted to their ajjproval, that they
cannot make a better investment for their owu comfort and well-
being than to guarantee judicious expenditures in providiug
rapid transit.
---------â– ---------
THE retirement of Mr. Croker from the dictatorship of New
York city is, people are almost tempted to say, ton good to
be credited. Probably they would say so were they not instantly
checked by the thought that nothing either in the act of abdica¬
tion itself or in the supposable consequences of tho act strictly