Jnne 2, 1894





Record   and   Guide.





879







ESTABUSHEd"^ i^ARPH2lu> 1868,

De/o-fED id f^EJki-Estate.BuiLDif/o A^RcKitectui^e.HouseholdDEOta^noN,

Bifsii/Ess Alto Themes of GE^(ERAL IKtef^esi.

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Published every Saturday.

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Vol. liii.





JUNE 2, 1894.





No.. 1,368





For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately
following New Jersey records {page 9071.





THERE is little to record of the stock market, except that it
has lost the buoyancy apparent a week ago and dropped
into a rut from which it will only be moved by some stimulating
piece of good or bad news ; the direction of the movement will
depend on the clas.s of the news. The unfortunate feature about
dullness as marked as exists at present is that it almost invari¬
ably means lower prices, it would liave been hardly reasonable
to expect that prices would continue to advance in the face of
the disturbed condition of the country as a result of miners'
strikes and the necessity of reducing or suspending opeiations
in so many directious because of the failure in the supply of
fuel. The end of the recent conferences means that this
struggle must be fought out to the bitter end, and the readiness
the miners have shown to resort to violence creates a great deal
of anxiety. Rate cutting in the South does not improve the rail¬
road situation, except that the vigor with which it is begun
raises the hope that it will be of short duration and not spread
to other parts of the country. The prolongation of the tarid'
discussion is another unfortuniite feature, but it may be that as
soon as the battle on the sugar schedule shall have been fought
out, there wUl be more dispatch used in disposing of the re¬
mainder of the bill. The business of the countiy takes an even
stupid course, meantime, from which it is unreasonable to exiject
it to change with the Suinmer at hand, and so much uncertaintv
and anxiety prevalent.





THE amount of uew capital issued in England this year
is almost equal to what it was for the same i)eiTod in 1893,
the diflference being that the State and municipal loans form a
much larger percentage of the total than they did a year ago.
The accumulations of gold in the Bauk of England threaten
further lowering of the rates for money, inferring also less busi¬
ness. Ireland has always been regarded as such a home of pov¬
erty that the statement that the average premium on bank shares
in that country rose iu 1893 from 140 to 155 per cent, while
that for the English bauk shares rose only from 193 to 196 per
cent, and that for Scotch bank shares from 173 to 180 per cent
wUl be received with surprise. Unionists attribute this evidence
of a growing prosperity to an increase of confidence in Irish
investments proportioned on the waning of the Home Rule agi¬
tation. The London maiket continues to be nervous on the sub¬
ject of the tinancial position of the Argentines. April returns of
the-Labor Depaitment of the Board of Trade indicate a slow but
continued growth of activity in the great industries, the percent¬
age of labor emjiloyeil being slightly higher than
in March which showed an improvement over February.
French railway managers evidently are anticipating better busi¬
ness, as they are giving out large orders for new rolling stock.
April trade returns for France, however, show a decline of $600,-
000 in imports of raw materials; exports of manufactures fell ott'
$2,400,000; imports as a whole incieused $10,000,000. A Ber¬
lin correspondent says tliere has not been such a complete stag¬
nation there for thirty years as at present; it had even been pro¬
posed to close the Bourse two days a week. It goes without say¬
ing, therefore, that money is abundant and cheap. The taritt'war
with Spain increases the depression in both countries, and par¬
ticularly in the weaker. Austria will immediately begin the
withdrawal of oue florin notes from circulation and the substitu¬
tion of sUver crowns and florins therefor. Crop prospects con¬
tinue very good. A reuuirkablc comparison is being prepared,
which is expected to show that the rise iu wages and the
amount of taxes jiaid by manufacturers make the cost of pro¬
duction in Austria greater thau iu the United States where
wages have had a declining tendency. The foreign trade report
for Austria-Hungary for the tirst quarter of the year shows a





decrease in exports and an increase in imports compared with
the same time in 1893.





npHE almost unanimous desire of the other powers to turn the
-*- Silver question over to Great Britain for settlement is a
very convenient way of shelving a discussion that is rapidly
losing popularity, and att'ords a cover for the retreat of its one¬
time noisy advocates. Recent political conventions have shown
that the Southern constituencies liave gone cold on this question,
and that may explain the eagerness with which its advocates
on this side of the Atlantic, who, not very long ago iu Congress and
out of it, claimed that it was one that the United Stiites alone
ought to adjust, joined in the reiiresentation to the recent Bi-
metallistic conference in London that it was England's duty to
dispose of it. So far the British authorities have shown no dispo¬
sition to take up this troublesome bantling and the pressure to
do so brought on them by their own people is
very small indeed. The issue of the receut Indian
sterling loan indicates that there will be no change in the mint
policy and that involves a belief also on tho part of the govern¬
ment that it does not despair by any means of the ultimate suc¬
cess of that policy. The Biinetallistic party in England is
relatively very small and uninttuential. The conference pre¬
viously referred to contained onl.y two names of real weight,
Mr. Balfour and Mr. Lidderdale, the former of whom has beeu
in polite terms told liy the press generally that he does not kuow
what he is talking about, aud the latter seems to have done
little more than lend his name to the movement. The great
English reviews have lately had very little to sa.v on the sUver
question as if they were satisfied that its true solution was fouud
in the repeal of the purchasiug clause of the Sherman act, which
would certainly not be the case if there were any prospect of the
government t.aking it up seriously, or if there existed .any great
outside pressure on tlie government to take it up. The discus¬
sion has not been dropped by our own reviews by any
means, but the latest to hand from London eont.aiu only one
paper upon it and that in the Ftirtniijhtly, aud by a Mauchester
man, which says nothiug new, except to very briefly refer to
what might have been made a very interesting poiut, the proba¬
bility of Africa becoming as large a user of small silver as
the Orient now is by reason of the development of a great
commerce there amoug a people accustomed to relatively small
values. For the moment we are not concerned with what would
be the results if Eugland became a party to a bimetallistic agree¬
ment, but with the prospects of her doing so and if, as has been
said, the solution of the questiou must come from the Govern¬
ment in London, the evidence is overwhelming that it is far
away fi'om final settlement.





WHY not establish a school of international ethics ? It is
really very necessary seeing the general tendency there
is to suspend the golden rule in the dealiugs of one nation with
another. If not better we are prob.ably no worse than other
nations, but. being no better, there is no harm in suggesting
that the improvement begin at home. In the general aud dis¬
honest abuse of the creditor, of which we have heard so much
in the past year or two, the foreign creditor in particular has
come in for more than his fair share. In the regions where
populism is strongest the mention of Lombard street has more
powers of irritiition tlian a red banner would have on the nerves
of the maddest bull, and iu Wall street, which ought, if only
from a feeliug of sympathy arising out of the common injustice
with which it and the moneyed centres of Europe are alike treated,
to kuow better, there is an idea that in the reorganiza¬
tion of the manj' corporations that have lately been brought to
the grouud the worst terms ought to be given to the foreign
security-holder. Only last week during tlie raid on New York
Central, what was thought to be the most telling bear "point"
on the stock was a statement by one of the " news " bureaus
that the Vanderbilts held very little of it, and at least 76 per
cent, was held .abro.ad. Whetlier even the facts were as stated
is doubtful, but the Street accepted them witliout question and
as being conclusive that a stock so held had no hope for protec¬
tion ou the part of its management. It would be interesting to
learn how the Vanderbilt management likes this implication ou
its morals. It is not uncommon either to hear the simple
fact of foreign ownership given as a reason why one of
the securities issued by ourselves should be assessed.
The principle involved iu the despoilment of the Egyptians may
have had a reason for existence iu one particular ca.se, though
that is questionable, but its general application is obviously
wrong. One of the causes of our present comiiicici;il ditticulties
is the withdrawal of foreign capital from the couutry, and the
hopes of a business revival is, in the minds of people who
reason out causes and effects, partly b;ised on tlie expectation of
its return. It is certainly no inducement to its return to say that
it cannot receive fair treatinent when it conies, aud if we cauuot
reach the high plane ot houesty for its own sake, let us at least
strive for the lower one of honesty  for policy's sake and keep