August 4, 1894





Record   and   Guide.





157





1







:m^.





De/o-\^ to RE^L EsTME . BU1LDI^'G ^cWlTEerTUR.E .HoilSEliOlD DEQO^uM

BusirlESs Alio Themes of GejJerrI Interesi .

PRICE,   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE,   SIX   DOLLARS.!

Published every Saturday.

Tklkphose.......Cortlandt 1370

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.
J. 2. LINDSEY. Business Manager.

Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washington Strket,

Opp. Post Office.

"Entered al Ihc Post-office al Kew York, N. Y., as second'Class matter."





Vol. liv.





AUGUST 4, 1894.





No. 1,377





For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Depa^'tment immediately
followina Yew Jersey records {page 1791,





FAVORABLE fe;itiires are becoming: more promitieut in the
business situation, thougli they ave of tlie moderate forms
that suggest only small improvements. They are noh to be
tlespiseil, however, coming as tbey tlo in a time of such extreme
depression and in a summer almost tropical in its temperature,
the latter fact alone being sufficient to deter industrial revival.
Amoug these encoiu-aging points are the reports that the manu¬
facturers of low-priced shoes have orders sufficient to keep them
running until October nnd that the demand is growing larger in
all the great iron markets. High-priced goods in the shoe lines
are ns dull as ever. Dry-goods generally have seen recently
some falling-ott'in demand and here and thereiu prices also.
Grain markets attempt to give warrant for reports of damage to
crops, but it is in such a poor-hearted way tha.t it may be taken
that those likely to be best informed do not believe the growers'
losses are very severe. The stock market still belongs entirely
to the traders, and as these have operated ou the crop
repoi'ts and the sifciuition at Washington, prices have of
course suffered. Quotations continue to reflect foreigu sell¬
ing of investment issues. Last fall and the closing days of
the silver discussion are recalled by the present position of the
tariff bill. The deadlock now, as then, is due practically to the
opposition of a few Senators to the wishes of the President and
House and tbe outside public as represented by the almost
unanimous press of the country, aud it is reasonable to expect
the smaller party will eventnally ha-\^e to give way after satis¬
fying tbe people they represent, whether the sugar meu or their
legal constituents, by indnlgiug in a large amount of bluff, tliat
tbey have done all they eau for them. While the sugar men are
exclaiming that their business wtII be ruined without the differ¬
ential duty of an eighth, it is being asserted on the basis of
London prices, with the cost of freight, etc., added, that a 40 per
cent ad valorem duty would give the home refiner the protection
of a quarter of a cent a pound over the German refined, which
sells in London at '29c. per cwt, lower than the English relined.
If this is the fact, and the position of the country on the ques¬
tion being what it is, the assurance of Messrs. Gorman, Brice &
Co. in iusistingon the Senate duties is not a particle less imperti¬
nent than that of the Silver Senators last year.

"pROBABLY the most significant foreign item of the week is
-t the intiuia.tion from Berlin that investors are turning their
attention from Governments to other classes of securities which
have been neglected for a long time, and in this connection are
wafcehing the course of our tariff legislation with interest.
British railroad dividends for the first half of the year have
created do ilisappointments; the omis.sions and payments were
equally expected. The Labor Department of tbe Board of
Trade reports no material change in the labor market for June,
the tendency on the wliole being rather downward than upward.
Two propositions for the imposition of an income tax, coming
from Badical and Socialistic Deputies in the French
Chamber, having been defeated, the government finally agreed
to the appointment of a commission to draw up a scheme of
fiscal reform. The organ of the Credit Poncier has put forward
the suggestion [that France and Germany should establish in
Afi-ica a common neutral line fi-om a point ou the Mediterranean
to the Transvaal, in order to cut oft England's liue of commnui-
cation betweeu north and south. The writer fears that unless
tbis is done British cars will be running between Alexandria
aud Cape Towu in the flrst quarter of the uext century. An
unprejudiced observer would say nothing could be better
not only for British possessions in Africa, but for all
foreign aud native possessions there, and if Great Britain can
carry out such a stupendous improvement by all means let her
, do it.   French imports for the first half of tbe year declined





$15,000,000 and her exports $21,000,000. Railroad earnings
on the continent of Europe as well as in Great Britain continue
faii-ly good. Business in Austria is feeling the effects of the
better crop uews recorded last week. Spain is suffering from
her absurd customs-fight with Germany. The Chilian budget
shows a deficiency of $1,271,500 for 1893 and an anticipated
siu-plus for 1894 of $1,500,000. The government has already
obtained something over $3,000,000 by the .sale of nitrate
grounds, the amount realized being $300,000 more than the
upset prices. Further sales estimated to produce $10,000,000
are to take place in October.





A N analysis of the wheat imports into Great Britain for the
■^^ first half of this year shows the sharp competition this
coimtry has to meet in that trade. The total importations were
4,638,264 cwts. more than in'the correspondingperiodof 1893,
and from tbis country 3,894,283 cwts. less. A good deal has been
said of the cheap Argentine wheat thrown on the British market
as a. result of the financial distress in the South American
Republic, but as a matter of fact we were undersold by almost
every wheat-producing country in the world. Germany is tbe
only country sharing a falling off of imports, but her total is so
insignificant as to make further reference to it unnecessaiy, Rus¬
sian, South American and Indian supplies mainly displaced our
wlieat. Part of the story of our failure to maintain our shai^e of
these importations is found in the/prices at which the wheat was
laid down in Great Britain by other countries andthe most import¬
aut part of course. The a.verage price of the total importations of
wheat into Great Britain in the fii'st half of 1S93 was 78c.
per bushel, and the average prices for the chief importing coun¬
tries as follows : United States, 79c.; Russia, 77c., and Argen¬
tine, 7:ic. The average prices for the first half of this year were
as follows : For total importations, 67(;.; United States, 69c.;
Russia, 65c.; Argentine, 63c. An unusually large percentage
of tbe total was imported iu the month of June, in which the
United States, in spite of tbe fact that it made the largest rela¬
tive reduction in the prices, lost ground, aud the prices were
then, fov the total importations, 63c.; United States, 64c. ;
Argentine, iiU-,., and Russia, 6O1.2C. This .shows the extent of
tbe competition among wheat growers, and taken in connection
with the favorable reports fi'om the European harvest fields is
not encom-agingto the home producer. The London Economist
recently published au article showing that even at the low
prices prevailing for the harvest of 1893-'94 the Argentine
farmer can realize a profit of about 12^2 cen(;s a bushel in raising
wheat. If this is true oiu' farmers wiU have to find ways of
reducing the cost of producing the cereal on their farms.





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THE Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen is likely to become aa
well known as the American Railroad Union, but for
very different reasons. Where the latter bas exhausted its
resources and strength in an unreasonable strike of sympathy
with the Pulliuau operatives, which could not from the nature
of the case be successful, however long it had endured, the
Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen is taking steps to discipline
those of its members who took part iu the Debs movement,
either from sympathy or from any other cause. The rules of the
order expressly forbid its members from taking part in strikes
organized by other bodies, or tbe so-called sympathy strike, and
its violation renders the offender liable to expulsion. If a lodge
shall have so offended, its charter may be revoked. These are
not imusual provisions in the laws of labor bodies,
but it is very unusual, indeed, for them to be enforced.
The official repudiation of responsibility for the Debs
insuiTection by organized labor will have more ability
to prevent the recurrence of such an absurdity and to renew
tbe stability of business than anything else can do. It is
highly probable, too, that American workmen, in their own
interest, will have to seiiarate themselves from foreigners of
anarchistic designs, aud from any organizations which may make
them responsible for acts that they deprecate and repudiate, by
reason of the ma,iority of the members holding violent and
un-American views. It may be presumed that the native work¬
man knows that he can gaiu nothing either for himself or hie
posterity by foolish strikes, part of the tactics of which are the
willful destruction of pro])erty and the Jeopardy of lives. Labor
that wishes to keep clear of these must withdraw fi'om organiza¬
tions that countenance them, especially snch organizations as
give secret encotiragement to tbem while forbidding them in
their rules.





SOMEBODY has raised the question, is journalism a trade?
The answer must differ according to the kind of journalism
that is referred to. In this country tbere is a journalism that is
a trade pure and simple, being conducted for revenue only,
without any .scruples or sentiment as to the sources or nature of
the revenue ; it is a casb journalism and is for hire in any direc¬
tion for cash. There is another ioiu'nalism founded ou a desire
to serve humanity and make things better than they are; these





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