October 20,1894





Record  and  Guide.





SS9





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Vol. liv.





OCTOBER 20, 1894.





No. 1,388





For additional Brooklyu matter, see Brooklyn Departinent immediately
followina Xew Jersey records [gage 568i.

THE business situation is such that it offers ample argument
to support either the bull or the betir view, Presitlent
Roberts, whose position at the head oi the Pennsylvania Rail-
roail Company gives him a gootl opportunity of judging, has
causetl it to be annouuced that in his opinion busiuess is on tbe
mend. Men in the position of Presideut Roberts like to be right
and, therefore, seldom hazard anything btit wait nntil the cou¬
ditious are clearly defined, and even theu aro cautions of what
they say. Consequently it is long odds that Mr. Roberts is
right, especially as what he sees is the continuation of what
began in manufactures with the Summer of hist year as a re¬
action from the panic. The greatest value Mr. Roberts' state-
meut possesses ia in the influence it may naturally be expected
to have upon investors who are sitting on their money for fear
they should lose it, aud iu European markets where American
enterprise is uow so discredited. The view that business is im¬
proving is h(irue out by some of the imiiortant dry good auction
sales of the week aufl by the coutinued improvemeut in railroad
earniugs. On tbe other haud returns from the irou trade are
discouraging, stocks are increasing notwithstanding limitations
on the normal outpitt and prices arc weak. The largest patrons
of the iron traile, the railroads, are buying comparatively little.
While this industry, which occupies so very promiuent a place
among the industries of the country, is in the uusatisfactory
conditiou that it is, tho situation as a whole cannot be good.
Gold exports are always regarded with disfavor, and
as an argument for lower prices in the stock
market. Their occurrence just now, although their proportions
are small, have a more than ordinary prominence and influence
in forming opiuions. It cannot be said that they have checked
business, for the reason tbat there was no business to cheek, the
market contiuuing to be as it has been for .some weeks past—a
purely professional one, and taking its cues fi-oiu the movements
of issues which are most speculative in character. There are no
very pronounced views either way, but the prospect of Republi¬
can victories at the coming elections, aud the assurances giveu
that a return of the Republican party to power would uot mean
an imitation ofj the recent policy of the present administration,
in raising a taritt' discussion at a time when the return of com¬
mercial confidence and prosperity require that all disturbing
featiu-es should be as far as possible expunged from the situa¬
tion, are creating a more bullish feeling than has beeu seen for
aome time, and wiU most probably be the nest incentive to an
advance.





indicating that for Germany and Austi-ia the ■ unseen
conditions are better than in other countrie'?. In
Great Britain, two great disappointments have be^n experienced,
one the failure of the iron trade to advance and the other the
small results to the export trade that have followed the passage
of the Gorman Taritt Act. Sir William Harcourt's budget ie
proving a success in-tsmuch as sometbing more than half of the
required increase of revenue of $15,000,000 was obtained in
tbe first half of tbe Government year. Meanwhile the people
have cheap food and clothes, as appears from the fact that
among the articles that have declined iu price since last year,
grain, beef, sugar and cotton are conspicuous. Foreign govern¬
ment graiu estimates do not aj^ipear to be any more reliable tban
our owu. For instance, the French wheat crop estimate of the
Department of Agriculture was 332,000,000 bushels, a grain
trade association fi.Kes it at 387,000,000. In fact so great is the
surplus that tho growers are talking of agitating for an export
bounty equal to the import duty fixedlast spring of about 30c.
a bushel. The government is having some ditticulty in making
iocome equal estimates. The French Submarine Telegraph
Company and the Ptiris to New York Cable Compauy have been
amalgamated subject to governmental approval. Tbe anxiety
that the bourses show about the condition of of tho Czar of
Russia is oue part imaginary and the other mercenary. Should
the death of the Czar occur at as early a day as latest reports
indicate, while that event may be used to depress the prices of
governmeut secuiities, the actual results are likely to be small.
At any rate they would uot develop so rapidly that prices shottld
go to pieces at once as the cables indicate to be tbe view abroad.





FRENCH ill-feeling toward England is giving as rauch
anxiety at Versailles as in Downing street. There are no
points of dispute between the two countnes that ought uot to
be amicably settled, but that does not always signify for peace
wheu the population of either one of two countries, or of both,
is in an uuamiable mood. Recent attempts of leading Parisian
jotirnals to stem this chauvinistic tide may have the desired
effect; their efforts will certainly have the support aud approval
of all that hope for advancement and civilization. England's
suggestiou that the great powers seek to end the war between
Chiua aud Japan has aiipareutly failed of its purposes, none of
the other powers caring to take it up, either because they each
wanted to be first in the movement, or because they considered
the moment not a iittiug one. There is, however, an idea preva¬
lent that the war will not be protracted very much further.
China is uow in tho market as a borrower aod Jai>an is expected
to be before the close of the war. The war material which is
now being destr.iyed or used will have to be reuewed. Com¬
plaints, botb of volume of busiuess and of prices, are very
general throughout'■ Europe. The bull movement on
the    Berlin   and   Vfenna   bourses   haa   not   yet   run   out,











THAT government monopolies may be very inconvenient lo
the pubbc is pi'oved by what is taking place iu France.
Spurreil by the difficulty of making receipts cover expenditures
the government has looked to its monopolies closer than ever.
Haviug failed iu the courts to sustain a claim that it alone had
tbe right to manufacture cigarettes, it proposes to obtain the
right by legislation. If it is successful in this it will also claim
the right to manufacture cigarette paper. A large trade is done
botb m the making of cigarettes and of cigarette paper which
woidd most likelv never have beeu distiu'bed except for the
present coudition of tbe treasury. It also proposes to protect
more rigorously its monopoly of match-making, not the amor¬
ous kind be ifc understootl, though that might be possible in a
government so paternally iacliued as tbat of France to-day, but
phosphorous match-making. The duty on playing cards is 12 cents
a pack, a fact that in counectiou with the price created an indus¬
try of card cleauing and trimming, whieh made over dirty cafe
cards for a small cousideration. Such an evidence of honest
indnst'y, one would thiuk, ought to be commended. One of the
cleaners, however, has just been prosecuted aud fined $200
for defrauding the governmeut by making a pack of cards
serve two lives instead of one. Finally, to cap this catalogue of
official pettiness, telegrams addressed to the best known firms
and indivitluals have beeu returned to the senders when the full
address was not giveu. The object oE this trick was to compel
the addressees to register a telegraphic address for which a
charge of $8 a year is made. But this new rule raised such an
outcry agaiust the government that it was forced to cancel it.
Receivers of telegrams are, it may naturally be presumed, richer
and more influential thau makers of centime boxes of matches
or playing card cleaners, and their voices sounded louder in
official ears. The saying: They do these thiugs much better in
France evidently does not apply either to the collection of
revenue or the equal treatment of rich and poor.

TEMERITY characterizes tho action of the Americau Bankers'
Assoeiatiou at their meeting at Ballimore in adopting a
scheme for the reform of the currency, at least this appears so
when it is considered bow quiet the banting interest has been in
the last three or foui'years' currency discussion. Lookiug back
over this time it really appears asif the cowboy and the bucolic
elemeut in Congress were the ouly people qualified to take part
in the debate, aud that the representatives of tbe moneyed and
financial interests knew nothing of what was their daily occu-
patiot], or dared uot speak for fear of increasing the prejudice
with which they were regarded by those who have had all the
say, aud whose knowledge of political economy never went far¬
ther thau counting the change for a teu dollar bill. Seriously
siJeaking, the suggestiou of a scheme of currency reform coming
from tbe American Bankers' Association ought to start Ihe discus¬
sion on afairbasis--the basis of knowledge of the subject instead
of ignorance ofthe subject, which characterizes suggestions from
other quarters. The association does not exhaust all the expert
testimony that should he heard on this question before a decision is
arrived at, nor does it follow that the association's scheme is
exactly what this country wants, though the description: A
currency that moves automatically iu accordance with tlie wauts
of the country, if a true one, shows that the right uote has been
struck.    The important thing is that the right people have