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MoTember 3. 1894
Record and Guide.
635
ESTA9USHED^iWPH21UAlB68.
D£V&-IEl)TOR^LESTAJI.BmLDIfl'G AF!,cKHECTU!^E.KaUSnl01I)DEeffi;jTKai,
Bi/snfess Alio Themes orGEjtoi^L I^/â– reI^.Es^.
PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.
Published every Saturday.
TbLEPHONK.......CORTLAN-DT 1370
Commuuications should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vosey Street
J. 2. LINDSEY. Business Manager.
Brooklyn Office, 276-282 Washingtox Street,
Opp. Post Office.
" Enlered at the Post-office al New Ycn-k, N. Y., as second-class matter."
Vol. liv.
NOVEMBER 3, 1894.
No. 1,390
For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately
followina Aew Jersey records {page 654i.
THE deatli of the Czar of Kussia was witliout sigiiilieance in
the Europeau markets, aud om- own liail uot to sutt'er as a
consequence from that eveiit. The iuHueiices of the policy of
his successor have yet to be seen; it is too soon to have any
opinion thereupon. Operations on the stock market rlo not en¬
courage sales, and that fact has created expectation of a rally
from the depression of the past two months. Reorganizations
wherever perfected will help the situation much. Notwith¬
standing all that has heen said, Euroi)e is sure to come into oiu-
market as a purchaser of the uew securities, and this will re¬
lieve the exchange positiou, which continues to give auxiety.
The bear attack ou the Coalers proved uot as -suecessfnl as its
originators expected it would be. As a matter of fact, they
were away behiod time, inasmucli as the crisis iu the eoa.l trade
caused hy the demauds of Readiug aud Lehigh A'^aUey had
passed about sixty days hefore they began operations. Their
attention is now directed to Northwest, hut it is hardly likely
that they will be more successful in that, consideriugits dividend
record for the past fifteen years, thau they were last Fall in New
York Central and lately iu the coal stocks, iu which the
amouut of stock brought out made protitable short selling
an impossibility. With the opeuing of a uew month there is
some talk of improved busiuess, based seemingly more on the
theory that two such bad month.s as last cannot eome together
than upou any positively favorable feature in the situation. The
near approach of Wiuter does not much fortify the hope of any
considerable activity, if it exists anywhere, which is improbable,
because tbere is so genera! a wish to go slowly, eveu on predic¬
tions. The ruddy glare that characterized views last Fall is no¬
where present to-day, which is much better and probably more
indicative of sound conditions^than the previous enthusiasm was.
It is betvreen the optimistic and the pes.simistic that the right
view is generally obtaiued, and thi-s remark is peculiarly fitted
to the business situation to-day.
Gl OLD exports have revived intereat abroad in the Treasuiy
'" reserve of that metal and, while all the disadvantages of
haviug so amall an amouut as $60,000,000 with which to keep
good official promises as to gold payments in the face of an
export demand are fully insisted upon, none of the mitigatiug
circumstances receive any attention, Itis still the opinion of
foreign economical writers that the Treasury is violating the
law aud not custom merely in allowing the gold reserve to be
less thau $100,000,000. Such misrepresentations explain part,
at least, of the discredit of Araerican securities iu Europe,
Affairs there appear to be as mixed as they are here. While
advices from Berliu indicate some nervousness regarding the
soundness of affairs iu Vienna aud Buda-Pesth, based at the
moment largely upou a reported advance by the Finance Min¬
ister of three millions gold to the banks in order to enable them
to carry on their hausse engagements witb greater facility, news
from Vienna gives no indication of trouble, but on tbe contrary
an official plan for capitalizing the Danubian improvements and
raising the money at low rates in the different markets of Europe
is heing circulated. Further it is proposed to reduce Auslro-
Huugai-iau interest rates by the conversion of the debt. This
will not be possible if trouble fall upon the two capitals of the
Empire. At the same time reports have heeu long contiuued
that busiuess was overdone in both aud particularly iu Buda-
Pesth. The over subscription, by four times the amouut required
uf the Canadian loan, is only another indication of the little
desire investors have for anything hut tirst-class obligations
otherwise there would be no such scramble for a low rate houd.
This ia also proved by the quotations for Euglish hank shares
which have, notwithstanding some curtailmeut of the banks'
profit-making powers, appreciated considerably in the past year.
As, however, these shares were much higher iu 1891 and 1892
than now, it may be that their rise from bottom prices of last
year is a sign of returning confidence. Occasionally from Aus¬
tralia comes a report that busiuess is moving toward au improved
condition, though in tlie uusatisfactory form of sacriticus made.
For iustance, it is claimed that in the process of collecting on
defaulted mortgages in Melbourne, landlordism has succeeded
to a system of general individual proiirie tor ship. This tells
who hear the burden of tiuancial disaster iu Melbourne
at auy rate. The Argentine Republic is still struggling witb ita
national and provincial debt problems; the cui-reucy apprecia¬
tion of the past months is naturally helping her in her efforts to
arrange them advantageously. Government securities being the
priucipal objects of attention in all the foreigu markets, it fol¬
lows that iu the present unsettled condition of European politics
and their relations to the politics of the Orieut that those mar¬
kets will be disturbed for some time to come with speculation
running only in the securities directly affected by political events
ov rumors.
UNDER any system that could he devised it is probable tbat
some gold must move from place to place, but it does seem
as if a plan ought to be adopted to avoid the contiuued move¬
ment of this metal fi-om oue governmeut vaul.t to auother, espe¬
cially considering the cost uf such removals. Accordiug to a
statement recently issued by the Treasury Department the
i-eqmrements for gold between March and October of this year
at the principal centres of commerce, and mainly, uf course, at
New York, caused tbe tran.sfer of no less a .lum than $47,:f07,-
.'>00, all of which was carried long distances aud much the entire
breadth of the country. The expense of these transfers was very
heavy, uot only in view of the weight of the metal itself, hut
becau.se its value renders it necessary that every precaution shall
be taken for its safe carriage. In this instance the total expense
amounted to no less a sum than $93,480. Ithas been more than
once urged, in fact the question always comes up whenever there
is a large export of gold, that the method of eari-yiug it from oue
place to another is antiquated, cumbrous and dangerous
to the integrity of the gold holdiugs of the world.
Where the actual metal is used iu the daily transaction of retail
business, as in Europe, gold mustmove accordiug to the demand
at particular places for the time beiug, but in a country like
this, where the currency passed from haud to hand is almost
wholly paper or silver, it does seem as if some other arrange¬
ment could be made thau shippiug tbe metal from New York to
Boston and from Philadelphia to Bostou, and .so forth. It has
been suggested that even foreign trade balances should be
settled by some fonu of gold acknowledgment instead of by
sending the actual metal across the ocean, where the danger of
loss to the world, if not to the individual shipper, is real, The
expense of such a transfer would only be a very small fraction
of the expense of shipping metal and the danger of lose woidd
be entirely removed. If this plan could be made practicable as
far as the foreign shipments of gold are concerned it certainly
could be adapted to the internecine requirements.
RECENT events have proved the truth of Moltke's saying
that only thi-ee or four people know anything about a
country's foreign polities. All the rest are in the dai-k and must
accepc any situation tbat is prepared for them by the domi¬
nant few. Ouly the other day, England was thrown into a con¬
dition of panic simply by the caUiug together of the Cabinet,
and although it is what is called a free country, with the gov¬
ernment vested in the people through their representatives iu
Parliament, no one outside of its participants to-day is justified
in saying that he actually knows what occupied the attention of
that meetiug. In like manner, it is ouly through reports fi-om
other countries that we here learned that our State Department
had been asked to join outside intervention between China and
Japan and had refused. The annouucement of the resignation
of Chancellor Caprivi fell like the report of a bomb on the ears
of the German people. It is the ignorance of the general masses
that occasions war scares. For all that the scvereign peoples
know, plans may already have heen made for a general outburst
to settle the differences that agitate the diflerent nations of
Europe; alliances may have been made and plans
of campaign akeady determined upon. On the other
hand, war may be farther off' than ever. Although
really possessing no actual knowledge which would justify theii-
fears, the European public is keeping itself in a coudition of
nervous tension, ever dreading tbat their worst anticipations
will be realized. England has for more than teu years now lis¬
tened with too willing ears to the stories of weakness in her
fleet, Germany, ever siuce the treaty of Versailles, has dreaded
the coming ot a recuperated France on one side and a jealous
Russia on the other. The war fear has been kept up in other
countries according to the degrees of closeness of their alliances
to the great powers. The press has constant prayers, whieh they
at the same time admit are of doubtful efficacy, that war may