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DcccabcT 1,1894
Record and Guide.
7J5
ESTABUSHED ^ MARCH 2iu\ IB6 8.
DEV&â– Id)ToflE^LE:sT^TE.BmLDTI/G AR,ci<n-EcmjR.E'i{ausn(ou)DEflCff(jTK)iJ,
Btfsii/Ess Aii) Themes ofGe|Jei^L If/TERfsi.
PRICE, PER YEAR IN ADVANCE, SIX DOLLARS.!
Published every Saturday.
TBLEFHO>fB,......Cortlandt 1370
Cominunloalions should be addressed to
C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vosey Street.
J. 1. LIA'DSET, Busineas Manager.
Brooklyn Office, 276-282 WASnixoToN Street,
Opp. Post Office.
" Entered at the Post-office at Kew Tork. N. Y., as second-class matter."
Vol. liv.
DECEMBER 1, 1894. No. 1,394
For additional Brooklyn matter, see Brooklyn Department immediately
foUowing New Jersey records (page 822).
BUSINESS continues in an unsatisfactory stiite. Thero are
individual merchants and manufacturers who speak
cufonragiiigly of the outlook a« reflectctl in the limited I'leld
tliey .snrvcy, but the outward a.si)ect of things is not encourag-
]!!.«:. 'i'liia is due largely to the fact that the teudency of the
public inind is siifhth-ifc only bad news ha.s any intiuence. If it
were not for this gloom it would be impossible to understand tbe
decline in BurliDgton aud Northwest on the reduction of their
dividend:*, in view of their prices and the value of money at the
time of the reductiou, the certainty long before that they would
be less aud their record as dividend payers. The remarkable
iltop in the "9"! price of steel lails is accepted as a bad sign,
althoiifth it shuts out outside competition and ought to bring
business. But as the Carnegie drop to .^25, in Jauuaiy last,
failed to give any impetus to tho steel rail bu.'dness
it is argued that the recent agTeement to reduce
prices need not uecessaiily make trade. AVall street
leriects this humor or tendency of the public mind aud in addi¬
tion is raising the bogey of legislatiou adverse to trading and
tiuancial interests when Congress meets ou Monday. Congress
is such au uncertain quantity that it does not do lo speak with
auy confidence as to what it wilt do, bnt a.s a set of marionettes
ought to have learned from i-ecent events that measures aft'ect-
ing trade and finauce are for the moment "bad politics," there
is a gleam of hope that fhey avi 11 be let alone dunng the short
peiiod that Congress will sit. if that is so, any farther drop will
make most secuiities look very cheap, and that fact may induce
a speculative movement for a rise. AVhen we remember that,
witli one brief exception, the market has been heavy or
depressed sinee last August, during which time business has
improved aud railroad earnings have shown some tendeucy to
iiici'ea.se, it seems as if a reaction should come as a uiatter of
course, but, as before remarked, the times are out of joint and
ordinary influences do not prevail.
EUROPEAN advices generally express the belief that tbe
period of very cheap money on the other side is about at au
end: that the iucieastug demands for capital and the returning
coufideuce of its owners will gradually advance rates to normal
figures. The London ficfliioiiiisf, commenting'on the new issue
of bonds by our (Tovernmeiit, says: " Unless there is a radical
change in the currency system, putting gold into tlie Treasury
is like pouring water into a sieve. The .Cli;,00l),000 it ma.y
uow obtain will be drained away as have been the £12.000,Oli(t
it obtaiued in February hist." Tbe lioard of Trade reports au
improvement in the labor market for October; owing to the close
of the Scotch coal miners di.spute the pig-iiou and steel trades
have improved largely. The Tarirt' CunimiMee ol the French
Chamber of Deputies has under consideration a most extraor¬
dinary measure. Tliisia to cmjwwer the giiveriimeiit to collect
duties specitietl in any meaauie for cliaiigiiig the taritt' dur¬
ing ifs discussiiiii; in the event of failure to pass the
nieasut'e importers arO to have returned to them new
duties or increases. I'he idea is lo prevent specula¬
tive importations while taritt's are under discussion, bnt the
result would be endless confusion in the busine.ss of importers.
â– Iust now the export business of France shows sigus of improve¬
meut; in October, the exports exceeded the imports, though in
the year there is a balance of .liH;o,OOO,OO0ag'ainst that country.
Berliu persists iu sel liu gon the rise iutheA^icuna market haviug uo
confidence in prices in the dual-em pi re. The Germau sugar trade
is agitating for au iucrease in the export bounties. The substi¬
tution of silver for small paper money is proceediug .succes-sfnlly
iu Austria and Hungary. Since Jnly, thirty-five million of one
florin notes have been withdrawn and replaced by silver of
various denominations and the grumblings of the public which
were heard at first have died away. This shows that there is no
real difficulty in inducing people to use silver instead of small
paper. State billsof higher denominations have been withdrawn
and replaced by nine inillion florins worth of bank bills. The
reduced exports of agricultural pioduce have caused a falling
off in the excess of total Austrian exports ovei" imports for the
first nine months of this year, the same cause will probabl.v
iufiuence the figures uutil the uext harvest prospects are kuown.
Brazil proposes to issue a $:iO,000,000 loan for the retirement
of the paper luoney issued to meet expenditures iu suppressiug
the late insurrection and to meet deficiancies of revenue, but the
condition of the country's finance will r.ot encourage investors
to run for it. The Argentina are disappointed of the business
revival which was anticipated as a result ot good crops and
wool clip. Au upfriendly estimate of the cost if a French expe¬
dition to Madagascar is .'f;50,000,000 and the necessity of kee]i-
iug a permanent garri.ion of 10,000 men on tbe island which can
be of little direct value to France.
^ECURITY-HOLDERS are strongly suggestive of Russian
^ peasants in their capacity to bear ill-usage. They must be
fatalists or they would never be eo patientunder the iii.)nries
that are put upon them. As never anything practical is heard
from them they may be pictured as regarding their losses from
what ia erroneously called the philosophical view, and whicii ia
reall,y only the sheerly stupid, and as a punishment for their
sius, an act of fate against which it is useless to struggle. The
latest iustance inwhich the peculiarly assinine qnality of the
investor is exercised is that of the Cordage secuiities. It is
not necessary to use hard words iu referring to the incorporation
and manipulation of the original compauy, everyone knows how
to characterize tJiat. But it seems that the reorganization was
worse rather than better in character than the organization. This
was carried out by the floating debt creditors who seem to have
taken everything there was to take to make their owu
claims good, or as gootl as the means at tiieir dispo.sal
would permit, even to taking tbe collateral of the Security
Company's bouds now represented by the guaranteed
stock. Heavy assessments were laid upon the preferred aud
common stock and all information regarding the assets aud lia¬
bilities of the old company was withheld until they were paid,
it being ouly then and mouths after his appointment that
Receiver Loper's inventoiy was tiled with the Court. Since the
reorganization the prices of the securities of the uew conipany
have coustantly fallen and there is talk of it.s inability to meet;
the interest due Januai^y 1st next on $7,500,000 first mortgage
bonds. The preferred stock is selling below the assessment aud
the commou near it. These assessments are supposed to have
realized $3,000,000, which was to be used only as working cap¬
ital. Now what has become of all that money '! The company
has had to seek financial assistance within about a year of its
being paid, aud in the circumstance of the cordage trade it is
hardly possible that the assessment can have been wholly
absorbed in the legitimate busiuess of the company. Here is a
matter on which the preferred and common stockholders should
demaud to be enlightened. For their owu good they canuot too
soon be informed of the manner in which the old conipany was
reorganizedandwhatisthefinanci.il condition of the new oue.
THE question of currency reform is forging to the front.
There may be two opinions about tbe expediency of dis¬
cussing it Just at this moment, but there is no doubt wliatevcr
ofthe necessity of doing so sooner or la ter. The operation of tiiuU
iug the requisite kind of money with wliich to subsci'ibe for the
latest issue of Government bonds has shown this, aud, as an im¬
portant incident thereto, the position of tbe Treasury in the
matter. A departmeut tbat holds up fo the odium of the com-
munit.v an individual ora firm that makes upon it aperfectly.iust
aud legitimate demand, as the Trea-siiry Department tlid re¬
cently in piiblisiiiiig the names of the people who withdrew f;oId
Irom it, obviously ought to have its powers for nii.schief cur¬
tailed. No one will donbt that in jiuiiliahing the names the
Treasury soughl to deter people from preseiitiug legal lenders
I'or gold and Indireialy to force Ihe gold now iu the banks into the
Treasury. Thisisaiiotherof I he elephantine tactics of the ponder¬
ous and blind iiolicy, nr course rather, that was inaugurated by
the preseut chief of the Treasury Department. With sucli things
possible the demand for rcfoiiii will bo continuous and loud and
will force the matter into prominence, whether the business of
the country is in a condition to stand a discussion ou such a vital
aud iuiportant question or not. Mr. Carnegie has uttered a sen¬
sible word against plunging the country into this contest at this
time; given ordinaiy circumstances it would undoubtedly be
better deferred uutil business is on its feet again, but as it
stands there is much to be .said iu favor of taking it up at once,
aud so arriving at the earliest possible solutiou iu iirefereucc to
holding it in abeyance and keeping the business of the eouutry
at the mercy of au incompetent Treasury Department, Boiled
J