May 11,1895





Record   and   Guide.





773







Dev&teD io Rej^l Estate , Bin Loif/o A^.c^hecturP ^{ausEilou) OEOCitpa^
Btrsi^ESs Affo Themes of GeiJer^I liftt«^1.

PRICE,   PER   YEAR   IN   ADVANCE,   SIX   DOLLARS.

Pjiblished every Saturday.

Telephone,......Cortiandt 1870

Communications should be addressed to

C. W. SWEET, 14-16 Vesey Street.

/. 1. LINDSEY, Business Manager.

BsooKLyN Office, -276-282 Washington Street,

Off. Post Office.

" Entered at ihe Post-office al New Tork, N. T„ as second-ciass matter."





Vol. LV.





MAY 11. 1895.





No. 1,417





For Brooklyn matter, see BrooMyn Departinent immediately following
New Jersey records (page 806).





THE buying movement on the stoek market has got into the
speculatiye stage, and there is no telling how long it -will
continue, or how soon it will stnp. Its ^yant of discrimiuatiou
makes cautious ppople shake their heads, hut no oue ventures
an opinion on its limits. Such n movement bas never been seen
before, because the depression in busiuess has never beeu so
great as it has been since the panic oi: .July, 1893, and there
have never been such accumulations ot idle luoueys as have
gathered into all tbe great centers ol' speculation in the last two
years. People whose rectilleetions extend back to 1879 and
1885 can remember something like this movement, but nothing
like it in the way of maintained strength andvolmne. Our
world bas grown larger since those times, and comparisons will
not tit. One of the best features of the situation from the opti¬
mistic staodpoiut, is tho decline in exchange, wbich not only
puts shipments of gold out of the questiou at a pei-iod of the
year when they are usual, but makes tlte promise of a westward
movemeut of gold in the early fall highly probable. Should
this become the case, it will have a very beneficial eft'ect on the
position of the public toward the Treasury, aud thereby diminish
the embarrassments of that department. Of business in general
it is hardly necessary to spc'ak, with prices of raw materials ris¬
ing iu every direction aud a cheerfulness showu by merchants
and manufactorersEast, which has heen absent from their cono-
teuances for mauy a loug day. The West, with good weather
and fair crop prospecis, should soou come iuto line, though it
cannot be said to bave given auy positive signs of doing so yet.





T ONDON confidently expects to be shipping gold to the
-^ Uuited States between uow and August on legitimate
market movements. France and Germany arc large buyers of
South African gold miniug shares and of Americau securities.
Reports from every direction iodicate a contiuued improvement
in the trade outlook, aud it is, therefore, not surprising that
buyers have hecome veutui-esome, extraordinary as their pur¬
chases in some directions may appear to be. The Prussian
Government is sa'd to meditate tbe foundation of a great paper
mauufaetoi-y in West Prussia to supply military requirements.
The mthdrawal of tbe Austrian Government's scheme to pur¬
chase a number of the great railways caused a set-back on the
Vienna Bourse, hut the injury doue appears to be limited iu its
influence. The report of the foreign trade of China and Japan
for 189.'3, the Litest available, shows the delicate position Great
Britaiu held during the recent uiipleasautuess iu the far E.ist,
From this report it appears that about 60 per cent of the export
and import trade of China is iu her hands, and 65.50 per cent of
the total tonnage entered aud cleared iu treaty ports wa^ also
hers. Her exports to Japan amounted to ahout 50 per cent of
the total for that country, and her imports therefrom to 30 per
cent of the total, Accordiug to Japauesu returns the values of
all exports and imports shipped iu mei-chaut vessels clearing
from or entering into Japanese ports to or from foreign coun¬
tries in 1893 were, in Briti.sh ves.se]s, $100,762,143; in Ger¬
man, $24,040,899 ; iu Freuch, $21,570,546 ; in Japanese, $14,-
427,144, and iu United States vessels, $10,057,223. The
United States takes a little more than Great Britain of Japanese
exports, though supplying but a small fnietion of, her imports ;
these figures even show a falling oft' from the /previous yeai.
The United States has larger iuterests in China,i though these
are proportionately small set in comparison witli|those of Great
Britaiu. Of imports valued at l,51,:-{62,800 Haikwan taels, this
tael being worth for exchange about 76 cents, 7,852,100 taels
came fi-om the Uuited Sfates, and of 116,G.S2,000 exports it re¬
ceived 9,338.000 taels.   This is sufacieut. however, to justify a





close attentiou to the progress of affairs ou the farther shores of
the Pacific.





GOVERNOR MORTON has signed the Tenement House
Building Act, and whether good or bad law, builders of
the classof architecture it .applies to must conform to it. On^
point that deserves immediate attention is the time when the
aet shall go into force. That time is not fixed by the act itself;
consequeutly, according to the law governing such a case, it wiU
become of effect in tweuty days from the date of the affixture of
the Governor's signature. This has raised tbe interesting point
whether plaus maybe filed with the Department of Buildings
uuder the oldlaw np to the close of tho tweuty days. We under¬
stand that tbe Superiuteudent of the Departmentat this moment
does not so construe the law, hut iutimates that he wiVl require
that all plane designed to secure to the filers the benefits of the
old law must be filed within a reasonable time withiu the tweuty
days to permit the Departmeut to examine and pass upou them.
This is an unusual coustrucriou, especially iu view of the art-ears
of work in the Department, aud one that is likely to be contested
in the courts if insisted upou.





The Anthracite Situation.

THE contest, if contest there be, iu the anthracite trade is
heiug carried on with much courtesy and mutual regard
amougtbe eonte.stants. Purveyors of Wall Street gossip have
announced a good many times, iu the last sixty days, that a
general engagement was about to begin and have had each time
to frame an excuse for the failure of theirpredictious. So far as
the situation cau be gauged at all, it is no douht uusatisfactory,
both as to output aud prices, but \vith no inclination on the part
of the managers to make it more so, eveu as a temporary and
strategic move to better tbeir iudividual positions. Tbose who
are most dissatisfied are the coal dealers wbo have been making
no money for some time aud who see auother very barren year
before them, unless the aiTaugemeut mnde last week will
fix prices ou abasis of profitable business and give them some
degree of permanence. Buyers iiave beeu holdiug oft'iu the
hope that a slashing of rates would begin, so that theycould
buy at war prices, but they will probably either from disappoint¬
ment or necessity soou put iu their orders. AVheu they have
doue this, the chances of making auy money in anthracite iu the
coming year will be very small, depending entirely ou a develop¬
ment of extraordinary demand, or tne raising rf rates.

The reason why uo fight has beeu inaugurated is that the
anthracite iuterests have taken on more of an iuvestmeut char¬
acter thau the.v had twenty years ago at tho time of the great
coal war, and these changed iuterests are decidedly averse to
anytbing like recklessness aud, therefore, hold the managers of
the companies to a conservative course. The reason why output
has not been restricted and prices raised is that no way has been
found to do either. Anything in the shape of a combination is
out of tbe question siuce the rulina of the courts dissolving the
Jersey Central lease to the Reading, aud agreements amoug
agents, managers aud presidents have proved to be utterly use¬
less iu the ahseuce of any penalties that could be enforced
agaiust violators. Events have proved tbat the railroad ofScial
has no official word of lionor, and, of course, no reliance is
placed ou his mere official word. The problem then is, how,
without violating the law, ati arrangement can be effected that
will hind the compauies iu a way that canuot be dodged by the
parties theieto to restrict output and maintain prices. The
solution of the problem is made more difficult by the fact that
the conservative elements do uot dominate the trade in such a
way that tbey could insure auy agreement they made. There
are numerous independent producers who could not be bound,
and the cost of produciug the coal varies according to the nature
aud lay of the miue, so that a price that would iiay oue producer
would not another. With all these difficulties it is not surpris¬
ing that iu a time of poor demand and when the developmeut
of coal lauds has been canied to au extreme uuwarranted by
the requirements of the public, that there is disorganization in
the anthracite trade ; but on the eontraryj it is rather surprising
at first view that the tactics pursued to push busiuess have not
beeu of a more aggressive character, but this is due to the
increase of investment represoutatiou previously referred to.

The position takeu by the Reading receivers that in any
agreement to restrict output Reading should have a percentage
more proportionate to ils holding ot coal lands and its ability to
produce than has hitherto beeu the case is oue that has the
ludoriement of the Street at least, and would uo doubt also find
support iu tbe c( urt which has caro of the property. It has
always beeu felt that tlie ol-her producers have takeu advantage
of Reading's poor standing aud credit to treat it unjustly in the
matter of the distribution of: percentages, bub with burdeusome
interest charges aud want of workiug capital Eeading has
hitherto been unable to stand upou its rights. The other great
compauies, L.ickawanua, Delaware & Hudson, Penusylvauia
aud the Erie have nrofited by this and annually increased their